Soon enough, London inhabitants and tourists alike might be able to admire stunning views of the British capital city from the top of a new giant skyscraper. The extraordinary tower before you will take the form of a huge glass tulip, with breathtaking sky bridges, gondola pod rides and incredible glass slides.
The 1000-foot tall glass tulip skyscraper was imagined by the renowned London-based architecture company Foster & Partners. They’ve filed a planning application in November last year for this audacious project, which will be a cultural center and public attraction.
The plan is yet to be approved, but if it succeeds, the revolutionary Tulip shaped building will be located at 30 St. Mary Axe, next to The Gherkin, another one of London’s modern skyscrapers.
What the Tulip will offer, besides its splendid design, will be an astonishing view of the city from the height of 984 feet. The designers plan to build a vista from sky bridges, gondola pods on the exterior and internal glass slides. In addition, the Tulip skyscraper will have restaurants with 360 degree panoramas of the city and a sky bar.
If they succeed, this may well be the next best tourist attraction in London, putting the English capital among the best places on Earth to have a scenic dinner. But that’s not everything.
The giant flower shaped building will also house a school, a sky high educational facility put together by the J. Safra group and offering a national curriculum, innovative teaching methods and tools, and high end classrooms.
They approximate that around 20,000 children will have the opportunity to be enrolled in what’s probably going to be the best school in the world. Well, if you don’t have fear of heights, that is.
London’s glass tulip skyscraper will also house some other cultural projects, including a small public park with a rooftop garden. One of the other impressive features of the future building will be the energy efficiency, using high performance glass that will optimize and reduce energy consumption. The building will also use zero combustion technology for the heating and cooling systems.
Overall, The Tulip will be a hub for business, educational or technology events organized at any hour, seven days a week. If the project is approved, the construction will begin in 2020, and the plan is to finish it somewhere in 2025.
