Siemens has received the official green light to begin construction on their new sustainability centre development in London's docklands. The new centre, which is scheduled to be open by 2012, will now begin construction before the end of 2010 after receiving approval by Newham Council.
The scheme, which is expected to cost somewhere in the range of thirty million pounds, will create around twenty one and a half thousand square feet of executive office space on the site, which covers seventy five thousand square feet in total and is also expected to include a conference suite and an exhibition hall.
"London is moving east and there is huge potential here for investment, growth and greater prosperity," believes the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales. He is backed up by Chris Brandon, a partner at Pringle Brandon, which is acting as lead interior architect for Wilkinson Eyre Architects. "(This site will be) an iconic visitor attraction and educational facility at the heart of London's Green Enterprise District that showcases and explains technology, looking at how it impacts our lives at the moment and the potential we have to create better and more sustainable living and working environments over the next ten to twenty years," Brandon claims.
As Brandon suggests, the new development will use an environmentally friendly design, together with recycling measures such as ground source heat pumps and rainwater harvesting, and even the construction process itself will also be environmentally responsible. The centre is expected to attract up to a hundred thousand visitors per year.
