The Crystal
The Crystal is a building on Royal Victoria Dock in east London that contains a permanent exhibition about sustainable development.[2] It is owned by the Greater London Authority[3] and operated by Siemens. It is part of the Green Enterprise District policy that covers much of East London.
The Crystal | |
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![]() A sustainable Cities initiative by Siemens | |
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General information | |
Status | Complete |
Architectural style | Neo-futurism |
Location | One Siemens Brothers Way, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1GB, U.K. |
Coordinates | 51.507021°N 0.014431438°E |
Construction started | March 2011[1] |
Completed | July 2012[1] |
Opening | September 2012 |
Cost | £30 million[1] |
Owner | Greater London Authority[1] |
Technical details | |
Floor area | 7,002m² (75,368sqft)[1] |
Design and construction | |
Architect | WilkinsonEyre[1] |
Structural engineer | Arup Group[1] |
Services engineer | Arup Group[1] |
Main contractor | ISG[1] |
Website | |
Venue Website |
Design
The Crystal was designed by Perkins+Will (fit-out, design leader) and Wilkinson Eyre Architects (shell and core), with Arup Group who were the building and civil engineers, and Townshend Landscape Architects who designed the public realm.[1] Event Communications were the Exhibition Designers,[1] responsible for the interpretive planning, exhibition design and creative direction, graphic design, media direction and construction management for the exhibition spaces.[4] The building was the first to achieve the highest sustainable building accolades, platinum and outstanding respectively, from the world's two leading accreditation bodies, LEED[5] and BREEAM.[6]
Public realm
The entire site is 18,000 square metres in size and the surrounding landscape was designed to be a sustainable urban landscape to help encourage a shift in the social ideology, making ‘sustainability’ more attractive and allowing people to participate in social activities within the site, which includes local food programmes and community gardens to help foster this principle.[7]
Infrastructure
The building is a showcase for sustainable building technologies. At the heart of this are the building management system and KNX infrastructure. The building control devices, such as lighting, windows, blinds and heating, are connected using the KNX protocol. The building has over 2,500 KNX connected devices.[8]
Greater London Authority usage
In order to save £55M for the Greater London Authority over the course of five years, in June 2020, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the Greater London Authority from City Hall to The Crystal.[3] The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020 with the move due to be completed by 31 December 2021.[9]
Gallery
- By Royal Docks
- Aerial view
- View from Emirates Cable car
- Glass panels
References
- "Case Study: The Crystal, London". ISG Contractors. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- "About The Crystal". 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-09-16.
- "Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services". London City Hall. June 24, 2020.
- "The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens". Event Communications.
- "Press". press.siemens.com. Siemens.
- "GreenBook Live". www.greenbooklive.com.
- "The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine".
- "Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday".
- "City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End". BBC. 3 November 2020.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Crystal. |