Skylon could rise again on the South Bank

In June, as part of this year's London Festival of Architecture, a temporary structure – potentially a huge inflatable model – will be built on top of the foundations of the Powell & Moya-designed tower on the South Bank. This could pave the way for a 90m-high permanent replica.
Former RIBA president Jack Pringle, who is masterminding the project and whose company Pringle Brandon owns the original drawings, said: 'Skylon is one of London's lost icons. We hope to stimulate people's imagination to get support for a new structure.'
He added: 'People don't realise how tall and incredibly dramatic Skylon was – and as a pioneering tensile structure, it is also a serious piece of arhcitecture.'
Previous attempts to recreate the mast, including a bid backed by Ian Ritchie in 2004, have all failed. And late last year Rick Mather Architects told the AJ there were no plans to incorporate Skylon into its masterplan for the area.
London Festival of Architecture director Peter Murray believes the plans for a temporary structure could bear fruit for a permanent return for Skylon.
He said: 'Pringle thought the festival would be ideal to give the ideas some prominence and we hope some kind of marker will help with the strategy of realising the scheme by 2012.'

Murray added that Skylon might not be the only iconic London structure to be recreated.
He said: 'We are also looking to run a charrette, bringing together the key stakeholders in and around Euston Station with urban thinkers. Part of that could be looking at the reinstating of the Euston Arch as pushed for by Dan Cruickshank.'

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