The building, called the Living Planet Centre, will feature state-of-the-art green building techniques and serve as an example of sustainability.

The ‘environmentally intelligent’ building has been designed by Hopkins Architects. The building will have a timber arched roof and sit on a raised podium over an existing car park.

A predominant feature of the new building is its use of greenery. The perimeter of the car park will be planted with shrubs, trees and flowers.

A new wetlands area will provide a wildlife corridor from the canal to Horsell Common, showing how urban facilities such as car parks can be revitalised and repurposed for the better.

Hopkins Architects senior partner, Mike Taylor, said: “The best architecture often comes out of the most difficult challenges; building an ultra-green headquarters for WWF-UK over an existing car park has called for an especially innovative approach from all the design disciplines.

“As well as providing a socially inclusive and uplifting place to work, it will add much more greenery to the site and hopefully inspire other projects around the world not to build on green field sites but instead to bring greenery into our already developed city centers.”

Hopkins Architects have a track record in designing award winning, sustainable buildings, many of which have achieved the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology) rating of Excellence.

They have been responsible for some of the greenest buildings in the USA and has recently completed the velodrome for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Alison Brown

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