Making heritage relevant

In 2014, I worked with Prix W and Malcolm Reading to develop a brief for a competition for young architects, to reimagine the Tower of London approach and entry experience, without the existing constraints that are in place to protect the Tower as a world heritage site.

The purpose of this exercise was not to diminish the importance of the existing heritage protection measures, but to allow us to expand our thinking on a site that is very constrained and complex due to its location, in view of an ever-expanding city of London skyline and also hemmed in by a major vehicular artery to the north of the Tower.

The entries were ambitious and articulated a number of very proactive schemes, some conceptual and others one could imagine being constructed one day, particularly those redesigning Tower Hill and the use of the moat.

Photo credits: W Foundation