September 2009 Archives

 

Last June I went to the Estates Gazette's London Tomorrow conference in the German Gym at King's Cross. You can read all about it here if you like. What I fail to mention however, are the gasholders. A total of 4 of these Victorian giants are to be retained. At the moment the whole lot are off-site being renovated. Three of them will be converted into flats. This is what architects Wilkinson Eyre have in mind for the Gasholder Triplet as they're calling them:

This is not an altogether new concept, have a look here and here  for more gasholder inspired stuff. But if four are being retained what are the plans for the final gasholder, gasholder no.8? No one, not even the developer Argent, knows the answer to that one. Not yet.

  
 A few months ago the Gasholder No.8 competition was set up. Out of the 80 designers who submitted plans, only 5 remain. These are my personal favourites:

• Hakes Associates - stick a big shiny ball in it. Nice.

• Feix & Merlin - stick a big trampoline in it...and cinema...and how about a helter skelter on the outside? This needs to be built...now!

...and at night...

I first came across this bit of street art when I went to have a look at the Dev Sec/Corpus Siero development at 10 St Bride Street in the City. It's called Resolution by Antony "Angel of the North" (and the iron men of Crosby beach) Gormley and this is what it looked like in October 2007.

In February of the following year however, (brace yourselves) it looked like this:

Gone!

I've been down to the site a few times since, but it's always the same, just a bare bit of pavement marking the place where it once stood. Every time it's the same, every time until the last time.

I don't know where it's been or what they've been doing to it, but Resolution is back. 

Of course it doesn't, this is art..

...by sculptor Richard Wilson. It's called Square the Block and was commissioned by the LSE. The work continues Richard's singular approach to sculpture, referencing the existing architectural context and functional form in much the same way...bla ...bla...bla. Click here for the full story.

Above is an aerial view of Leinster Gardens. Look closely at the dark section in the middle. At ground level it looks like this: