Development of the proposed Tulip tourist attraction designed by Foster + Partners has been rejected by the UK government over concerns about embodied carbon and the quality of its design.
A decision letter published today on behalf of UK housing secretary Michael Gove dismissed a planning appeal for the 305-metre tower that was proposed for the City of London calling it a "muddle of architectural ideas".
The minister concluded that the economic, tourism and educational benefits of the Tulip, which was designed by London studio Foster + Partners, were outweighed by the harm it would cause "to the significance of designated heritage assets".
Top: the Tulip was proposed for the City of London. Above: the 305.3-metre tower would have had multiple viewing platforms He argued the Tulip would "seriously detract" from the value of the nearby Tower of London, partly because the Tulip would rise up into the sky directly behind the historic fortress when viewed from Tower Bridge.
Gove felt that the Tulip's design of the bud-shaped tower carried "significant weight" against it.

Read: The Tulip is "inevitably controversial" says Norman Foster as tower approved

"The development would not amount to a design of outstanding quality, and that the quality of design would not be nearly high enough as to negate its harm to the settings of heritage assets," the letter said.
"T...