Extra veg
Vauxhall Sky Gardens, London
Scheduled to be built at Vauxhall Cross, Amin Taha Architects’ Sky Gardens lies within the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) newly designated ‘Nine Elms Opportunity Area’ stretching from Lambeth Bridge to Battersea Power Station.
A 130m tower featuring communal ‘sky gardens’, will have 178 residential units and provide approximately 10,000 sq m of office, retail and associated spaces.
Each sky garden will be shared by surrounding apartments, which aims to expand social interaction between residents in the block. The gardens also feature smaller intimate ‘park-bench’ areas, larger green spaces and areas to grow a salad box for every household.
Key to attaining any residential approval in London is the provision of amenity space for residents normally provided in the form of an external balcony or larger roof terraces. Amin Taha Architects worked closely with the Local Authority’s Planning Department, the GLA, English Heritage and the Commission for Architecture in the Built Environment (CABE) to provide a series of significant garden spaces that would be a product of habitable rooms, and allow an increase in density and development ratio.
Fraser Properties intends to develop the £72m tower with a completion date projected for 2012.
One Madison Avenue, New York, USA
Overlooking Madison Square Park, this design from architect Daniel Libeskind features a series of spiraling gardens extending the green of Madison Square along the facade of the tower.
To maintain views and maximise light and air, the tower will be set back from its neighbours. Currently in its early stages, the proposal will soon be entering a public review process.
RICS Oceania HQ, Sydney, Australia
After receiving a Four Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia in 2008, the RICS Oceania head office has now received a Five Star energy efficiency rating from The National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS).
NABERS is a national initiative managed by the New South Wales Government’s Department of Environment and Climate Change, and RICS has joined a very short list in achieving both types of rating.
There are currently 16 Five Star rated office tenancies in Australia. Companies including Jones Lang La Salle, Investa, Cundall, Colliers, Davis Langdon and a handful of others have achieved a Five Star NABERS Office Energy rated tenancy.
Although Green Star and NABERS are different ratings schemes, there is energy modelling within Green Star and the energy category is heavily weighted. RICS Oceania’s desire to achieve Green Star led to a number of energy efficient features that formed the basis for the specification, such as:
• Supplementary air conditioning
• Low power printers
• Computers with power saving settings
• Lighting zones that can be turned off from a central switch, with more efficient light fittings such as innovative LED tubes and downlights.
“This project is an example of what can be done to raise the environmental standard of Australia’s existing buildings,” said Romilly Madew, chief executive of the Green Building Council of Australia.
To read the RICS Business May feature ‘As nature intended’, click here
