The Climatic Tower is a research project conceived as a reaction to the climate change emergency.
As a guiding principle, Keith Williams Architects have for 20 years, embodied sustainability and low energy principles as a fundamental element in the conception of all our buildings.
The Climate Change Emergency has however changed the landscape dramatically.
Our proposals for the Climatic Tower, a 50 storey 125,000m2 mixed-use high- rise, envisage the ongoing densification of our cities as populations continue to grow, but designed with a fundamental emphasis on sustainability, net-zero carbon, the quality of the public and communal realms, and the health and well-being of its occupants.
Travelling the world we became appalled at the wanton energy consumption in so many environmentally disastrous tall buildings.
Huge buildings that took little account of their location or orientation, were often clad in glass skins and relied on energy hungry mechanical plant to make the uninhabitable…..habitable.
Such buildings are unviable and will likely become “stranded assets” both culturally and financially.
This to us unacceptable and as a species we need to find a more sustainable way of designing and making our buildings.
Initially developed with input from ARUP, the Climatic Tower does not have all the answers but it does set out many important principles and can be seen as a pathfinder toward a new lower carbon more sustainable way of making large scale urban buildings.
Z Section atria reorganise conventional planning to deliver natural ventilation deep into the building. Triple height gardens punctuate the facades bringing daylight and vegetation deep into the plan – greening the tower and contributing to experience, health and well-being of the occupants.
Engagement with the public realm at the base includes new cultural facilities and transport hub interconnectivity, centralising the tower within urban transport infrastructure.
The principles in the Climatic Tower apply to major buildings wherever they are located although their design will adapt to the prevailing climate and latitude.
The Climatic Tower offers challenges to clients, architects and engineers to radically recast their thinking so that the next generation of buildings sit more lightly on the planet and come as close to net-zero carbon as is possible.
