British architect reveals self-funded transportation hub proposal

Foster + Partners, the British design firm behind the Gherkin and the new Apple headquarters, have released plans for a £50 billion transportation hub, the Thames Hub study, which the firm jointly funded with the infrastructure firm Halcrow. Meant to be built on reclaimed land in the UK's Thames Estuary, the plans include a new airport, rail link, and underground infrastructure integrated into a tidal power barrage and new flood protection barrier.

Foster + Partners and Halcrow believe the Hub could bring £225 billion of economic benefits in the form of tax revenues and growth in the area.

According to the Architect's Journal, Norman Foster (the firm's founding partner) believes the Hub 'would not need to depend on public funding'.

Proponents of transit oriented development will recognize the goals the architects and engineers believe in enough to back with their own money. In Foster's words,‘We need to recapture the foresight and political courage of our 19th-century forebears if we are to establish modern transport and energy infrastructure in Britain for this century and beyond.’

The full study can be found at the Architects' Journal.

Foster reveals self-funded proposal for a four-runway airport in the Thames Estuary [Architects Journal]

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com