Housing the European trading operations of Swiss bank, UBS, this 13-storey building is the largest single let office space in Europe. Buro Happold tracked the complete carbon footprint of the building throughout its life, identifying where the most effective sustainability measures could be introduced. The structure is a steel frame with concrete floors on profiled metal decking, founded on a 1.75m thick reinforced concrete raft. Specially designed ductile connections, the result of detailed fire engineering design, provide sufficient robustness while optimising the cost of construction.

By employing a carbon tracking model from the outset the designers ensured that sustainability featured in a quantitative manner thought the design process, influencing decisions on layout, structure, facades and foundations. Thus choices were made on the basis of the best overall outcome, thereby ensuring that efficiencies were balanced. By adopting this approach the designers have shown how a seemingly conventional solution - albeit one that had to address stringent client requirements - can be modified in several respects so as to achieve a true optimum and thus to embody the principles of sustainable construction.