Friday, March 5, 2010

Isramart : Design London’s Carbon Neutral US Embassy Looks Like Apple’s Fifth Ave Manhattan Store

Isramart news:
If you visit the US embassy in London now, it’s a pit of concrete, barbed wire, bollards and soldiers with machine guns. You feel like a criminal just walking past it. This carbon neutral redesign is radical in comparison.

It’s been described as encompassing the United States’ “core beliefs of our democracy – transparency, openness and equality.” It’ll cost at least $US1 billion to construct, and should be opening its doors in 2017. The current building was constructed in the 1950s, but didn’t open until 1960 – and certainly can’t boast anything like a moat, that’s seen in the plans for the new building.

Surrounded by an “Embassy Park”, with moat, the glass cube building will also look like a certain Apple building in Manhattan, don’t you think? It’ll be covered in solar panels, and lined with energy absorbing material. Because you know London is the sunniest place on earth, obviously.