Evening Standard: "The only way is up for London: Nick Curtis hears from architect Richard Rogers"

"Taller buildings, a car-free city, and eastwards expansion are all inevitable, Nick Curtis hears from architect Richard Rogers, whose vision is celebrated at the Royal Academy — but on the wish-list is a Thames Estuary airport"

Link to web site

"London continues to fascinate and succeed, Rogers suggests, not just because of its financial clout or its arts, but:

"because of the exchange of cultures with so many people. Because it is made of villages rather than concentric rings we can absorb much more of a mix."

"... One of the factors in London’s renaissance so far has been a massive improvement in public transport:

"New Tube lines, many more buses."

The Paris Métro may still have the slight edge on the older, crankier Tube but London has become immeasurably better for pedestrians and cyclists:

"I cycle, which is a healthy thing for an 80-year-old to do. I rarely go further than five miles, but in those five miles I can get to 80 per cent of the places I want to go.

... Cities are there for the exchange of ideas and goods. The problem with the car is its lack of friendliness. The most brilliant thing is that the City of London hasn’t allowed us for decades to put cars under office buildings and nobody complains."