Make Architects’ London Wall high walk weaves through layers of architectural history
Make Architects has designed a gently winding elevated high walk that weaves through London Wall in the City of London. The restored and redesigned area has two new office buildings and extensive public space across half of the site that references the history of London's architecture.
The public realm was conceived as a layered, three-dimensional garden, connected by the elevated walkways that bridge into neighbouring zones of the city such as the Barbican.
A walk through the site is a tour through London’s architectural history, where samples from different decades sit surprisingly comfortably side by side – from the Roman city wall, to which the design is aligned; to the newly-restored medieval St Alphage Church tower long hidden from public view; and the contemporary experience of the former 1960s post-modern high walk system that the new structure replaces.
The high walk’s weathering steel and Iroko timber construction adds a new layer to London Wall’s rich palette of materials: ‘The beauty of this project lies in recognising it is simply the latest layer in the history of this site, the next trace to be remembered. We’ve designed state-of-the-art offices, but it’s the combination with the public realm that has attracted the occupiers, not just the commercial spaces themselves. It is about bringing in a social, human, tactile scale to the City, and the architecture is all the more successful for the spaces around it,’ says Sam Potter, lead architect at Make.
Landscaped by SpaceHub, green walls, climbing ivy, lavender and strawberries surround the two new office buildings – the 13-storey 1 London Wall Place and 17-storey 2 London Wall – which were designed to reflect the the Kentish ragstone materials found in the Roman wall with the glass-reinforced concrete and dark blue ceramic ribs.
The public realm that joins up with the adjacent Salters’ Hall Garden and soon-to-be-completed St Alphage Garden will bring 1.5 acres of public space to the City of London, providing a peaceful diversion for office workers and architectural enthusiasts alike to have a moment of reflection and peace amidst the busy financial hub.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Make Architects website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
Looking for a long-range luxury EV that’s a true Tesla alternative? Welcome to the Lucid Air
We drive the Lucid Air, the high-performance Californian EV that’s a welcome leftfield choice in a sea of Musk-mobiles. Vote Lucid!
By Guy Bird Published
-
Umbrian castle hotel Reschio seduces with 1,000 years of history, now explored in a new book
The estate, home to a boutique hotel and rentable houses, is documented in Rizzoli's ‘Reschio: the First Thousand Years’ – and is open for stays
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Light, nature and modernist architecture: welcome to the reimagined Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens and its modernist Roberto Burle Marx-designed greenhouse get a makeover by Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hildebrand in the US
By Ian Volner Published
-
Light, nature and modernist architecture: welcome to the reimagined Longwood Gardens
Longwood Gardens and its modernist Roberto Burle Marx-designed greenhouse get a makeover by Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hildebrand in the US
By Ian Volner Published
-
Meet the 2024 Royal Academy Dorfman Prize winner: Livyj Bereh from Ukraine
The 2024 Royal Academy Dorfman Prize winner has been crowned: congratulations to architecture collective Livyj Bereh from Ukraine, praised for its rebuilding efforts during the ongoing war in the country
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
RIBA House of the Year 2024: browse the shortlist and pick your favourite
The RIBA House of the Year 2024 shortlist is out, celebrating homes across the UK: it's time to place your bets. Which will win the top gong?
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The new Canada Water boardwalk is an experience designed to ‘unfold slowly’
A new Canada Water bridge by Asif Khan acts as a feature boardwalk for the London area's town centre, currently under development, embracing nature and wildlife along the way
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Museum of Shakespeare set to open in east London
The Museum of Shakespeare puts the remains of the ancient Curtain Playhouse at the centre of 'The Stage', a new urban development in the heart of Shoreditch
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Paddington Square transforms its patch of central London with its 'elevated cube'
Paddington Square by Renzo Piano Building Workshop has been completed, elevating a busy London site through sustainability, modern workspace and a plaza
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Architectural car parks to drive into, in the UK and beyond
Architectural car parks form an important part of urban infrastructure but can provide a design statement too; here are some of the finest examples to peruse, in the UK and beyond
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Architectural Association's newest show uncovers the architectural legacies of rural China's lost generation
The Architectural Association’s ‘Ripple Ripple Rippling’ is not your typical architecture show, taking an anthropological look at the flux between rural and urban, and bringing a part of China to Bedford Square in London
By Teshome Douglas-Campbell Published