Brent Council approves planning application for UK’s greenest civic building
Plans for the greenest civic centre in the country have received unanimous approval from Brent Council’s planning committee. The new centre will be a landmark building designed by award-winning Hopkins Architects Town planning. Environmental, structural design and sustainable technology advice was provided by specialist consultants Scott Wilson.
The new Civic Centre – the first ever civic building to be built by Brent Council – has been designed to be the greenest civic building in the country. It is set to be situated in the heart of the Wembley regeneration area opposite Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena. The nine-storey building will accommodate around 2,000 Brent Council staff and for the first time ever, all Brent Council services will be delivered from one building.
Half the building will provide a range of new facilities for the local community to use. These include a multi-purpose foyer with grand civic steps, a flexible community hall for up to 1,000 people, a new library and learning centre, a winter garden and a smaller Civic Hall with an external terrace and a café. There will also be an expanded Registrar’s service with a wedding suite and wedding garden.
The building aims to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ through a combination of solar shading, natural ventilation, façade performance and combined cooling, heating and power utilizing waste vegetable oil. It also intends to use the new development to encourage greener habits locally and set new standards of sustainability for other developers to follow. The building is due to be completed in mid 2013 with building work planned to start on site in late 2010.
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