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 and operated by Siemens. It is part of the Green Enterprise District policy that covers much of East London. Using solar power and ground source heat pumps to generate its own energy, it has set a high benchmark for sustainability.

The Crystal
A sustainable Cities initiative by Siemens
General information
StatusComplete
Architectural styleNeo-futurism
LocationOne Siemens Brothers Way, Royal Victoria Dock, London, E16 1GB, U.K.
Coordinates51.507021°N 0.014431438°E / 51.507021; 0.014431438
Construction startedMarch 2011[1]
CompletedJuly 2012[1]
OpeningSeptember 2012
Cost£30 million[1]
OwnerSiemens[1]
Technical details
Floor area7,002m² (75,368sqft)[1]
Design and construction
ArchitectWilkinsonEyre[1]
Structural engineerArup Group[1]
Services engineerArup Group[1]
Main contractorISG[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.[3] 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[4] and BREEAM.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7]

Potential 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 has announced he is consulting to relocating the headquarters of the Greater London Authority from City Hall to The Crystal.[8]

  • By Royal Docks
  • Aerial view
  • View from Emirates Cable car
  • Glass panels

References
  1. "Case Study: The Crystal, London". ISG Contractors. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  2. "About The Crystal". 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-09-16.
  3. "The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens | Work | Event Communications". www.eventcomm.com.
  4. "Press". press.siemens.com.
  5. "GreenBook Live". www.greenbooklive.com.
  6. "The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine".
  7. "Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday".
  8. "Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services". London City Hall. June 24, 2020.
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