New app provides a vision of the City of London in 2050
12 July 2012
Design consultant, Gensler has created an app that provides a virtual study of the City of London in the year 2050. The app is created to coincide with the immersive, visual installation installed at the Developing City Exhibition in the City of London. It presents Gensler’s five re-imagined districts - Aldgate, Barbican, Shoreditch, Smithfield and the Thames - in a 360 degree panorama.
The app also provides a walking tour to each of the districts, alerting viewers to the exact viewpoint from which they will be able to visualise the future. The walking tour will visit the future sites of three new public parks, a new Global Tech Media Exchange, a Life Sciences Exchange, and an expanded cultural and residential community within the Barbican. They also reveal a proposed airport terminal for the City, an uncovered and restored River Fleet and a comprehensive new subterranean transport and utility network.
Gensler’s multi-disciplined team of designers and architects have been working with Virtual Viewing to create the bespoke Apple application, allowing iPad and iPhone user’s an innovative insight into its vision of the future. Using the device’s built-in compass, the app can determine the direction one is facing to enable the correct view of the future London panoramas to be displayed. Coupling this with the gyroscope and accelerometer in the devices and suddenly one can explore the futuristic 360° panoramas as if you were really there. With the benefit of information embedded into the panoramas using touch activated hotspots, all the information about the design vision can be accessed simply and intuitively.
Ian Mulcahey, managing director at Gensler London said “Through the combination of these exciting walking tours and the creation of an innovative application, we are really able to bring our dynamic vision of the City of London to life. People will now be able to experience exactly how we think the City will continue to redefine and reinvent itself. Our work with the NLA and Virtual Viewing has enabled us to simultaneously present the current and the future, the real and the virtual, in a creative, informative and engaging way.”
The app is now available here, or point your mobile at the QR code.