Intelligent designs: greener thinking
Architects are developing fresh strategies to build a greener, cleaner world, writes Giovanna Dunmall
Bennetts Associates is a London-based architecture practice known for its highly sustainable approach to construction and a portfolio that includes theatres, offices, universities, hotels and historic conservation. The practice recently completed two new buildings for St Antony's College in Oxford that use green design features, while its 2010 restoration of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon has been lauded for its intelligent and sensitive repurposing of a disparate and partly unloved set of buildings.
During last month's Ecobuild China event in Shanghai, founding director Rab Bennetts took part in a panel on redeveloping existing buildings and abandoned industrial or commercial sites. We asked him for his general impressions of the event and its host city.
The debate focused on the dilemma facing Shanghai and many other cities, which is how to preserve the spirit of the place while, creating the buildings needed for an expanding economy. Too much destruction of the historic core of the city will make it a less interesting place, and this quality has enormous hidden commercial value. The Bund is a great example of imaginative conservation, but there is also the need to look at existing buildings of all kinds to see if there are opportunities for good design and profitable development at the same time. I went to a restaurant in the Cool Docks [South Bund] called The Waterhouse, which captures exactly what I mean.
