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With a wealth of innovative and inspiring buildings coming up to completion in London - see last issue's comment piece - we didn't have room to include Siemens' centre for sustainable development, a crystal- shaped building located in the Borough of Newham, at the site of the historic Royal Victoria Docks. The facility, which was opened to the public on September 29th last year, serves as a conference centre, urban dialogue platform and technology and innovation centre all in one, bringing together political decision makers, infrastructure experts and the general public in order to develop concepts for the future of cities and their infrastructures.

The Crystal (so called because of its iconic shape) recently garnered an 'Outstanding' award from BREEAM, (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment) which, as you all know, sets the standard for best practice in sustainable building design, construction and operation.

BREEAM has become one of the most comprehensive and widely recognised measures of a building's environmental performance. It encourages designers, clients and others to think about low carbon and low impact design, minimising the energy demands created by a building before considering energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. Since it was first launched in 1990, some 250,000 buildings have acquired certified BREEAM assessment ratings and over a million registered for assessment.

SIEMENS CRYSTAL
This has to be one of the most exciting and inspiring of times for architects and city planners. Not only do we have major urban renewal underway, as we upgrade some of our (not so precious) infrastructure, but we have new material and advanced construction technologies, imperative environmental concerns, and enthusiastic public participation - with, thankfully, concept planning, design, development and visualisation software that is more than competent to cope with the needs of everyone involved. And that includes the public, the vociferous minority and everyone else who has the slightest interest in how we view, live, work and play in an intense urban environment.

This is why Siemens has opened the world's largest exhibition dedicated to the future of cities, with its first centre for sustainable urban development in London. Siemens aim to create three Centres of Competence Cities, the Crystal in London being the largest, with two smaller centres slated to be built in Shanghai and Washington in the coming years.

At its heart the Crystal serves as a conference centre, with the aim of bringing together political decision-makers, infrastructure experts and the general public in order to develop concepts for the future of cities and their infrastructures. Siemens President and CEO Peter Löscher said at the opening ceremony that, "Cities are the engines of the world economy and also have the greatest impact on the environment. The development of our planet will stand or fall with the development of cities. Looking ahead to the urban future, the Crystal showcases a wide variety of opportunities and concrete solutions."

After a construction phase of about a year and a half, the Crystal brought an architectural highlight and one of the world's greenest buildings to the British capital. Siemens invested some 35 million euros in the project.

Designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, the building features a 270-seat auditorium as well as the world's largest exhibition on urban sustainability. Boasting an area of 2,000 square meters, the exhibition presents existing infrastructure solutions that make life in cities more sustainable and environmentally friendly while enhancing its quality, focusing on possibilities for sustainable mobility, building technologies, power and water supplies, and healthcare.

The Crystal has already been the venue of numerous conferences, including the UN Habitat program that brought together municipal decision-makers and city planners at a conference entitled Urban Planning for City Leaders, and the future oriented Digital Life Design Cities conference, sponsored by Hubert Burda Media, that addressed questions relating to sustainable urban development and visions for smart cities.

It's not just a 'talk and show' shop either, as experts from the Siemens Centre of Competence Cities engage in research and development at the Crystal, geared to technologies and innovations for tomorrow's urban infrastructures. It also houses Siemens' City Account Managers from its Infrastructure & Cities Sector.

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