The Palace of Westminster and the Bank of England have been exposed as among the UK's least energy efficient public buildings by a new law to measure carbon dioxide emissions from the national estate. New buildings also fared badly, raising questions about the validity of sustainability claims made by architects and developers. Daniel Libeskind's 2002 Imperial War Museum North in Manchester scored a G, the same as its sister museum in London, completed in 1815. The Guardian | Gallery
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we need to do this in the US of A.... i'm sure the white house, congress, and most of washington DC are G's. Then the fed would have to do something about it!
Wow, london city hall got an E grade, that is embarrassing. It probably has more to do with the building occupants and how the buildings are used than anything else though. If I left my lights on and my AC running 24/7 my energy intake would be insane too.
The GLA building was built by private developers for the London Authority and in exchange the developers got to build a massive amount of sqm of office space in the site directly behind it (also by Foster and Partners).
It is understood that the GLA bulding is the environmentally progressive design and unfortunately the buildings behind being driven by commercial priorities are not. So after seeing the E rating of the GLA I dont even want to imagine the rating of the the rest of the development.
On the other hand this image might show the task of the challenge that is to significantly improve the energy efficiency of contemporary buildings, specially when fully glazed. And sadly in the city of London facade design seems to be in the hands of real estate agents (who invariably demand glass or else...) rather than those of the architects.
i hope that there is some attention given to the impact of building users on their performance. operable windows don't work if closed, occupancy sensors for lights don't work if overridden, and mechanical systems don't save energy if people bring in their own under-desk heaters. i wonder if the egg, for instance, has someone charged with watching over energy management?
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