China Town in London

Aedas, one of the largest architecture practices in the world, plans to bring its flashy brand of mixed- use huge projects to London.

They admit that the Chinese clients know what they want in London. The plan is to introduce high density, truly mixed-use developments- having everything on site, so you can live, work and play without having to leave the building. The question is whether this is what London needs ?  To densify ?  Based in Hong-King since 1983, Griffiths has built up an empire of offices across Asia, with bases in 13 cities, from Shanghai and Singapore to New Delhi and Dubai.   Over the years the Company has specialized in a particular kind of urban development that has grown out of these fast-paced emergent economies.

The closest London has come to such ideas is Canary Wharf, but that is just a shopping mall servicing office blocks. It is not a 24h entertainment centre and once offices close, streets become empty. In Asia the technique of multi-level development with 24h entertainment  – all connected together is amazing and delivers much more than just an office space.

A growing number of Chinese billionaires look more often for overseas investment possibilities.  Simultaneously the UK government has changed the law for fast-tracking the immigration process –  for those investing over 1m Sterling Pounds.  This just shows London’s  growing attractiveness  for them.

As Griffiths noticed, it is important to remember that London cannot just add skyscrapers everywhere without any thought.  There were in fact plans in the past – dating 1947 – to grand permissions to create elevated walkways connecting several buildings.  Details of this post-war ideas could be seen in the film “Elevating London”.  The main idea is to connect big integrated mixed-use developments, connected around stations – at the first and second floor levels.

The future debate continues and we probably soon notice further changes to the new London super city design.

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