Visual and cultural sustainability: The impact of tall buildings on London

Urban sustainability has been equated in Towards an Urban Renaissance (1999), with the need for compact, dense, vibrant urban cores. To this end, tall buildings are regarded by the Mayor of London as an integral part of the Greater London Authority's sustainable vision for the capital, and The London Plan (2004) provides Greater London with a spatial development strategy in which tall buildings will make a highly visible contribution. This paper considers the impact of tall buildings on the visual and cultural sustainability of London, particularly the impact of tall buildings on the protected views of London (as defined in RPG3A). It compares definitions of sustainable urban design through national policy (PPG1 and PPS1) and policy provided to preserve the settings of historic buildings and conservation areas (PPG15) with the proposed management of these views. In this context, it charts the emergence of Townscape as the official means to composing and assessing the visual character and quality of new buildings in relation to old. It also sets out the divergent contributions made to the UK planning process by English Heritage and CABE and their opposing notions as to what constitutes a well-balanced sustainable urban environment visually and culturally.