The Language of Cities

A successful city is a place in which it is possible to feel a sense of shared community, but also a place in which it is entirely possible to flourish without feeling part of anything. That is the essence of a city, to choose from it what you need, and to politely ignore the rest. p. 75

The argument for high-rise offices in London is made on the basis of a perhaps mistaken, but at least plausible, policy. The case was never argued for the private residential towers that are now lining the river from Putney to Greenwich and, on greater scale, are threatening to spill into the west, as Renzo Piano’s proposal to reprise the Shard with an equally tall residential skyscraper on top of Paddington station suggested. It is these projects that reflect the way in which London’s very success is threatening to undermine it; they are a visible reflection of the emergence of London property as an asset class rather than as means to provide affordable homes for its people. In the context of interest rates at their lowest in a century, and quantitative easing, property has become a place to launder money, to look for windfall gains from price inflation, rather than a place to live. p.127