Another Green Roof for London

London is getting another green roof on top of a sustainable building! The 21,370 square meter new office building was designed by UK-based Fletcher Priest for Monteverde Group.

The building is designed to use a staggered step design, creating two separate green roofs on the structure. Additionally, the upper green roof will be private, while the lower green roof will be public.

Protect your vehicle this winter with WeatherTech^® DigitalFit^TM FloorLiners^TM from MacNeil Automotive.

Designers chose green roofs to double the public use space as well as to provide additional views of the surrounding buildings.

World Interior Design Network and World Architectural News ran similar stories commenting upon the structure and its design. WIDN also reports:

"The design reuses and adapts the existing below ground structure. This means about 50% of the existing building will be reused. The spare structural capacity and the embodied energy of the existing structure are not wasted, resulting in savings with reduced risks and less disturbance during ground works."

Additionally, recycled green glass will be used in the windows, reducing energy consumption by 40%.

Grow indoors

London is becoming a home of environmentally friendly, sustainable buildings with green roofs. Although projects such as the Battersea Power Station development have floundered due to the poor economic conditions of 2008-09, London has pioneered green roofed bus shelters (which San Francisco followed), and other green projects.

London's Battersea Power Station Green Roof

London is full of iconic architecture, such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Battersea Power Station. However, none of them have green roofs, at least not yet.

Built in the 1930s, Battersea provided electricity to the city, but also tons of smog. However, Rafael Viñoly, the chosen designer, has offered his latest in design to convert the landmark into usable real estate, with large green roofs! FREE SHIPPING on orders over $50.00 at InhabitLiving.com

Sadly, this project has been marred by an original designed deemed grandiose, and now critics highlight a variety of, well, criticisms.

From Niki May Young at World Architecture News.com:

"He (Brian Barnes, noted artist and community campaigner) has, some might say, a purist belief in the Station’s community worth, and while he sees the latest designs as progress, there are many elements that he insists are not necessary. “They’ve gone back to the park view from before that mad dome thing which we called the dyson, you know it looked like it was going to hoover everything up..."

Other critics, such as one found at Londonist.com, have this to say:

"An underwhelming effort, then, but just another notch in the chimney-stack of pie-eyed ideas for the site. Over 25 years since it breathed its last fumes into the London fog, Battersea Power Station remains a blot in the copybook of countless developers and architects, and as yet another scheme is run through and rejected, the building's gradual decomposition will continue."

While I haven't followed the obvious ups and downs of the project, it is clear to me that it has been quite bumpy. However, what is clear is that Battersea and the surrounding neighborhood could use a boost in terms of commerce, architecture and green space. While purists are never satisfied, a nice helping a green roof should mollify most critics, I hope. Indoor gardens