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Strata (building)
Encyclopedia
Strata SE1 is a 148-metre, 43 storey, 408 flat skyscraper at Elephant and Castle
in the London Borough of Southwark
in London
, England. Designed by BFLS (formerly Hamiltons), it is one of the tallest residential buildings in London and will be home to more than 1,000 residents.
.
Each floor of the affordable area comprises 10 flats (equally divided between one and two-bedroom flats), while the floors above the 10th floor contain a mixture of studios (40), one-bedroom flats (149), two-bedroom flats (101) and three-bedroom flats (20) to a total of 310 units.
Only the open-market flats have access to car-parking (in the basement of the building). The 39th floor features a "Sky Lobby" (a small corridor with a view over central London), while the living area is topped by a £2.5m three-bedroom duplex penthouse. The ground floor comprises two commercial units. A third one is located in the Pavilion, along with a "kiosk". Currently both Costa Coffee
and Crussh are showing interest in the retail units.
The building has its own intranet site, named "inhabit".
The one-level basement of the building contains a secure car park and 437 bicycle storage places.
The current tower was first proposed in 2005; construction began in 2007 and was completed in June 2010. The cost is estimated at £113.5 million. The building was 'topped out' in June 2009. The turbines were installed in May 2010.
During the demolition of Castle House to clear land for Strata, a construction worker, John Walker, 33, was killed when a roof collapsed on him. He was employed by 777 Demolition and Haulage Company Ltd, which was served with a Prohibition Notice by the Health & Safety Executive. An inquest was due to be held at Inner London South Coroner's Court.
The building exceeds by 13% the current UK regulations relating to sustainability, whilst overall carbon emissions are expected to be 15% lower than the Mayor of London's good practice benchmark. The developers claim that the building will achieve 2050 CO2 target emissions and that (with the Multi-Utility Services Company in place in the area) it will achieve a predicted 73.5% reduction in CO2 emissions when measured against the Building Regulations benchmark.
Featured on-site is a combined heat and power system
to provide sustainable power generation, with a provision for the collection of rainwater for re-use
. The energy costs per flat are envisaged to be up to 40% less than Britain's typical housing average. The building is clad in a "bespoke high thermal performing facade" with an air permeability leakage rate that is apparently 50% better than current building regulations.
. The yearly award, organized by Building Design
magazine, selects one building from a shortlist of 30, nominated by readers.
On 12 November of the same year, however, the building won the prestigious 2010 Concrete Society Awards, beating schemes from David Chipperfield
, Hopkins Architects
, Caruso St John
, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) and Alsop Architects
. The judges commented: "This building is striking architecturally, a considerable feat of construction on this restricted site…". They particularly singled out Strata’s "innovative column strategy".
In May 2011, the building won the ICE
London Civil Engineering Awards 2011 for infrastructure and building projects. The award "celebrates outstanding engineering achievement by companies, organisations, and individuals in the capital".
Elephant and Castle
The Elephant and Castle is a major road intersection in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is also used as a name for the surrounding area....
in the London Borough of Southwark
London Borough of Southwark
The London Borough of Southwark is a London borough in south east London, England. It is directly south of the River Thames and the City of London, and forms part of Inner London.-History:...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England. Designed by BFLS (formerly Hamiltons), it is one of the tallest residential buildings in London and will be home to more than 1,000 residents.
The building
25% of the building's flats have been sold by Family Mosaic Housing Association for shared-ownership sale. These consist of the "Esprit Apartments" — located on floors 2–10 of the tower — and a further nine flats in the adjacent "Pavilion", a three-storey structure located to the west of the tower and ear-marked for former residents of the nearby Heygate EstateHeygate Estate
The Heygate Estate is a large housing estate located in Walworth, Southwark, south London. The estate is currently under demolition.Heygate is one of the most high-profile estates in the United Kingdom, due to its notoriety and usage as a filming location...
.
Each floor of the affordable area comprises 10 flats (equally divided between one and two-bedroom flats), while the floors above the 10th floor contain a mixture of studios (40), one-bedroom flats (149), two-bedroom flats (101) and three-bedroom flats (20) to a total of 310 units.
Only the open-market flats have access to car-parking (in the basement of the building). The 39th floor features a "Sky Lobby" (a small corridor with a view over central London), while the living area is topped by a £2.5m three-bedroom duplex penthouse. The ground floor comprises two commercial units. A third one is located in the Pavilion, along with a "kiosk". Currently both Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee
Costa Coffee is a British coffeehouse company founded in 1971 by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa, as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Since 1995 it has been a subsidiary of Whitbread, since when the company has grown to over...
and Crussh are showing interest in the retail units.
The building has its own intranet site, named "inhabit".
The one-level basement of the building contains a secure car park and 437 bicycle storage places.
Construction
Strata SE1 is located on the site of Castle House, an early 1960s six-storey office building, which was the first commercial premises at the newly rebuilt Elephant and Castle. When completed, Castle House was warmly received. The Architects’ Journal in August 1962 found "little to criticise and much to praise and until New Zealand House is completed it is possibly one of the best examples for anyone wanting to look at a good office block in London."The current tower was first proposed in 2005; construction began in 2007 and was completed in June 2010. The cost is estimated at £113.5 million. The building was 'topped out' in June 2009. The turbines were installed in May 2010.
