From the Air

This is a post that was written a year ago whilst working on a major urban development project in Pakistan and getting to grips with the complexity of the project which is essentially the planning of a city the size of Dubai, as the intensity of the project eases off for a while, there is a small window to reflect on the experience and what is being asked of the team, here is one from one of those rare occasions that on a flight out of Pakistan when it is daylight and I actually have a clear view out of the window, and what a view! 

Most of the fellow travellers on the flight want to sleep the whole way, which results in many annoying requests from the airline staff asking me to close the shutter on the window, which are all politely refused, and this is what they are all missing. 

As the ageing airliner ascends from Lahore, over the Ravi River and the agricultural lands punctuated with sometimes quite large organic developments, the landscape gradually becomes less fertile as the fields give way to rock outcroppings, that become the foothills of the Himalaya as the territory changes to Afghanistan followed by the deserts of Uzbekistan and the rocky landscape of Kazakstan before passing over the vastness that is Russia. The landscape from 30,000 feet is very green, huge agricultural fields punctuated by lakes and forests and the occasional compact city. 

As the landscape passes by very slowly the territories, change from Russia, to Belarus, then Poland and Germany without much change in the continuum of green, until forested slopes of the green valleys, compact towns and cities, nestled in the landscape give way to the flat patchwork that is the agricultural fields of the Netherlands.

Passing along the River Rhine south of Rotterdam and over the white steel wings of the Maeslantkering, a huge storm surge barrier, one of the world's largest moving structures, forming a vital component of the sea defences that make Holland so unique, and so over the busy shipping lanes of the Channel, to another major construction in white steel, the elegant wings and slender towers of the vast London Array, dramatic against the blue of the calm waters, dwarfing the ships passing along the channel, the project is partly funded by Masdar along with European energy providers, DONG and EON, the turbines are developed by Siemens, the installation is capable of generating 630MW, enough to power 500,000 homes, without burning a single drop of fuel or emitting a single kilogram of carbon dioxide. 

Passing over the Red Sands forts that once provided a vital defence of a different kind to the Thames Estuary and the city of London, following the river inland to the south of Corringham, the giant cranes of the new Thames Deep Water Port at Thurrock dominates the skyline, the first component of a masterplan to develop a major distribution hub. Heading towards the QE2 Bridge, the Brent Oil refinery and the Dartford Power Station emphasise the significance that the River still holds to the region. The QE2 Bridge also known as the Dartford Crossing where the M25, the London Orbital Motorway splits into two, the clockwise lanes crossing the bridge, whilst the anti-clockwise lanes pass beneath the river through the Dartford Tunnel.

It is curious how countries with greater areas of land have developed their towns in a the compact manner and when passing above England a country with a far lesser landmass the approach followed in Essex seems to be of suburban sprawl punctuated with golf courses, that spread out from established towns. 

Heading along the Thames, past the Royal Docks and the glistening stainless steel shells of the Thames Barrier, the tide of transition from industrial wasteland to vibrant urban centre on and around the Greenwich peninsula is clearly visible, with the Dome as its centerpiece, fed by river ferries and cable cars. Heading North on the approach to Heathrow, along the River Lea and over the impressive Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and on to Wembley, before looping back to look at Greenwich once more before descending to the vast concrete surface that makes up Heathrow, I cannot help but be amazed and more than a little staggered by humanity’s impact on the surface of the planet.