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It is a very strange campaign and it seems unclear what the point of it is.

Commentators like Rowan Moore says these towers have somehow sneaked past every one but he and other like him had commentated on towers in London for well over a decade.

Having people like Chipperfield and Kapoor as figureheads is also an odd choice. The Orbit is widely ridiculed and used as an example as to why and where a tall building should not be placed and Chipperfield, apart from the highly contentious Elizabeth House has also had a large slab approved at Canada Water that couldn't be more out of context so what exactly are they signing up for?

Places like Vauxhall with its cluster of approved towers being used heavily in this campaign as an example an unplanned frenzy is anything but. Lambeth Wandsworth and the GLA have worked together over several years defining this cluster and its context. In fact most of these tower clusters have been long in gestation and in borough plans and dozens of commentators have written pages of on the subject matter over the years.

The 200 + figure is not something sudden but the gestation of a tall building policy from the early 2000's largely endorsed by the GLA in its London pan within the entirely sensible policy to build tall centrally and near transport nodes. Almost every tall building has been heavily scrutinised with around a dozen highly publicised public inquiries which have been reported at length in the media.

By all means have a debate about the quality of these buildings but the question as to how many and where is a rather redundant argument when most of these 200 already have planning and are or will be built. Clusters whether you agree with it or not have been already established in places like the City Canary Wharf Vauxhall the South Bank, Stratford and Croydon amongst other places. This campaign will do nothing to change this simple fact. If it achieves better quality for future towers then great but beyond that it seems like a lot of hot air and posturing with little substance and at least ten years to late.

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