As director at Laurence Martin Developments, a residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence Grigorov has a deep interest in foreign architectural news and information in order to keep abreast of the latest trends and designs in the architectural field.

1. Zaha Hadid
London
Skyscrapers
Split Opinion
Laurence Grigorov

2. As director at Laurence Martin
Developments, a residential property
development company based in
Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence
Grigorov has a deep interest in foreign
architectural news and information in order
to keep abreast of the latest trends and
designs in the architectural field.

3. A project which is caught the eye of Laurence
Grigorov is the latest offering by world-renowned
architect Zaha Hadid, albeit in a controversial
way.
Zaha Hadid Architects' plans for two soaring
skyscrapers at Vauxhall Cross could be the firm's
first foray into a mixed-use project in London, but
the design is proving contentious.

4. The architecture firm submitted plans for the two towers,
measuring 185 and 151 metres respectively, at the end of
2017. The architects claim the scheme could bring 2,000
jobs and 260 new homes to the area, but critics are
opposed to the height of the towers and the plans to
demolish the existing public bus station to make way for
private development. Connected by a ten-storey podium,
the development would include offices, retail space, a hotel
and apartments. Until now Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
has only designed public buildings in London: the London
Aquatics Centre and the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.

5. Renders show the two rectilinear towers rising from
the fluted podium, with soaring floor-to-ceiling glazing
in between a grid of oblong arches and indents to
accommodate for outdoor terraces. The Vauxhall
Cross Island area has been identified as a "key
regeneration site" by Lambeth Council and the
proposed podium footprint would occupy what is
currently a patch of scrubland covered in billboards in
the middle of the Vauxhall Gyratory. Permission had
previously been granted on appeal to Squire &
Partners in 2012, when it re-submitted plans to build
towers 41 and 31 storeys high. The local council had
refused the original 46 and 23 storey scheme.

6. However, the ZHA proposed towers are 53 and 42
storeys, with the Architects' Journal reporting that
campaigners have accused the architects of
"attempting to add more height by stealth". ZHA said
that the scheme "works with the height of the other
proposed developments in the area" and that it will "sit
better within the context of the emerging Vauxhall
cluster" than the previous design.

7. The area is part wider Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea
Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF), which has
allowed for the proliferation of tall buildings along the
western stretch of the River Thames' south bank. Along
with fears that the two skyscrapers would overshadow the
area, the ZHA proposal's footprint encroaches on what is
currently a major bus stop and the subject of an ongoing
controversy.

8. The plan has been contentious, with local
residents and campaign groups angered by the
council and TfL reconfiguring public facilities to
accommodate a private project. ZHA Architects
has maintained that its proposal for the Vauxhall
Cross Island site fulfils the brief and will help
regenerate the area.

9. Ambitious and exciting projects such
as these offer insight to Laurence
Grigorov and the team at Laurence
Martin Developments for future
projects and developments that the
company is involved in.
Words and photo courtesy of
Dezeen.com