FUTURE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTURE REVEALED

Warrington architects and others around the UK might want to take note of a new report suggesting how the face of British architecture will change over the coming years, with high rise farms and floating cities predicted to take centre stage in the future.

New research from a think tank made up of Linda Aitken, Toby Burgess, Arthur Mamou-Mani and Dr Rhys Morgan of the Royal Academy of Engineering suggests that underground basements will become a reality as people seek to create additional space, the Independent reports.

“We may need to create floating conurbations on major rivers or even out to sea. And how we grow and access food, incorporating urban farming into the built environment, as well as harnessing natural energy sources, will result in dramatically different streetscapes and skylines,” Linda Aitken remarked.

The study found that 41 per cent of people expect that super-deep basements will become a staple part of the hidden landscape, although one in four would prefer to see floating cities become a reality.

Other architectural advances expected to come to the fore include 3D printed homes, spaceports to Mars and the moon, and rooftop farms. The research was commissioned to mark the start of UKTV’s Impossible Engineering series, which will look into possibilities such as magnetic levitation trains and tubular skyscrapers.

The six-part series will look at how trains, planes, ships and giant structures around the world are built and how they operate. The first episode focuses on aircraft carriers, starting with William Beardmore’s HMS Argus, which was built back in 1918.