City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority (GLA), which comprises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The building has an unusual, bulbous shape, purportedly intended to reduce its surface area and thus improve energy efficiency.
The building is located on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms part of a larger development called More London, which includes offices and shops. City Hall was constructed at a cost of £65 million.
The building has been compared variously to Darth Vader’s helmet, a misshapen egg, and a woodlouse. Its designers reportedly saw the building as a giant sphere hanging over the Thames, but opted for a more conventionally rooted building instead. It has no front or back in conventional terms but derives its shape from a modified sphere.
A 500-metre helical walkway, reminiscent of that in New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, ascends the full height of the building. At the top of the ten-storey building is an exhibition and meeting space called ‘London’s Living Room’, with an open viewing deck, which is occasionally open to the public. The walkway provides views of the interior of the building, and is intended to symbolise transparency; a similar device was used by Foster in his design for the rebuilt Reichstag (parliament) in Germany. In 2006 it was announced that solar photovoltaic cells would be fitted to the building by the London Climate Change Agency.
The building is located on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Southwark. It forms part of a larger development called More London, including offices and shops. Next to City Hall is a sunken amphitheatre called The Scoop, which is used in the summer months for open-air performances; it is not, however, part of the GLA’s jurisdiction.