the Lord Mayor Emperor of Planet Free Enterprise - NLA - The Developing City Exhibition

This is one of those  exhibitions that are really interesting - unmissable despite how very flawed they are.  This one not only intellectually but also morally.  The first part of it is one of those glorious exhibitions that has no inter actives at all. It is huge white sheet printed with brilliantly clear and well chosen images of London through the ages.  The viewer can enjoy reading the text in a vertical position, concentration undistracted by interactives, running children, spouting actors etc.   I was very excited  - the first few sheets, wonderfully printed,  shaped up as if it were going to investigate what takes to sustain a great City and explored how a great City can survive disaster - and which would then end up with an in depth discussion of the role of the large high rise in the modern economy.

It failed to live up to my expectation -  in the end it was 3 uncoordinated exhibitions - an interesting but unoriginal historical review of the City;   then a lot of models and text on recent grand projects (really interesting) , and finally an Arup style 'Drivers of Change' look at the future of several 'quarters' of the City.  The narratives were not integrated and it therefore failed to be the overview of the role of architecture in the development of a modern City, and merely became a place to enjoy models of modern architecture and ponder how on earth did anyone give permission for the dreadful 'Walkie Talkie'?  There was a small sub exhibition which tried to show how wonderful HiRise was because the amalgamation of plots and rising high meant perimeters could be drawn back to expand the public realm. Oh how lucky we are! - Don't they realise that great Cities are created by street frontages - not wind swept pavements around lego-inspired towers!

The moral failing was that the future scoping failed to even touch upon vital issues that arise around the City of London - namely how is the City to be controlled to protect the economy? Did we not just live through a credit crunch?  How does the City integrate with London - richest place in Europe cheek by jowl with some of the poorest areas in Britain?  How should the City's  undemocratic nature be changed to maintain useful traditions while righting the democratic deficit? 

What 'Drivers for Change' gave us were green islands in the Thames, Smithfield as a playground of Culture, a new Financial Centre in Aldgate,  green walk ways and a the City as a paradise for financial, cultural and innovation workers.  Gensler hope that the City of London will shake of its national shackles and become the capital of Capitalism - king of a universal free zone - free of taxes, regulation, responsibility for anything London or indeed British - the Lord Mayor Emperor of Planet Free Enterprise. 


Read Gensler's 2050 vision and note that there was not one reference in the entire exhibition in which any alternative voices were heard - no local people, no  local council, no progressive think tank.  Is this how the great teams of architects think?  The City might as well be in a bubble, under a giant acrylic hood, hemetically sealed from the taint of ordinary life.  Great architecture boys, where's the social responsibility?  Oh, they replaced that with environmentalism.


This all came to focus in me when reading the free broad sheet of the exhibition which makes its ambitions much clearer, and when the sponsors and partners are set side by side it makes the lack of any questioning of the role of the City and of the High Tech architects profoundly shocking.

They seem to want to sweep us forward on a tide of new-modernism, recruiting the progressive to become handmaidens of the plutocrats, and using vibrant public space to hide what is actually happening, creating a world that is a playground for the rich.

This is what they said it was about

NLA - The Developing City: The Developing City exhibition will look at how the physical environment of the City - its buildings, public spaces and culture have helped it to thrive as a major business centre. The Black Death, the Great Fire, the Blitz brought pestilence and destruction, yet the City survived and rebuilt itself. Today it faces major challenges as a result of the financial meltdown and the changing nature of financial institutions. How will this impact on the physical fabric of the City? What will it be like to work in the Square Mile in 2050?