During the demolition of Castle House to clear land for Strata, a construction worker, John Walker, 33, was killed when a roof collapsed on him. He was employed by 777 Demolition and Haulage Company Ltd, which was served with a Prohibition Notice by the Health & Safety Executive. An inquest was due to be held at Inner London South Coroner's Court.
Sustainability
Strata SE1 is one of the first buildings in the world to incorporate wind turbines within its structure. The three nine-metre wind turbines at the top of the building are rated at 19 kW each and are anticipated to produce 50MWh of electricity per year. They are expected to generate sufficient energy to provide power for the common areas of the building (8% of the energy needs of the building), although questions about their real efficiency will remain unanswered until the completion of two years of comprehensive wind data analysis.The building exceeds by 13% the current UK regulations relating to sustainability, whilst overall carbon emissions are expected to be 15% lower than the Mayor of London's good practice benchmark. The developers claim that the building will achieve 2050 CO2 target emissions and that (with the Multi-Utility Services Company in place in the area) it will achieve a predicted 73.5% reduction in CO2 emissions when measured against the Building Regulations benchmark.
Featured on-site is a combined heat and power system
Cogeneration
Cogeneration is the use of a heat engine or a power station to simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat....
to provide sustainable power generation, with a provision for the collection of rainwater for re-use
Rainwater harvesting
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses and local institutions can...
. The energy costs per flat are envisaged to be up to 40% less than Britain's typical housing average. The building is clad in a "bespoke high thermal performing facade" with an air permeability leakage rate that is apparently 50% better than current building regulations.
Awards
In August 2010, Strata SE1 was awarded the 2010 Carbuncle CupCarbuncle Cup
The Carbuncle Cup is an architecture prize, given annually by the magazine Building Design to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". The award was based on an idea created by the Scottish architecture magazine Prospect, which has run the Carbuncle Awards since...
. The yearly award, organized by Building Design
Building Design
Building Design is one of the leading architectural magazines in the United Kingdom.According to ABC , the magazine's circulation for the year ending June 2008 was 22,848. The publishing company is UBM Built Environment, a division of United Business Media, which also publishes Building and...
magazine, selects one building from a shortlist of 30, nominated by readers.
On 12 November of the same year, however, the building won the prestigious 2010 Concrete Society Awards, beating schemes from David Chipperfield
David Chipperfield
Sir David Alan Chipperfield CBE, RA, RDI, RIBA is a British architect, born in London. He has offices in London, Berlin and Milan, and a representative office in Shanghai...
, Hopkins Architects
Hopkins Architects
Hopkins Architects Partnership LLP is a prominent British architectural firm established in 1976 by Sir Michael and Lady Patricia Hopkins. The practice has won many awards for its work and has twice been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize, including in 2011 for the 2012 London Velodrome and in...
, Caruso St John
Caruso St John
Caruso St John is an architectural firm established in 1990 by Adam Caruso and Peter St John.They have gained an international reputation for excellence in designing contemporary projects in the public realm. The practice came to public attention with the New Art Gallery in Walsall, a commission...
, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) and Alsop Architects
Will Alsop
Will Allen Alsop, OBE RA is a British architect based in London. He is responsible for several distinctive and controversial modernist buildings, most in the United Kingdom. Alsop's buildings are usually distinguished by their use of bright colour and unusual forms...
. The judges commented: "This building is striking architecturally, a considerable feat of construction on this restricted site…". They particularly singled out Strata’s "innovative column strategy".
In May 2011, the building won the ICE
Institution of Civil Engineers
Founded on 2 January 1818, the Institution of Civil Engineers is an independent professional association, based in central London, representing civil engineering. Like its early membership, the majority of its current members are British engineers, but it also has members in more than 150...
London Civil Engineering Awards 2011 for infrastructure and building projects. The award "celebrates outstanding engineering achievement by companies, organisations, and individuals in the capital".
Articles
- Brookfield's Elephant & Castle tower takes shape, Building.co.uk, 8 March 2010.
- The Strata 'Razor' tower: the cutting-edge of eco-construction, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 15 March 2010 (10 pictures). - In Pictures: Strata Tower, Residential Skyscraper At Elephant And Castle, Londonist, 18 March 2010.
- Strata tower: Southwark’s sore thumb, Building.co.uk, 9 April 2010.
- Don’t Look Down When Strata Tower Opens With Best London Views, Business Week, 13 April 2010.
- Nestled among ghost homes, Business DayBusiness DayBusiness Day can refer to:*Business day, a period of time*Business Day *Business Day *Business Day...
, 16 April 2010. - The high life in Elephant & Castle, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 19 May 2010. - Tower to the people in Elephant and Castle, Evening StandardEvening StandardThe Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
Homes&Property, 26 May 2010. - Wind-powered high-rise living?, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2010.
External links
- Strata London official website
- @StrataSE1 — official TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
stream (unused) - BFLS London — BFLS website
- Strata SE1 — official FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
photostream - Main plans of planning application — 27 June 2005
- Approval of planning application for cycle storage — 17 September 2007
- Strata building @ Skyscraper News.com