Greenest Building In The UK

A FIRM of Welsh architects has designed the greenest building in the UK, according to an article featured on ic Wales. The £5.5m Innovate Property office on the outskirts of Leeds, was designed by Cardiff-based Rio architects, with King Shaw Associates as environmental engineer, and has the highest-ever BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) rating.

The building produces the same amount of carbon dioxide in a year as 16 houses, a conventional office building produces the same amount of CO² as 75 domestic houses a year.

Richard Roberts, director of Rio, said, “The challenge for the design team on this project was to prototype an energy efficient building that would stand up to the scrutiny of the institutional funding markets....We have successfully avoided the need for expensive and inefficient ‘green jewellery’ or ‘green bling’, such as photovoltaic panels and wind turbines, which we feel are too often used to badge so-called sustainable buildings."

The building, in Thorpe Park, Leeds, took five years to design and also boasts a green roof, rainwater toilets and uses recycled mobile phone panels, 100% recycled aggregate and 65% to 80% recycled cement replacement. No rainwater flows into the mains sewers.

The building is being evaluated by Innovate Property and monitored by the University of Leeds for two years. The design concept could serve as a model for other commercial building projects in the future.

Iceland president Olafur Grimmson, who officially opened the building last month, said, “It carries the message to the rest of the world that from now on there is no longer an excuse not to design sustainably.”