The King Edward Tower has been refined away from the metaphor of the shipping container. A hangover inherited from a previous life, a good enough starting point, but one which didn't sound very true. A single apartment footprint staggers in plan and extrudes upwards defining a commercially viable hulk, a hand with fingers. Each finger exudes a strong vertical elegance at odds with its real mass. At once expressing function, but in conflict with its true purpose - the age old tension between art and capitalism.
All this verticality needs a counter, it invites opposition. A horizontal element free from the tethers of ground. A balancing feminine gesture to its own relentless Yang. A dramatic cantilevered restaurant breaks the form high in the sky. My favourite geometry - an intersection from opposite spatial directions - a Cartesian grid - the Cross. I come to it from rational inevitability. Two of the three extreme dimensions of space. The obvious question......this is the symbol which references one of the ultimate places in human spirituality. Should I be restricted from using it when it has come from my own investigation, imagination, conclusion? Equally obvious is my answer, to me hierarchy and ownership are as illusory as everything else in this world.
