Visualising 21st Century London

For centuries, artists have created memorable images of cities through drawings
and paintings. These urban views - or vedute as Italians called them - are
usually static, often idealised perspectival compositions. They depict key parts of
a city - famous buildings and their settings - in ways that might be most favourably
remembered by visitors: they were also used to impress rival cities. Then came
photography, moving film and computerised animation. Yet, curiously, for all the
advances in technology that were achieved during the late 20th century, static
views - that collage together photographs and computer renderings of proposed
buildings - are still being used when making major decisions about the visual
image of 21st century London. Planning decisions about the positions, heights and
clustering of large and tall buildings in London are being determined by experts
assessing their likely visual impact on selected fixed viewing positions. Initially,
ten principal “Strategic Views” were established across London in 1991, which
were intended to safeguard the settings and silhouettes of St Paul’s Cathedral
and the Palace of Westminster. In 2004, The London Plan (2004), produced by
the Mayor of the Greater London Assembly, refined and linked these as a View
Protection Framework (2005) comprising “Panoramas, Townscape and Linear
Views”: this framework of views has been designed to protect a range of
well-known images of the capital from surrounding hills and from the bridges
crossing the River Thames. Now, whenever a major building is proposed in
London, its visual impact on the existing cityscape is assessed through numerous
photographs, taken from between 20 and 130 different viewing positions, into
which “realistic” computer generated images of the proposed development are
montaged. Buildings are consequently assessed - and composed - as sculptural
objects in the urban landscape. This lecture will examine the visualizing methods
being used and will assess the implications of composing a world capital through
views.
DH.indb 2 6/06/06 10:55:08
DIGITAL HUMANITIES 2006
III
References
Tavernor, R. (2001). ‘A Computer Animation of Stanley Spencer’s Church-House
for the Stanley Spencer Exhibition, Tate Britain, London, April-June 2001.’
In Stanley Spencer. Edited by Hyman, T.; Wright, P. Tate Publishing, 2001,
pp.244-245.
Tavernor, R. (2002). Contemplating Perfection through Piero’s Eyes. In Body and
Building. Essays on the Changing Relation of Body and Architecture, (Edited
Dodds, G and R. Tavernor), Cambridge (MA) and London: MIT Press,
December 2001, HB. pp. 78-93.
Tavernor, R. (2004). ‘From Townscape to Skyscape’, The Architectural Review,
March 2004, pp. 78-83.
Greater London Authority (2004), The London Plan: download at http://www.
london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/index.jsp
Greater London Authority (2005), London View Management Framework:
download at http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/spg-views.jsp
Weblink to the Cities Programme
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/cities/