Building the future
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By Daniel Nelson
London will be dotted with Beacons 40-metre-high Y-shaped wind turbines if Julia Barfield and David Marks get their way. Unlikely? Yes but remember that Barfield and Marks are the husband and wife team who designed the London Eye and persevered with the idea after its initial outright rejection. Most wind turbines are being planned in remote locations without any existing infrastructure, they say. This isnt efficient as 30 percent to 50 percent of energy gets lost through transmission. We believe cities like London should take much greater responsibility for their own energy generation. Co-designer Robert Webb, who heads XCO2, agrees: Within 50 years we will be living in a world which is 90 percent powered by renewable energy, with no sacrifice to quality of life. The Beacon is a showcase and a celebration of this revolution and is designed to bring the debate on wind generation directly into the cities. The proposal is one of 68 schemes featured in Sustainable London, an exhibition at the Building Centre in Londons Store Street. Its an odd display, probably because its aimed both at the public and industry, and so pleases neither. Most of the projects are new buildings, offering varying degrees of greenness, which excludes the most urgent need making existing buildings ecofriendlier. Even if the present is a lost cause, however, the future is all to play for, and, thank goodness, some architects and engineers are thinking about it. So is one politician London Mayor Ken Livingstone whose current incarnation will be remembered for climate change commitment as his first was remembered for black Lesbian socialist cooperatives and who has asked the London Development Agency to promote zero carbon development to show that it is technically and commercially viable. The first result of the policy is Gallions Park, 233 homes at the east end of the Royal Albert Dock, for which electricity and hot water for heating will be generated onsite by a wood-fuelled combined heat and power plant. The people, and the dog, in the accompanying drawing look happy with it. Other interesting schemes include: Brent Cross Cricklewood, which is creating a new town centre. It features planted rooftops, rainwater collection, low water-use fittings, and a recycling facility that will generate fuel Heart of East Greenwich, billed as Londons first major carbon neutral development, though some of the developments an on-site car club will be established belong on a wish list rather than a project outline Adelaide Wharf, Hackney, which will provide 147 residential units, 50 per cent of which are affordable. (Does the writer of the blurb invite friends back for a drink in their residential unit?). It will have a biodiverse brown roof, a centralised heating system, and offsite construction to reduce waste on site. The good news is that the conference organisers estimate that about one-fifth of the schemes in the exhibition have been completed, and about three-fifths will be finished in three-to-four years. They are not the final word in sustainability, but they represent progress. The bad news, apart from the jargon and vagueness ( the scheme will use recycled materials where possible ), is that this is no more than a beginning. It is vital that contractors are brought on board, so that all materials are climate-friendly. Its difficult to imagine significant improvements without legislation. An indication of how far the building industry has to go is given in the Building Centres property of the month, which is displayed on one side of the exhibition but is not part of it. The property, represented by a shiny model, is of Trinity EC3. The label proclaims that it will provide 1 million square feet of office space but says absolutely nothing about insulation, energy use, recycled materials, water conservation, glazing and shading or indeed any element of sustainability. + One of the most interesting aspects of the exhibition is the comment cards left by visitors: Why are the people so small? Boom time for vested interests and hubris. It is a given that London is not a very eco-friendly city. I am wondering why it takes so long to tackle the problem, e.g. continental Europe recycles its waste for about 45 years now All very well but will all count for nowt if everyone continues to drive their nice cars everywhere more trains please Fantastic. Why no bike hoops at the Building Centre. Sustainability begins at home What about the existing buildings? More green spaces please Renewable energy sources are the key What is meant by a zero carbon house? How much carbon is released during building? What does it cost? How long will it last? How pleasant will it be to live in? Impressive buildings, but sustainability is about behaviour change Steel and glass age badly. What heritage for the future? We need a materials-based revolution How about sorting out all those leaky pipes first. And lets stop concreting over our front gardens as well Why this obsession with steel and glass? That we should live more simply That others may simply live. * Sustainable London, Building Centre, Store Street, until 28 April |
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