Urban visualization and public inquiries: the case of the Heron Tower, London

摘要

This article examines the role that computer visualization has played in a recent public inquiry. It concerns a planning application to replace two medium-rise office buildings, built in the 195os and 197os, with a 183m high tower [1] designed by the London-based architectural practice of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). The main objector to the proposal, English Heritage (EH), argued that this new building would have an unacceptable impact on the skyline of the City of London, and on key views of St Paul's Cathedral. The applicant, The Heron Corporation, employed a range of consultants to construct a large number of views of the building from positions in and around London. This visualization was carried out at considerable cost and represents the current state of the art in the discipline, setting a standard for future public inquiries of this kind. A joint paper by English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) requires that all future proposals for tall buildings should utilize similar visualizations (EH/CABE 2001). This case study provides evidence of how useful this material is, and raises a number of questions about the way in which this work is currently carried out.