Strata SE1

Not to be confused with Strata Tower.

Strata SE1
View of the now completed Strata from New Kent Road
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Residential
Location	8 Walworth Road, Southwark, London SE1 6EE, SE1 6EG, SE1 6EH, SE1 6EJ, SE1 6EL
Coordinates	51°29′34″N 0°05′59″W
Construction started	2007
Completed	2010
Cost	over £113 million
Height
Roof	148 m (486 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	43
Floor area	306,000 sq ft (28,400 m2) GEA / 255,000 sq ft (23,700 m2) NIA
Elevator count	4
Design and construction
Main contractor	Brookfield Construction
Architect	BFLS
Developer	Brookfield Europe
Structural engineer	WSP — Structural, M&E Engineer, Acoustic Consultants and Fire Engineer

Strata SE1 (known in development as Castle House and informally known as The Razor, and sometimes locally nicknamed "Isengard") is a 148-metre, 43 storey, 408 flat skyscraper at Elephant and Castle in the London Borough of Southwark in London, England. Designed by BFLS (formerly Hamiltons), it is one of the tallest residential buildings in London and will be home to more than 1,000 residents.

The building

25% of the building's flats have been sold by Family Mosaic Housing Association for shared-ownership sale. These consist of the "Esprit Apartments" — located on floors 2–10 of the tower — and a further nine flats in the adjacent "Pavilion", a three-storey structure located to the west of the tower and ear-marked for former residents of the nearby Heygate Estate.

Each floor of the affordable area comprises 10 flats (equally divided between one and two-bedroom flats), while the floors above the 10th floor contain a mixture of studios (40), one-bedroom flats (149), two-bedroom flats (101) and three-bedroom flats (20) to a total of 310 units.

Only the open-market flats have access to car-parking (in the basement of the building). The 39th floor features a "Sky Lobby" (a small corridor with a view over central London), while the living area is topped by a £2.5m three-bedroom duplex penthouse. The ground floor comprises two commercial units. A third one is located in the Pavilion, along with a "kiosk". Currently both Costa Coffee and Crussh are showing interest in the retail units.

The building has its own intranet site, named "inhabit".

The one-level basement of the building contains a secure car park and 437 bicycle storage places.

Construction

The core rising in June 2008.

Strata SE1 is located on the site of Castle House, an early 1960s six-storey office building, which was the first commercial premises at the newly rebuilt Elephant and Castle. When completed, Castle House was warmly received. The Architects’ Journal in August 1962 found "little to criticise and much to praise and until New Zealand House is completed it is possibly one of the best examples for anyone wanting to look at a good office block in London."

The current tower was first proposed in 2005; construction began in 2007 and was completed in June 2010. The cost is estimated at £113.5 million. The building was 'topped out' in June 2009. The turbines were installed in May 2010.

During the demolition of Castle House to clear land for Strata, a construction worker, John Walker, 33, was killed when a roof collapsed on him. He was employed by 777 Demolition and Haulage Company Ltd, which was served with a Prohibition Notice by the Health & Safety Executive. An inquest was due to be held at Inner London South Coroner's Court.

Sustainability

Strata SE1 is one of the first buildings in the world to incorporate wind turbines within its structure. The three nine-metre wind turbines at the top of the building are rated at 19 kW each and are anticipated to produce 50MWh of electricity per year. They are expected to generate sufficient energy to provide power for the common areas of the building (8% of the energy needs of the building), although questions about their real efficiency will remain unanswered until the completion of two years of comprehensive wind data analysis.

The building exceeds by 13% the current UK regulations relating to sustainability, whilst overall carbon emissions are expected to be 15% lower than the Mayor of London's good practice benchmark. The developers claim that the building will achieve 2050 CO2 target emissions and that (with the Multi-Utility Services Company in place in the area) it will achieve a predicted 73.5% reduction in CO2 emissions when measured against the Building Regulations benchmark.

Featured on-site is a combined heat and power system to provide sustainable power generation, with a provision for the collection of rainwater for re-use. The energy costs per flat are envisaged to be up to 40% less than Britain's typical housing average. The building is clad in a "bespoke high thermal performing facade" with an air permeability leakage rate that is apparently 50% better than current building regulations.

Awards

In August 2010, Strata SE1 was awarded the 2010 Carbuncle Cup. The yearly award, organized by Building Design magazine, selects one building from a shortlist of 30, nominated by readers. It recognises "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months".

On 12 November of the same year, however, the building won the prestigious 2010 Concrete Society Awards, beating schemes from David Chipperfield, Hopkins Architects, Caruso St John, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) and Alsop Architects. The judges commented: "This building is striking architecturally, a considerable feat of construction on this restricted site…". They particularly singled out Strata’s "innovative column strategy".

In May 2011, the building won the ICE London Civil Engineering Awards 2011 for infrastructure and building projects. The award "celebrates outstanding engineering achievement by companies, organisations, and individuals in the capital".

The Strata Inhabit website (the information site for residents of the building) won the "Website of the Year" award at the Property Management Awards ceremnony held at Lords on 5th December 2011.

Articles

• Brookfield's Elephant & Castle tower takes shape, Building.co.uk, 8 March 2010.
• The Strata 'Razor' tower: the cutting-edge of eco-construction, The Guardian, 15 March 2010 (10 pictures).
• In Pictures: Strata Tower, Residential Skyscraper At Elephant And Castle, Londonist, 18 March 2010.
• Strata tower: Southwark’s sore thumb, Building.co.uk, 9 April 2010.
• Don’t Look Down When Strata Tower Opens With Best London Views, Business Week, 13 April 2010.
• Nestled among ghost homes, Business Day, 16 April 2010.
• The high life in Elephant & Castle, The Times, 19 May 2010.
• Tower to the people in Elephant and Castle, Evening Standard Homes&Property, 26 May 2010.
• Wind-powered high-rise living?, Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2010.

External links

• Strata London official website
• @StrataSE1 — official Twitter stream (unused)
• BFLS London — BFLS website
• Strata SE1 — official Flickr photostream
• Main plans of planning application — 27 June 2005
• Approval of planning application for cycle storage — 17 September 2007
• Strata building @ Skyscraper News.com