London could get a 1,000-foot skyscraper called The Tulip

Architects Foster + Partners have already left their mark on the City with 30 St Mary Axe, known by literally everyone as The Gherkin. Now they’re aiming to construct a 1,000-foot-tall Gherkin-on-a-stick right next door.

There’s one big difference between this and London’s glut of new residential and office towers: The Tulip is intended to be a visitor attraction. The designs include viewing galleries, bars and restaurants, internal ’sky bridges’ and external rotating pods, plus a high-tech educational facility that state schools can use for free and spaces for cultural, educational and tech events.

If plans are approved, construction of the tower could be finished by 2025

The doors are open for Archikids Festival 2017!

Archikids Festival 2017 returns for its fifth year and it’s going to be better than ever!

This week Open City announces the new ‘Festival Hubs’ of Archikids 2017 – revealing the doors set to open on the 22 & 23 July 2017 for a fun-filled programme of activities. The Gherkin is joined by the iconic gardens of St Paul’s Cathedral, Broadgate and the galleries of the Museum of London. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend of explorations!

 

Archikids is a weekend festival of free activities for kids and their families to explore the city. It’s a chance to explore London's iconic buildings while constructing an architectural piece of headwear, building lego landscapes and designing your own skyscrapers!

 

What’s On:

30+ exciting activities set to inspire kids about their city and how they can make a difference to it! Highlights will be:

-       Get ready to build the tallest Lego tower for On your marks, get set, LEGO at the Gherkin

-       Becoming an Eco Explorer in the gardens of St Paul’s Cathedral, supported by the City of London Corporation

-       Strut your stuff for Hatwalk Catwalk at Broadgate

-       Design a New Museum in the Museum of London galleries

 

Festival Details:

When: Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd July 2017,10am-5pm

Where: Activities are centered around four ‘Festival Hubs’ across the City of London including – The Gherkin, Broadgate, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Museum of London.

For who: Children aged 5-11 and their families

How much: This festival is free to attend!

For further details and the full programme visit: www.archikids.org.uk/festival

Follow us: @opencityorg #archikids

 

Over 7,000 families joined us in 2016, this year the festival aims to expand and inspire even more young Londoners to join in exploring the exciting and evolving architecture across the City of London's Square Mile, through creative and exhilarating activities, stimulating workshops and intriguing tours of the architecture that is often overlooked by fast-paced city life!

 

Leading local designers will help our budding designers too! Teams from PRP, AKT II, Endpoint, Studio Sanshea, Waterman Structures, Lipton Plant and many more firms have signed up to the festival’s Activate Challenge, which is testing their own creative juices in devising an activity for the weekend. Watch this space and see what they brainstorm up!

Gallery

London Architecture - Michelin House

Michelin House at 81 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London, was constructed as the first permanent UK headquarters and tyre depot for the Michelin Tyre Company Ltd. The building opened for business on 20 January 1911.

Currently The Bibendum Restaurant

Designed by one of Michelin's employees, François Espinasse, the building has three large stained-glass windows based on Michelin advertisements of the time, all featuring the Michelin Man "Bibendum". Around the front of the original building at street level there is a number of decorative tiles showing famous racing cars of the time that used Michelin tyres. More tiles can be found inside the front of the building, which was originally a tyre-fitting bay for passing motorists. People walking into the reception area of the building are still greeted by a mosaic on the floor showing Bibendum holding aloft a glass of nuts, bolts and other hazards, proclaiming "Nunc Est Bibendum" (Latin for "Now is the time to drink"). The reception area also features more decorative tiles around its walls. Two glass cupolas, which look like piles of tyres, frame either side of the front of the building. The Michelin company's close association with road maps and tourism is represented by a number of etchings of the streets of Paris on some of the first-floor windows.

Michelin moved out of the building in 1985, when it was purchased by the late publisher Paul Hamlyn and the restaurateur/retailer Sir Terence Conran, who shared a love for the building. They embarked on a major redevelopment that included the restoration of some the original features. The new development also featured offices for Hamlyn's company Octopus Publishing, as well as Conran's Bibendum Restaurant & Oyster Bar, and a Conran Shop. All three businesses opened in August 1987.

Making of the Michelin building

Patents owned by Dunlop prevented other manufacturers from selling their tyres in Britain, except under licence. The patents were due to expire in the autumn of 1904, and in anticipation of this, Michelin opened an office in Tavistock Place, South Kensington. Michelin sent four employees over from France to Britain to establish the new British branch of the company. Fourteen local staff were also recruited. In June 1905, the Michelin Tyre Company Limited was incorporated. Within a year, the staff had increased to over forty and the company moved into new premises in Sussex Place. When it soon became apparent that the company needed much larger premises, the search for a new site began. A number of different sites were looked into and the earliest plans for a purpose-built London Headquarters date from 1906 for a site on Vauxhall Bridge Road. In 1909, a site on Fulham Road was offered to the company. Fulham Road, one of the main routes into London was considered a great location. Later that same year, a piece of land bordered by Fulham Road, Sloane Avenue, Leader Street and Lucan Place was purchased freehold from Cadgan and Hans Estate Co. Work on a design for the building had already begun and on 4 April 1910, the final designs for Michelin House were completed. Shortly after, work began on the building's construction.