Embedded Files
When we think of the City of London otherwise known as ‘the City’, we think of a place full of life, people rushing off to different places, a mix of old and new architecture that just works - a place where fortunes are made in one of the largest financial centres in London.
The City would never be synonymous with the words: silent, desolate, ghost-like.
But on a Sunday morning when I visited it was just like that. The square mile of the City sucks in hundreds of thousands of people every weekday morning, ejects them back out in the evening and takes a break over the weekend.
So what happens to the smart city when we’re not there? Is it ‘efficient’ for the City to just wait for people to return to work?
Traffic Maps for the City
Traffic Maps for the City
I accessed the Google traffic maps for the City at 9am on Monday morning and compared it with the traffic map for 9am on Sunday morning.
Analysing the orange lines (busy traffic) with the green lines (empty roads) shows that during the weekend there is little activity on the roads on Sunday morning. To see what this meant for actual people in the locality I went to see for myself.
Postcard Perfect Empty Spaces
Postcard Perfect Empty Spaces
Arriving in the City, I headed straight to the Bank of England. This place is considered by some where the power in Britain lies. Yet there was barely a soul. Taking a photograph and editing it to highlight dark and light areas really bought home the cold empty buildings. At the bottom of the photo or street level is where you would expect to see crowds of people that would show up as little blobs against the blue, but there’s nothing.
Heading towards the Broadgate Tower in Liverpool Street, I took a photograph of a pedestrianised street and a cycle storage area. I noticed a few tourists - like me taking photographs. The immaculate scene with a lone Lime Bike made the place feel dreamy. I therefore chose to edit the image to make it appear like a pencil sketch.
I walked towards the Gherkin via a side street. As I saw it emerging from the side of an office block I took this photo (right). It reminded me of a postcard. I wanted to do something different with this image, so I thought about the street art that you get in many cities around the would and edited the image to give it an edgy comic book look. Those postcards and images that depict the spaces in the clear morning light before people are up and about, because when you visit for yourself it’s never as calm, clean or pretty.
These photos made me think of the smart city and what type of feeling do we want to create? I’ve described the feelings: cold, dreamy and calm using just three photos.
We know we can design technology that makes people feel and act a certain way, so this is something that should be considered for the smart city. One obvious example is crowd control which could help people feel more calm. However, if too draconian it would have the opposite effect.
Places That Haven’t Changed
Places That Haven’t Changed
I also had the intention of wandering down the City side streets and alleys that go back hundreds of years. I wanted to think about how these places might - or might not - change if the City was a ‘smart city’.
Just around the corner from the Bank of England was this side street. The door straight ahead below the street sign is actually a footpath! I took this photo to show how this street has hardly changed and edited it to give the appearance that is was taken maybe a hundred years ago.
This photo is of the Liverpool Street station platforms with the main station in the background. As expected there were few trains running on Sunday morning, but I was able to capture this photo and edit it to give it a grainy monochrome look. Even with the modern trains in the old station, I managed to create a grand, old world feel.
Moving onto the historic Leadenhall Market (established in 1321!) it was possible to walk through, but was actually closed. The market doesn’t open on either Saturdays or Sundays, but during the week at times you cannot move for space.
Visiting the market at this time enabled me to appreciate its ornateness that seems to have been added on over the centuries. The Victorian look made me want to edit is image to make it look like an old photograph. Some careful cropping meant I could cut out a road sign and the front of a van to achieve the desired effect.
In England, some are keen to preserve the rich heritage of the country and some of the preservation happened by accident. The City always evolved so quickly, even after disastrous events such as the 1666 fire of London, that city planners weren’t fast enough to plan street layouts as in many other European cities.
Is the expectation that we keep quirky city features, awkward streets and passage ways? Do we continue to cherish them as part of our history or do they hinder plans for the smart city and the efficiency that is sold as the main benefit?
Can we continue to make the old world work with the new as we have done in Liverpool Street station?
Reflecting on Photo Taking in the City
Reflecting on Photo Taking in the City
The most interesting thing about taking these photos is that there appears to have been no single plan for the City in all its history. There is a mix of old narrow streets and modern spaces all thrown in together. It’s oddly charming. Bits have been designed and continually improved over time. There is little sign of one unifying vision of even this small area in a much bigger city. If you ignore the orange and green traffic lines on the maps, the street layout looks positively chaotic.
Although there are many different visions of the smart city, there is always one grand unified plan that is going to make everyone’s lives better. If so, in the City at least, any grand vision needs to reconcile itself with the old, quirky, charming as well as come up with how a city is meant to be ‘smart’ when it is essentially deserted two days out of seven.
When I look at the buildings in the photographs, there does appear to be some thought in terms of how they have been designed to make people feel. At least architects and designers have tried to project a sense of power. Did Liverpool Street station need those graceful high ceilings or grand and palatial arches? Did either the Bank of England or Leadenhall Market need such ornate stonework or imposing columns? Even a modern building such as the Gherkin is showing off in terms of architectural design and Britain’s engineering prowess.
The words we use to describe the smart city are so functional: efficient, safe, connected. It is high time we looked at some of the hedonic attributes of the smart city. How do we want the city of the future to make us feel? I think there will be more varied answers than just ‘smart’.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse