A conceptual skyscraper proposed by British architect Dave Edwards for the city of London that would produce energy and clean water.
Re-Imagines the tall building not as a singular edifice to one commonly corporate program but as an ecology of different interdependent programs. Layered together in a matrix similar to the conventional city in this manner the urbanism of the city is not left at street level but bought into the sky via informal encounter and diversity of uses and users within the tower. This project is not singular. It proposes the City of London as being re-colonized by people living as well as working within the square mile. The green beacons act as garden squares around which new urban diversity is created, new populations and new economies occur. The centre piece of this program is a reformed Financial Services Authority re-branded to embrace not only the market but also the notion of morality within the financial services industry this public body, is meant as the public watchdog and counterpart to the Bank of England. The tower is sited between the city banks and the Bank of England, at a point of urban confluence but also symbolically positioned in the centre of the city.
The tower is a mixed of programmes loosely knitted together with voids between allowing for public integration of green space into the tower. At the base the civic element of the tower is that of a newly reformed Financial Services Authority II, promoting the notion of legislature re-entering the City of London after the excess of the late 20th century. This public body is fully accessible to the public, becoming an internal public space. Key worker housing fills the upper half of the tower, with retail and community facilities included. A primary school exists between floors 11 and 15, bringing further mix to the uses.
The outer skin is green – this is made up of a number of growing mediums, growing food and ecological plants to bring greenery into the city. This growing medium uses water pumped from the London Underground, with a new entrance to Bank Station placed beneath the FSA II.
The tower is a highly energy-intensive building to build and run. This is partly offset by the low land take (a highly valuable commodity in the UK). The building itself is seen as a living ecology. The algal ‘fields’ covering the facade absorb CO2 and can be harvested for bio-methane for use in the CHP, giving not just the tower but its surrounding structures renewable energy.
The waste biomass can through anaerobic digestion be used to feed the building skin. Waste water from this process and building uses can be sent through the algae, cleaning it for re-use within the building. Surplus heat from the digestion and the Tube beneath can be circulated through the tower in the winter through the floors. Tying this into a Ground Source Heat Pump means excess summer heat can be dumped into the ground.
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