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Want cheap energy bills? Move to a city

New research shows that the compact, taller buildings typical of inner-city areas are often the most heat-energy efficientAs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalises its fifth...

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London's skyline: Boris, we agree London is a great city. So help us keep it...

Boris Johnson's response to our debate on the capital's tower blocks has been disappointingBoris Johnson is fond of saying that he presides over the greatest city in the world. He argues, correctly,...

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Shardenfreude: London's copycat craze is crystal clear

The Shard has spawned a host of angular glassy lumps across the capital. But is this new crystal city full of Shardettes a welcome change?When Renzo Piano casually described his design for London...

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Will Self: London’s high-rise future is thrusting, exhilarating, yet...

The capital is in the grip of skyscraper fever, but its centre is an undifferentiated mass of semi-solidified financial liquidity. Welcome to 'jelly London' ...A series of fortunate events brought me...

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The right to flight: why I’m flying a balloon over London this summer

In a world where we are increasingly tracked by invisible technology, James Bridle aims to share something with Londoners – via a balloon carrying anonymous Wi-Fi routers, mesh network repeaters and...

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China town: meet the architecture giant with Asian designs on London

Aedas's mixed-use malls and elevated walkways might work in China, but will these mammoth towers blot Britain's capital?Their buildings dot the globe, but you probably couldn't name one, nor would you...

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London skyline campaigners' dismay as Unesco ignores risk to Westminster

UN watchdog fails to place parliament on list of world's endangered heritage sites, deferring decision until FebruaryThe march of London's skyscrapers looks set to continue unchecked after the UN...

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'Killer towers': how architects are battling hazardous high-rises

As outlandish proposals to tame Leeds’ lethal wind-tunnel tower are unveiled, we look at how architects have dealt with other epic failsIf you thought the pantomime of evil tower blocks couldn’t get...

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The truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning...

Affordable housing quotas get waived and the interests of residents trampled as toothless authorities bow to the dazzling wealth of investors from Russia, China and the Middle East“I always said you...

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New year's resolutions for architects in 2015

Build better towers, ditch the Lego, outlaw the ‘facadectomy’ – and how about more transparency in Boris’s London?If nearly every venerable architect in the host country slams your proposed design for...

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London's Sky Garden: the more you pay, the worse the view

The Sky Garden was meant to be a free public space with the most spectacular views of London. But it feels like you’re trapped in an airport, you can barely see the city because of a steel cage – and...

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The 1926 painting that foresaw how London would look today

Most artistic visions of London’s future have been darkly pessimistic. But this Underground poster painted by Montague B Black in 1926 offered an uncanny – and much more optimistic – view of the modern...

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The last thing east London needs is another seven towers

Boris Johnson’s support for a luxury high-rise development on Bishopsgate Goodsyard illustrates his contempt for localismIt’s not a beautiful word, localism, but it’s an ideal with whose basics it is...

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From the Shard to the Kingdom Tower, are 'vertical villages' bad for cities?

The modern skyscraper is being designed with an ever-increasing range of features – from shops and offices to gyms and cinemas – that could discourage users from engaging with the city around them....

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What a difference 400 years makes: the London skyline 1616 v 2016 – interactive

Inspired by Claes Jansz Visscher’s classic engraving of London half a century before the Great Fire, Robin Reynolds has updated the view to the present dayVisscher Redrawn is at London’s Guildhall art...

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London's changing skyline: planned tall buildings 'almost double in two years'

Interactive: The capital has 436 buildings over 20 storeys in the pipeline – and, of those submitted over the past year, only three have been rejectedLondon’s skyline is changing dramatically, with...

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City of London backs Square Mile’s tallest skyscraper in ‘right to light’ battle

Builders of 62-storey tower at 22 Bishopsgate enlist corporation in overcoming neighbours’s claims that it will overshadow themThe City of London has backed developers of the Square Mile’s tallest...

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Are Shoreditch skyscrapers a London tower too far, even for Boris Johnson?

The mega Bishopsgate Goodsyard development is opposed by two councils and the mayor’s own advisers – its fate now depends on his one-man imperial courtFor the first time in Boris Johnson’s ignominious...

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Londoners back limit on skyscrapers as fears for capital’s skyline grow

With more than 400 high-rises planned, major survey shows residents want numbers curbedLondoners want curbs placed on the number of new high-rise buildings in the capital, amid concerns that a wave of...

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Boris Johnson's failed vanity projects as London mayor – video

From sweatbox buses to a novelty 'dangleway' and fantasy bridges that never saw a brick laid. Boris Johnson’s design legacy in London left the taxpayer with a bill of more than £940m after his eight...

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