The “new symbol of Aldgate” is the conditional “new gate” of the City, which should become a symbol of London during the 2012 Olympics (after the end of the Games, they will be dismantled). They will be located on the eastern border of this historic district, just from the side of the Olympic Village and other Olympic infrastructure facilities. This “monument” should symbolize the traditional values of modern Britain - multiculturalism and openness. The most ambitious of the five projects selected is So Fujimoto's Vertical Forest, a multi-tiered green tower. The bureau DONIS (Netherlands) and Foster Lomas (Great Britain) followed the path of minimalism: in the first case it is a simple white frame of elongated proportions, just as simply christened "London Gate", and in the second - golden "Listening Pillars" placed in a small area. Juan Alfonso Galan (Great Britain) proposed to install a "stele" in Aldgate that resembles an airport board (the project motto resembles the name of the flight: "Aldgate is the world"), and NORMAL Canadians presented the future attraction in the form of a "house" strung on pillar ("This is not a house"). The winner of the competition will be announced on July 22, 2010.
At the same time, the Victoria and Albert Museum opened an exhibition of projects for the reconstruction of his Boilerhouse yard ("boiler yard"), overlooking Exibition Road and separated from it by a low through arcade. In the future, it is planned to rebuild it as part of the program to renovate the entire street, but so far we are talking only about "concepts". The task for the architects was to design an underground hall for temporary exhibitions with an area of 1,500 m2, at ground level, supplemented by a kind of public space - a platform that can be used for a summer cafe. In addition, the entrance to the museum from the street must be formalized. The best among the presented works will not be chosen: this is not a competition, but a preliminary design study, and the organizers expected from the architects not realism, but originality. The program was attended by Tony Fretton, Amanda Leavit, Francisco Mangado, Jamie Fobert Architects, heneghan peng architects, OMA, Sutherland Hussey Architects and Snohetta.
