London
What are the elements which every building should have?
1 Access to parking for delivery vehicles and emergency vehicles. How are the handicapped, the letters, parcel post delivery, the furniture, the ambulance and the fire brigade ladders going to reach the building?
2 Emergency exits, fire escapes.
3 Windows to signal that you need help, windows to allow ventilation, sunlight for vitamin D to occupants.
4 Sustainability - workplaces nearby.
5 Food production places nearby. What happens in a tidal wave, ash preventing flights, flooding, fire, bombing, isolation due to sinkholes, famine from harvest, wartime, civil riots, snow and ice underfoot, kids are quarantined, granny breaks her ankle or hip? Yes, you could grow mushrooms under the sink, and tomatoes on the windowsill - if you had a sunny window. A
Colour, Curves and Comfort
Worst new: Harrow is becoming oppressive with huge windowless walls rising from the pavement.
Best new: It is good to plant trees to break up the paving area and this is being done in the upgraded outdoor pedestrian shopping area linking the two big malls, St George's, which has friezes of St George inside at the top, which most people probably don't even notice, and St Ann's opposite the Harrow on the Hill railway and bus station.
Best Old
Here's old Harrow, with horizontal lines, arched windows, arched architraves, statues with semicircular plinths adding more curves. Patterned brickwork.
Best Design
The new complex which has been finished after years of being empty, is both curved and stepped. (But a commentator said that curved walls are a nuisance from the inside because it's hard to get an office desk and furniture to fit.
Worst Windows
The worst windows are the tiny ones. The worst balconies are the tiny ones too small for you to sit on a chair or a low lounger.
Food and Famine in France
Goose Fat and Garlic by Jeanne Strang, Country recipes from South-west France, revealed the history of peasant farming in the area. After years of famines causing peasant farmers to lose their entire crop, their living, privation and starvation, the country farmers learned to have rotating crops. For the dwellers in flats , allotments should be provided. If you have a piece of land in mid-air, you need a garden on top of the flat below in a stepped building, an allotment in the free area around the base of a skyscraper, or allotments within walking distance.
Singapore Fruit Trees In The Street
In Singapore I walked along a street towards a bus stop passing mango trees which had mangoes lying on the ground. If every city was lined with fruit trees, we could alleviate starvation and poverty. And teach children and adults about the value of trees and fruit, and being a vegetarian or fruitarian.
Mango Tree
Mango fruit
Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
I can see the problems. The children and maid of the house next to the mango tree take all the fruit. The coconut palm is a danger to people and passing cars when the coconuts fall. So people must be employed and trained and insured and paid to pick the coconuts before coconuts fall of their own accord.
Worst Walls
The worst walls are those right next to the pavement and going up sheer.
I believe buildings should be stepped. For three reasons.
1) Safety. In a fire or disaster you have only one level to descend to escape flames and damage.
2) Flat roofs are are needed for infinity swimming pools and helicopter landings. However, in the UK you need steep diagonal roofs, rarely for snow, but often for rain.
Drive over the bridge over Harrow and Wealdstone station outside the civic centre. Skyscrapers are built so close to the road, that the poor little balconies must be filled with fumes. The windows view traffic and hear noise.
Best Balconies
I see the adverts for new flats in the area of Harrow, all over London, and in Singapore. I am very glad that people in flats are being offered balconies. Otherwise you are in a prison cell all summer, and in the evenings.
With global warming, and people used to living in flats in hot countries, or coming from houses with gardens, more people expect balconies. The youngsters and yuppies want to sit on balconies for evening drinks and meals. The poor and the pensioners want their washing on the balconies (discreetly hidden by frosted glass or low bamboo fencing).
Beautiful bridges
Bridges bedecked with flowers from Changi airport into the city centre and all over the city roadways.
London - building of the garden bridge, not yet open.
Singapore - art bridge at Robertson Quay
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer
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