‘Misleading data’ used to justify Barbican demolition plans

Plans to demolish part of the Barbican Estate to make way for two new office blocks are based on misleading data, a residents group has claimed.

The proposal by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson to demolish the current home of the Museum of London and Bastion House office block met fierce resistance from Barbican residents when it was first announced last year.

In May the City of London, which owns the Barbican Estate and is leading redevelopment plans, published a whole-life carbon assessment for the development which concluded 'that retaining the existing buildings is not appropriate in this instance’.

It added that the new buildings ‘would perform 10% better’ in terms of CO2 emmissions per square metre per year.

However, independent structural and whole-life carbon reports commissioned by Barbican Quarter Action claim the City of London’s assessment ‘used misleading data’ to ‘wrongly dismiss options to retain and retrofit existing structures’.

The residents group report also questions the original report's concerns about the structural challenges of retrofitting Bastion House.

A planning application has yet to be submitted for the new office blocks proposal.