The Crystal
The building is situated next to the redeveloped Royal Victoria Dock in Canning Town. The northern terminus of the London cable car, and Royal Victoria station, the Docklands Light Railway and Custom House railway station on the Elizabeth line are within walking distance. It is close to London City Airport.
History
Exhibition and conference centre
The Crystal was built as a key part of the Green Enterprise District policy of the London Development Agency.
The building 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. Event Communications were the exhibition designers, responsible for the interpretive planning, exhibition design and creative direction, graphic design, media direction and construction management for the exhibition spaces. 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 and BREEAM.
When it opened, the Crystal contained a permanent exhibition about sustainable development, and was owned and operated by Siemens. In 2016, Siemens sold the building to the GLA, who acquired it to use as a base for the Mayor of London's £3.5bn project to regenerate the Royal Docks. After Siemens vacated the building in 2019, it was used by the Royal Docks regeneration team but large parts of the building remained empty.
City Hall
In June 2020, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced that he was consulting on relocating the headquarters of the GLA from City Hall in Southwark to The Crystal in order to save £55 million for the GLA over the course of five years. The decision was confirmed on 3 November 2020; Newham Borough Council gave permission for a change of use for the building in December 2020. The move was completed in the third week of January 2022, delayed from the previous planned opening date in December 2021. The building was renamed "City Hall" in December 2021.
Architecture
The entire site is 18,000 square metres (190,000 sq ft) 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.
The building contains a number of sustainable technologies, including 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.
Gallery
-
Close up of the building
-
Aerial view
-
View from the London cable car
-
Glass panels
See also
- Parliament Buildings (Northern Ireland)
- Scottish Parliament Building
- Palace of Westminster
- Senedd building
References
- ^ "Contacting City Hall and the Mayor". London City Hall. 22 May 2018.
- ^ "Case Study: The Crystal, London". ISG Contractors. Archived from the original on 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- ^ "Mayor to consult on relocating City Hall to protect services". London City Hall. 24 June 2020.
- ^ "London Assembly moves into new Royal Docks headquarters". BBC News. 22 March 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
- ^ "About The Crystal". 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012.
- ^ "Green Enterprise District: East London" (PDF). London Development Agency. 1 May 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
- ^ "The Crystal: A Sustainable Cities Initiative by Siemens". Event Communications. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
- ^ "Press". press.siemens.com. Siemens.
- ^ "GreenBook Live". greenbooklive.com.
- ^ "City Hall to relocate from central London to the East End". BBC. 3 November 2020.
- ^ King, Jonathan (11 December 2020). "City Hall move to The Crystal given thumbs-up". Newham Recorder.
- ^ Lydall, Ross (24 November 2021). "Sadiq Khan's plans to move City Hall to east London delayed". www.standard.co.uk.
- ^ "Khan approves GLA move from Foster's City Hall to WilkinsonEyre's Crystal". 4 November 2020.
- ^ "The Crystal by Townshend Landscape Architects « Landscape Architecture Platform | Landezine".
- ^ "Case Study: The Crystal – A Siemens Sustainable Cities Initiative Featuring KNX – KNXtoday".