new wave of eco-building in hackney

The Olympic organisers and the developers in Broadgate aren’t the only people erecting futuristic buildings in Hackney. The borough is now attracting some of the most innovative architects in London, and they are using wood, straw, recycled materials and wind turbines in their attempts to reduce the local impact on the environment. And Hackney’s school leavers are also about to get the chance to train as pioneers in the new building techniques.

Plastered bales of straw are the main material used in an innovative new building at Hackney City Farm in Goldsmith’s Row, where a training centre designed by the environmental experts Amazonails has recently opened.

“The foundations of the centre are rammed earth tyres, and the bale walls are plastered with lime and clay recycled form the farm’s own pottery,” says Emma Appleton. “The main cross beam of the building is made of greenheart wood, a tropical hardwood reclaimed from the Norfolk sea defences. We also salvaged a teak boat from the 1930s that has been stripped down to make the desks in the room.”

Cath Hassel of Ech20 was the first teacher to use the space, in a workshop on water efficiency for Town Hall staff. “This is the best room I have ever trained in,” she says. “It has warm natural light, and uses natural materials. The interaction between the delegates was really high and I’m convinced the room aided that.”

“This building points the way forward for companies looking for less environmentally damaging forms of creating homes and workspace,” says Patrick Nicholson, a construction specialist at the Hackney Enterprise Network. “The materials for a house built with straw bales cost significantly less than brick and block. The outlay for a family-sized strawbale house in the UK would be about £60,000 plus the price of the land. Plastered strawbale walling has a surprisingly high level of fire resistance, and the UK currently produces 4 million tons of straw a year more than it needs. This is sufficient to build 250,000 well insulated and affordable new homes a year.”

Strawbale building techniques will be demonstrated at this year's Ecobuild show, an annual event dedicated to sustainable forms of design and construction, at Earl's Court from 26-28 February.

Hackney Council recently granted planning permission for a nine-storey tower in Murray Grove in Shoreditch which the architects, Waugh Thistleton, say will be the world’s tallest timber residential building.

The Stadthaus will be constructed using an Austrian solid timber system with wood from sustainable spruce forests, giving the tower – which will only take nine weeks to build – an unusually low carbon footprint. The stair and lift cores, load-bearing walls and even the floor slabs will all be constructed entirely from timber. Demand for the nineteen flats in the tower was extremely high and all the apartments were reserved on a recent launch day.

Waugh Thistleton’s designers are also the brains behind the fourteen storey Kinetica, fifty six apartments and three floors of commercial space to be built in Ramsgate Street, behind the Kingsland Shopping Centre, by 2010.

The futuristic tower is specially designed to harness wind power, which will be captured on its south side by four vertical turbines designed and installed by wind technology experts Quiet Revolution. Any renewable energy generated by the turbines which is not used by the residents will be forwarded to the National Grid.

The building will also have a very unusual façade – pixillated like an over-enlarged photograph - inspired by the images produced by German artist Gerhad Richter. The external surface will consist of thousands of black, grey and white panels made from waste timber.

Kinetica will be launched at the Hoxton Hotel on Great Eastern Street on Wednesday 20th February.

“These ground-breaking new buildings are pointers to the way the construction industry is moving,” says Dave Geddes, who runs a specialist centre for new construction techniques at Hackney Community College on Falkirk Street. “That’s why we are launching a new Diploma for 14-19 year olds in construction and the built environment in September. The next generation of architects and builders will need to be experts in low carbon footprint buildings which draw on renewable energy sources, and the college intends to stay at the cutting edge of the industry.”

The new qualification in construction and the environment is a joint initiative linking the college and Stoke Newington, Haggerston and Cardinal Pole schools.

“The construction industry is booming in Hackney, but it’s also changing its spots at the same time,” says Patrick Nicholson. “Local builders, and people buying or commissioning new buildings locally, are being forced to reduce their impact on the environment by high energy prices, new regulations and public opinion. Every building firm, and young person thinking of entering the industry, must move with the times and play their part in making London a more sustainable and cleaner city to live in.”