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Urban Design8 November 2025

The ground floor decides everything

By Aarav Shetty

A tower is judged from across the river once. Its ground floor is judged by a thousand people a day.

Renders are made at eye level from three hundred metres away. Cities are experienced at eye level from three metres away.

We hold every project to a ground-plane test: can you see in, can you get in, is there shade, is there somewhere to sit that nobody has to buy?

Projects that pass that test age well regardless of what happens above. Projects that fail it are never rescued by the skyline.

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