Living in Tall Buildings: lessons for London?

Social Life is inviting city leaders, academics, planners and designers from cities across the globe to explore what makes tall towers livable.

Using Cisco's video conferencing technology, a live roundtable discussion will be held on April 1oth, with participants from Copenhagen, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.

There are over 230 tall towers planned in London, the vast majority will be for residential use. Unlike cities in Asia and Latin America, high density living is not a feature of UK life, and perceptions have been tarnished by the memories of previous waves of high rise development that have been seen to fail, like many social housing estates of the 1960s and Canary Wharf in the 1990s. 

This event is part of the Social Life of Cities collaboration, a partnership between Cisco and Social Life that is bringing together a network of cities to explore different ways in which the lived experience of residents can become central to the future of urban development.

A lot is already known about building tall towers, planning for high density living and even sustainable vertical urbanism. But what is currently missing from these debates is an understanding of what makes towers work as places where people want to live and where neighbourhoods can thrive.

The event 'Living in Tall Buildings: what can London learn from the rest of the world?' will take place on 10th April 2014. This event is not public however the findings will be available at a later date. For more information contact hello@social-life.co