Architecture & Design | Sir Terry Farrell
Asia. In the last five years we have completed the tallest building in the world by a British architect in Shenzhen and the largest railway in the world in Guangzhou. The practice has developed a reputation for integrated and multi-modal transport developments throughout the world which was a journey which began with Embankment Place in London. This complicated air rights development was very much an ‘urban’ project – with a mix of uses, restored streetscapes and new routes creating permeability for pedestrians to find their way around Charing Cross station where it meets the River Thames and Hungerford Bridge. This project led to the
commission for Kowloon Station in Hong Kong and associated development which for me was a game changer. It is a model of joined-up thinking and an example of multi-disciplinary working that we have tried to capture and promote in the Review. We have used the acronym PLACE to describe the key disciplines involved – Planning, Landscape, Architecture, Conservation and Engineering. At Kowloon we had an incredible team of British consultants, including engineers Arup who had also worked with us on Embankment Place. It was a real British success story which led to further commissions in mainland China for Beijing South and Guangzhou South high speed transport hubs. The
‘The Climatron’, Blackpool, final- year student design thesis, 1961. Terry Farrell. Influenced by Buckminster Fuller, this scheme proposed a vast indoor holiday island raised on legs and connected to the base of Blackpool Tower. Its multipurpose spaces anticipated future building types and an economy based on recreation
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journey has now come full circle and we are currently working on major developments for three of the new HS2 stations in the UK: Euston, Old Oak Common and Crewe.
What have the main impacts of globalisation been over the course
your career? When I opened an office in Hong Kong in 1991, China’s GDP was just 15% of that of the US. Ten years later, it equated to 30% of the US’s GDP, and had gone from being the seventh largest economy in the world to the third, and it is now expected to match or overtake the US and become the world’s largest economy very soon. These are rapid and dramatic changes that have profound consequences for the UK. Global wealth is no longer the preserve of the West, and we are seeing hugely increasing levels of investment in our built environment and ownership in our infrastructure. We have to adapt here in the UK
and globalise our outlook. In recent years, my practice was told that we could not qualify for a shortlist to design 250 stations, including along the Thameslink line, as we had insufficient experience of station design in the UK. Then later the Hong Kong rail investment company MTR were among those selected for consideration to carry this work out, and we were immediately appointed by them as they saw that we have more experience than most
other UK practices, having designed a large number of stations overseas in Singapore, South Africa, India and China. We are now operating within a global marketplace and we have to wake up to this fact.
“The Brits Who Built the Modern World” showcased the rise of Britain’s super architects; yourself, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster et al. What do you think of the next generation, the architects coming through to whom you are passing the torch?
I think there is a generation coming through who are much more open and tolerant of different styles and willing to express themselves without feeling constrained by the ideology of ‘modernism’ that gripped my generation. It is also very rewarding to see that urbanism and placemaking are much higher up the agenda now. It is no longer just about buildings as objects, but rather buildings within networks of streets and spaces that create the whole and the quality of the public realm is just as, if not more, important than the buildings themselves. There is also much more collaboration these days as architects recognise that great places are the work of many hands. On many of our large masterplan projects like Earls Court, Nine Elms and Royal Albert Docks we are working with numerous other architects on different types of buildings.
ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
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SIR TERRY FARRELL
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