London and Chicago in Conversation: Tall Buildings and the Zero-Carbon Agenda

The event starts at 2pm (London) / 8am (Chicago).

Chicago is the city of tall buildings, where the world’s first skyscraper was built in 1885. Since then, its skyline dramatically changed influencing many other cities around the world to build high rise buildings.

London, on the other side, is a city that is traditionally associated with a low-rise and low-density character. Yet, in the past decade we have seen a boom of planning and construction that is changing London’s skyline at a fast-pace and challenge the traditional image of London as a low-rise city. Massive redevelopment and megaprojects are also seeing tall buildings clusters pop up in multiple places, yielding new design conundrums all their own.

Both cities are now addressing new pressing priorities: firstly, the climate emergency and the need to reduce dramatically carbon emissions, both in use and embodied, and secondly the covid-19 pandemic.

This event is part of the NLA City Dialogue programme that connects cities from across the globe in order to exchange information, discuss and debate shared urban issues, and compare approaches.