Dodgy developments deserve the wrecking ball

It used to be that an ‘artist’s impression’ of a proposed building development was just that; an architectural drawing designed to give planners an idea of what to expect. Then along came CGI and a new era of photorealistic visualisations. On the surface, these glossy new artist’s impressions are anything but impressionistic. Indeed the renderings are so lifelike it’s virtually impossible to tell if they are actual photographs. Ironically, as we are now discovering with AI, hyperrealism is rarely as real as it purports to be.

Last week, it was ordered that the second phase of Mast Quay, a set of tower blocks in Woolwich, southeast London, should be demolished. Greenwich Council put out a comparison picture, one showing the CGI of the proposed development and the other showing what it looks like now it’s been built.