David Campbell, Resident at Glastonbury House
“We believe that your input was vital to the success of the whole refurbishment. Without your professionalism, I doubt that either the resident's steering committee or the regular residents' meetings would have happened”.
RT HON John Prescott MP, Deputy Prime Minister; following his visit
to Glastonbury House, his speech at the Better Buildings Summit began
with the following
“This morning I visited the Glastonbury House refurbishment
project only a few minutes away from here. It is a 22-storey tower
block in Pimlico which was built over 30 years ago and is a flagship
project for innovative practices in four areas: the environment, social
innovation, construction innovation and technology. Once this project
is completed, Glastonbury House will be the UK's first intelligent
and green residential tower, clearly a truer, better building. The
building is eco-friendly, designed with low energy from district heating
and with a four-metre high wind turbine on the roof, which apparently
caused problems for the planning body.
Water use is kept low with rainwater harvesting, spray taps and showers - you know most of those. Moreover, residents will be able to stay in the block during the construction, which is quite unique, and this shows that eco-friendly developments can be built into refurbishment programmes and even these old tower blocks. It was exciting, well liked by the residents, a sustainable community in a tower block, and I congratulate all those involved and recommend that you visit it”.
Building Sights Award Judges comments
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of the feedback that the children had produced which clearly demonstrated that they had understood and been fascinated by the processes involved in the construction of their new classrooms. Children were encouraged to champion the schemes in their local communities and the whole project was carefully integrated into the curriculum. They were also able to influence aspects of the final design. We felt it was a good model which could be replicated elsewhere”.
Lord Adonis, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, DfES
“Many thanks indeed for your informative letter and booklet
regarding VisioNet. Having read both documents I want to congratulate
you and the students involved on the work, effort and commitment involved
and wish the programme the best of luck”.
George Ferguson, past President, Royal Institute of British Architects
“The more inventive ways we can find of truly involving people in their own built environment, the better. VisioNet seems to me to have enormous potential”.
Student, Stockwell Park School
“Hello my name is Tashanna, and I am part of the VisioNet team
the most important thing about VisioNet is working on road safety,
because you are making it safer for myself and other people. The reason
why I like VisioNet is because it helps you work as a team and coming
up with fascinating ideas about road safety, another reason why I
joined VisioNet is because it helps me learn more about the community
and its needs, I enjoyed the filming on the Wandsworth Road because
we were able to do the filming again and again until we got it right.
Thank You”.