Eco Factor: Sustainable building harvests solar energy.
Kieran Timberlake has been announced as the winner of the Embassy of the U.S. London Design Competition for their entry that was stated to have “most fully satisfied the requirements outlined in the design competition’s mission statement. The concept holds the greatest potential for developing a truly iconic embassy and is on the leading edge of sustainable design.”
The new embassy will feature internal gardens that continue vertically within the new embassy as the spiral continues upward. These gardens provide places to meet and additional vertical circulation. Large glass windows allow the interiors to be illuminated sustainably with natural light.
The design has been optimized to shade interiors from east, west and south sun while admitting daylight and framing large open view portals to the outside. Thin film photovoltaic panels are positioned in the building’s ethylene-tetrafluroethylene foils. The total array of crystalline and thin-film photovoltaic panels on the building measures 8300 square meters and produces up to 345,000 KWh of renewable energy.
