industrial buildings special report
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‘As well as the tree-planting and ponds on the new estate is a 3/4 acre wild flower meadow, which will get up to full impact in a couple of years’ time’
An unlikely attraction
Visitors to the plant, who consist mainly of school children, but include curious adults among them, are handsomely rewarded for their efforts. The visitor’s centre, designed by Cutty Sark Visitors’
Centre-designing practice, DesignMap, has already welcomed 2,000 through the doors, possibly keen to learn about EfW and recycling and to play games that put them in charge of matching a supply of electricity to demand, sure. But I expect most want to go on a tour of the plant, right through the centre, and look right down into the flames of the boiler through a special viewing door. With regard to its sustainability accreditation, the team is
waiting for approval of its BREAAM Excellent rating. However, its architectural design quality is not in doubt. In 2010, design watchdog, CABE stated: “"We commend
the client for demonstrating their commitment to high quality design in industrial architecture in the scheme presented. The design team's approach to site organisation and built form is exemplary, not least in its effort to ensure the development is specific to its brief and its context. “We welcome the discipline and honesty in the approach to the form, massing and expression of this facility. The design is
both unique to the brief and specific to the place. We welcome the efforts to express the functionality of the building and give a sense of the processes within.” A beautiful industrial building? An environmentally
friendly energy plant? A power station popular with visitors? The project proves that industrial buildings can, indeed, be
memorable and that people want to see (and read about) what goes on inside them.
Planning applied for: 2008 Facility opened: December 2014 Capacity: 269,000 tonnes of waste a year from Suffolk households and some businesses Architect: GRIMSHAW Cost of the building: £180 million Main contractor:CNIM/Lagan Visitor centre designer: DesignMap
BUILDING PROJECTS
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