300 floor tower in London?

[NLucy]

Housing crisis? What housing crisis.

300 floor, 100,000 person monstrosity proposed in the middle of London.

English heritage would be delighted I should imagine. Pictures are great though...

www.aboutproperty.co.uk/uk-property/2012/01/05/sky-high-solution-to-london-s-housing-crisis

Would you live in it?!

Blimey!!!!

I imagine they're only doing this to get publicity for themselves?

Why the hell is it full of holes?

Conversely to bran I used to live in a flat on the 4th floor and I hated it. I hated being up high and avoided looking out at the view, it used to make me feel dizzy. I think it must be a personality thing.

It does look like something out of a sci-fi film, though.

I grow up on the second floor and can't stand ground floor places, I don't feel safe, way too exposed, on the 3rd floor now and happy, don't think I'd want to go above 5th floor tho, once you are outside the range of most ladders you have to wonder about what happens if a fire starts.

I think the holes are for the 'green areas' they're planning! Bit dangerous at that height! Good point about the ladder...never thought of it that way!

Very science fiction.

And I'd be massively surprised if it was even possible, what with London being made of clay. The reason we don't have a profusion of tall buildings like Manhattan is because of that -manhattan is apparently granite underneath.

The very thought of living in something like that makes me shudder I'm afraid!

Its ridiculous. What will happen if there is a fire? Twin Towers anyone?

The history of tower block living is not a happy one in this country. When the Sixties Tower blocks they were billed as 'Cties in The Sky', that would be wonderful places to live for working place people and far better than terraced houses. They rapidly turned into hell holes of social deprivation and most were raised to the ground.

You can't change human nature the hovels they replaced where deemed filthy disgusting crime holes as well, fact of the matter is it doesn't matter what the place looks like if the councils can't be arsed giving the areas a good level of service like that of the more affluent areas because they get very little money from the residents it will turn to shit.

That would be nearly twice as high as the Burj Khalifa. The cost would be astronomical even if they could solve the huge engineering problems. Can you imagine the queues to get out the doors when 50,000 people all need to go to work?

This is much more an "architects want to drum up some publicity" thing than anything like a realistic idea.

I'd feel very sorry for anyone living next door.

Do architects take account of the fact that they are blocking out the light for all their neighbours? Or the additional traffic + fumes? Or the skyline/views of/from other buildings?

On the other hand, brand new buildings can be very exciting. For people who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like, I suppose.

it must be a joke or an academic exercise for junior architects to work on.

a building holding 100,000 people will be like creating half a borough on the building footprint. how will a local authority manage a fifty percent increase in population?

can you imagine the service charges that would be levied on such a building to keep it working?

anyway, watch the Towering Inferno, Steve McQueen, as the fire chief stated that the fire department cannot reach anything higher than the 7th floor. I can't imagine that current fire engines can reach any higher.

Actually, I've just seen it. It is amazing!

'Estimates suggest London needs to provide housing for almost 100,000 new people every year until 2016 to cope with new arrivals and replace existing housing stock at the end of its life.'

So when will London be officially full??

I doubt if the new flats will be affordable, so it's not going to solve the housing problem - so they can stop pretending they are doing the public a service!

However, if it's a choice between building up into the sky or out into greenbelt land, they should probably go up. But not quite so high.

And it does look pretty spectacular (if you're not living next door, that is).

Seen this from the BBC?

Someone's done an analysis which show peaks in skyscraper building just preceding big financial crashes. (China is currently the place flinging the most up).

Yes, that rings a bell.

So is it all the fault of the skyscraper-builders?

'"Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," Barclays Capital analysts said.'

H'mm.

Skyscrapers are a symptom, not a cause, of impending economic collapse.

I love the look of that building and would be very happy on one of the higher floors if it was well maintained. I lived on the 30th floor of an apartment building in the US and it was brilliant. The light was fantastic, there was a lovely view, it was quiet and peaceful, and it had lots of facilities right in the building (especially good in the middle of very cold winters or the height of muggy summers). There was a really nice community, we knew most of the people on our floor and quite a few others. There were get togethers on holidays and parties/events to raise money for local causes. It was a lot nicer and friendlier than the perfectly fine town I grew up in in the UK a few years before.

But other posters are right - this is a PR exercise. There's no chance of a building like this in the near future.

That tower makes me come over a bit trypophobic.

I wouldn't mind living in a tower in theory, but from working on just the 8th floor of a building recently and seeing how badly the fire escapes bottlenecked and people backed up the stairwells during fire drills, I would be constantly on edge about the danger of fire.

So there would be open spaces at the top of a 1500 metre high building.

Wouldn't it be a bit windy up there?

I feel sick at the thought of it tbh.

I would not like to live on the 300th floor. If there was a fire you'd be utterly fucked! Haven't they seen Towering Inferno?

Are they serious? I wouldn't want to live in this building. Not just because of Health&Safety reasons.