The key concept of the building is to create an icon, a means to generate attention for its activities through its conspicuous form. Wilkinson Eyre took inspiration from the form of a crystal for the building shape and presumably the name followed – or the other way around.
It is conceived as a pavilion in a park and it is hoped it will capture the public's imagination as well as the environmental agenda. The building, which was funded entirely by Siemens, has a public exhibition, an auditorium and a café and is there to promote active technologies for sustainable living.
The envelope of the building uses different types of insulated glass having varying degrees of transparency depending on orientation and other factors, most of the glazing however is opaque to minimise running costs.
The building, as you would expect is an exemplar in its own use of resources. It is all electric, has chilled beams, and stores heat and coolth in the ground via 17km of buried pipes. The building treats its own black water on site and harvests rainwater improving it to drinking standards. It is 90% self sufficient and it is the only commercial building in the UK to have an approved drinking water safety plan.
Needless to say, every aspect of the building's technical performance is monitored and fed live to information displays allowing environmental conditions and other systems to be automatically fine tuned for optimal performance.
