I scan the horizon and wonder
Which building will today
Dominate the skyline.
Vying for height, shape and spectacle
They rise, in London, to the sky:
Above the smog.
2003, The Gherkin: rocket or vegetable?
Love it or hate it: amusing cuteness.
2014, Walkie Talkie leaning tower,
Sky garden overhang
TV screening a view of the rest.
But 2012 was The Shard.
Aloof, a proud spike: icicle upended.
Taller than the rest.
Should we revere these pinnacles of modernity?
In a world moving onwards and definitely upwards.
Or look back to Wren, St Paul’s sublime dome
From the east obliterated now by steel and glass.
Should we recreate the romance of the past
Shakespeare’s and Wanamaker’s Globe
Reliving nightly the fifteenth century
In the twenty first?
Defend, promote, revive,
Preserve, destroy, reuse?
Infil, demolish, redesign.
Architecture:
A spirit of each age.
What will it bring tomorrow?
Photos and wording copyright Englepip©
Englepip's World 