Metrospective Will Alsop

The mayor of London’s advisers on climate change have revealed ambitious plans to retrofit Will Alsop’s Palestra office building to make it the most environmentally advanced in the country.

Allan Jones, head of the London Climate Change Agency, said it hopes to equip the building, under construction in Southwark, with the first combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the capital, in addition to the photovoltaic panels and 14 wind turbines already planned.
The agency and the Mayor’s business arm the London Development Agency are set to move into the building, and the mayor aims to make it one of three exemplar projects for the capital alongside City Hall and the refurbished London Transport Museum.
He has wider plans to use CHP across a range of London developments under a new venture between the London Climate Change Agency and energy giant EDF (News March 10).
“We are carrying out a feasibility study to incorporate a fuel-cell CHP station,” said Jones. “This would be the first CHP plant in London. It is really about the mayor wanting to send a signal out. With the position of the London Development Agency on climate change, we cannot expect others to do something we do not do ourselves. We have planning permission for the photovoltaics and planning for the wind turbines is being considered. By adding CHP, I doubt very much there would be anywhere in the UK that could match Palestra [in low-carbon terms].”
Speaking from Singapore, Alsop said he was delighted by the retro-fit. “We set out to do a very efficient building,” he added.
But leading sustainability architect Bill Dunster questioned the Climate Change Agency’s strategy. “We have all got to show how we can do low-carbon on existing buildings so it’s as good a start as any,” he said. “But air-conditioned glass boxes do not seem a blindingly obvious start for a low-carbon demonstration project.”

by Will Hurst

(Txt and pic courtesy of www.bdonline.co.uk )