Guildhall has been the centre of city power since the 12th century. It is thought that the word itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning payment. 800 years ago, the Lord Mayor of London rivalled the monarchy for prestige and influence, and it was in this location that he and the ruling merchant class held court and fine-tuned the trading regulations and laws that helped to create London’s wealth. Today, Guildhall remains the home of the City of London Corporation. It serves as a venue for glittering banquets that are held in honour of heads of state and other dignitaries, royal occasions and celebrations for historical anniversaries. Continue reading →

A construction company in China have a claim to the title of fastest building firm in the world after erecting a 57-storey skyscraper in just 19 days. The building has been named Mini Sky City. Although construction was hindered twice by bursts of bad weather, the time-lapse video of the construction has been shared several million times on various platforms since it was first uploaded to YouTube. Chen Xiangqian, the company’s engineer, has stated that the traditional method of building a skyscraper is a brick by brick, but their method used 2,736 ready-assembled blocks of bricks, which meant it could be completed a lot more quickly. Continue reading →

A brand new competition by renowned house builder Barratt Homes and the Architects Journal (AJ) is giving designers and architects in London and the UK the chance to design the home of the future. They are being invited to create their vision of what a homeowner will want from a property between 2020 and 2025. Designs need to visualise how the properties will look and what features they’ll have in order to appeal to the mass market. Continue reading →