Looking like it’s sprouted from the set of Bladerunner is London’s newest high-rise apartment block, the ‘Razor.’
The 148 metre-tall high-tech tower will feature built in wind turbines – a world first – and they’re expected to generate 50MWh annually, adding up to 8% of the building’s electricity needs.
Standing next to the grim Elephant and Castle roundabout and the decidedly dodgy Heygate estate in sarf Landahn, it’s an unlikely location for such an innovative building, which is officially called the Strata tower.
The three 9m-diameter, five bladed turbines will be installed 42 storeys up at the top of the tower next month, and are capable of 35mph gusts, courtesy of what’s known as the ‘Venturi effect.’ This (apparently) sucks in air in from many angles and accelerates it through the tubes.
The design has been described as ‘Marmite architecture’ by Justin Black, director for the developers, Brookfield:
“The brief we gave to Hamilton’s Architects was we wanted a statement, we wanted to create benchmarks for sustainability and urban living. We wanted something bold, we wanted remarkable. It’s what I term Marmite architecture – you either love it or you hate it, there’s no in between.”
Costing a cool £113m and targeted at the well-heeled (the 408 apartments start at £230,000 and soar upwards to a gor-blimey £2.5m each), the tower is part of a £1.5bn project to regenerate the Elephant and Castle area.
We’ve been watching the tower’s construction from our office and rather like the look of the thing – at least it’s got a touch of pizazz about it.
London major “Bumbling” Boris Johnson is expected to open the building on 1 July, if all goes to plan.
Update: more photos on our site site, urban75.
[Via] [Skyscraper News]
I can see that out of my kitchen window…it’s been reminding me of the Eye of Sauron..
I was ‘admiring’ this with my girlfriend this weekend, and have been following it’s progress on the sarth London skyline. I hate it. The cladding looks cheap and whether you look at it from the north or south, the sculpted/slanted top looks like too many London buildings being erected now – thinking of one on the north side of the Blackwall tunnel.
Oh dear – the Londonist is reporting that the turbines might have to be turned off at night because the toffs in the penthouses at the top are going to complain about the noise.
http://londonist.com/2010/03/noise_fears_could_stall_strata_turb.php
I saw this for the first time today. Viewed from the train on the London-Brighton line it looks absolutely stunning. A lot of today’s designs are pretentious and for their own sake, but hats off to these guys. Shame they’ll miss out on nocturnal wind power though if the previous post is correct.
Bladerunner…