When most people visit London they usually stay and explore most of Central and West London- think West End Plays, SoHo and Hyde Park. Historically, West London has been significantly wealthier than its East End Counterpart with the Royal Family living in Kensington Palace. In recent decades the historic East End and Docklands area has been home to major revitalization and investment in upgrades to the area. The Crystal is one such building that has contributed to the revitalization of the Royal Docklands area.
The Crystal was completed in September 2012 having been designed as an interactive public exhibition showcasing sustainability innovations and visitor attractions to draw more people out to the Royal Docklands area. Within the building is a state of the art conference center with seating up to 270 people and allows for tours of the exhibition center for students in primary school all the way up to professionals in the industry. Overall the building cost £30 million and was initiated by Siemens in their Sustainable Cities initiative.
Within the sustainability initiatives that the building underwent it aimed for top scores of international green building standards such as LEED and BREEAM. The Crystal was able to achieve a LEED Platinum certification and has innovative building techniques such as ground source heat pumps that supply virtually all the buildings heating and most of its cooling. According to the USGBC website: “There are 199 pipes at The Crystal totaling 17 kilometers in length and reaching as deep as 15 meters. By using 100% natural heat sources, the Crystal has no heating bill.” The ability to mitigate a heating bill is quite impressive as the UK winters can be dark and damp that lead to an increased need for heating.
One of the most impressive parts of this buildings is the access to natural light that the building provides with almost every space receiving natural light decreasing the amount of artificial light needed. The benefit of this especially in London is that with the short, dark days in winter it is able to mitigate the amount of electricity needed during the day. In an effort to be as sustainable as possible The Crystal uses a lighting system comprised of 65% fluorescent lights and 35% LED lights that are monitored by a control system engineered by Siemens that adjusts individual lamps to provide comfortable brightness without wasting electricity. Siemens worked on The Crystal’s Building Energy Management System on order to control all electrical and mechanical systems to provide over 3,500 data points.
The sustainability technology for The Crystal goes beyond building certification, heating and lighting but cutting edge ventilation and water harvesting systems built into the building to ensure that nothing is wasted. According to Green Building Magazine: “Rainwater is harvested and used as drinking water and a black water recycling plant will reuse100% of the water used in the building (including toilet flushing) to re-flush toilers and for watering the landscaping around the building”. Using rainwater harvesting for drinking water along with proper filtration systems in the building helps to decrease the reliance on traditional utilities and allows buildings like the Crystal to innovate different technologies to further research and development technologies. Blackwater contains solids such as toilet paper as opposed to grey water that has soap or washing powers is significantly more difficult to treat as you have to take out the undesirable solids out of the water in order to make the water potable.
Landscaping around The Crystal is also something that the architects have taken into account regarding the overall sustainability of the building. “An ecological corridor or linear strip of vegetation provides a strong buffer along the viaduct of the adjacent Silver Town Way” (Green Building + Architecture, 2012). This vegetation helps local species be able to pollinate the area and have a way to withstand the weather conditions of the UK while being able to withstand drought conditions as well.
The Crystal is an example of how buildings can find solutions to make buildings, cities and countries more sustainable. While this building is on the cutting edge of technology for the 21st century other buildings and companies can use the technology that is in The Crystal as a means for an example going forward.
Interested In Learning More?
Green Building Magazine: https://gbplusamag.com/the-crystal/
USGBC Lookbook: https://leed.usgbc.org/the-crystal