The Living Planet Centre, Woking, UK: delivering sustainable design

Abstract

The Living Planet Centre for WWF-UK in Woking, UK, is a new stimulating, multi-purpose building that combines the charity’s offices with a public education and exhibition space that has been built in the air rights of a public car park. As a champion for ‘one planet living’ the client’s requirements for a sustainable development were ambitious, with their reputation closely tied with the building’s success. Given this, it was essential that the project’s objectives were defined early on in the design process. These included building strong links to the community; creation of an accessible and open building; establishing an educational outreach to support WWF-UK’s goals; enhancing local biodiversity; incorporating long-term flexibility and adaptability; ensuring low operational costs; responsible use of resources in both the building’s construction and operation; and going beyond industry-accepted sustainability standards. The Living Planet Centre is testament to the success of the collaborative effort of all those who were involved in delivering an outstanding building. This paper describes the holistic approach taken to sustainable development, from concept design through the tender process and on to the construction and post-construction phases. This process has been extended to include the ongoing monitoring and auditing of the building’s real performance.