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Ian Bogle of BFLS designed the Strata Skyscraper, meant to revive London’s downtrodden at Elephant and Castle. It is similar to the Discovery Tower Houston with an array of wind turbines crowning the top. But this tower has more expression in the turbines and air passage around it. Other sustainable features aren’t so apparent, such as daylighting. The amount of energy generated by these turbines is negligible (I doubt it will make 8% of the energy needs as they claim), and the edifice has a more aerodynamic form. So it is effectively just a billboard statement about a certain sustainable energy.
Well that would be okay! But it looks ugly. Quite a blow to environmentalism in architecture! Hopefully this is just a growing pain. The billboard statement was not successfully fused with other humanistic requirements of all residential architecture. The result is a horrid machine. When will we find cultural relevance for sustainable buildings? Maybe this kind of connection to natural energy is just too primitive. Maybe London is cursed. Or maybe the sheer irrelevance of three small turbines atop a 43 storey building is just too obvious. |
(supermoving– flickr/creative commons license)
(louisathomson– flickr/creative commons license)
(themostinept– flickr/creative commons license)
(Dave Catchpole– flickr/creative commons license)
(featured image by Dave Catchpole on flickr/creative commons)
