Underground London @ The NLA Building Centre

Underground London is an exhibition looking at the changes the climate is bringing and prompting a vision of a complete underground infrastructure for the city. This will include upgrading the existing facilities and installing new technologies. This exhibition looks at planned changes for London and the steps the city is going to take to make it a more sustainable city.

To compliment the exhibition there are a series of breakfast talks. The first of these was David Anderson, the Engineering Director from Crossrail. This talk was looking at the new line that Crossrail have planned to put in across London. The main focus was on the stations and how they are going to be efficient and better then the existing underground stations. This talk was interesting but the delivery of the presentation was hard to keep up with. This wasn't helped during the question time from an annoying audience member insisting on making herself heard!

The second breakfast was given by Alex Michaelis, from Michaelis Boyd Architects. This talk was very interesting focusing more on the new technologies that could be harnessed to make the city a more sustainable place.

The first of these was a private house that was built with height restrictions, so the design focused on the idea of having half the house underground. This has lead to a lot more people looking into extending their homes down instead of up. The main reason for this is getting the planning permission for the height extension on the existing building. To see more about this private house, check the website here and search for the Oxford Gardens house. Note the built in slide on the stairs down to the swimming pool!

Some of the sustainable ideas that Alex Michaelis and Arup were working on were very interesting. They were working towards making London a sustainable city;

1. Eco-sewer. This works on the basis that everyday between 6-9 in the morning and evening, hot water passes through the sewers of London. This energy could be harnessed and used to power turbines to create energy.

2. Eco-travelator. This is much more conceptual then the eco-sewer. The idea works towards the removal of cars and buses. The travelator would connect key points around London with each other, by travelators. They would be powered via solar power to reduce the energy consumption.

Energy Island, this works with the Ocean Thermal Energy Conservation (OTEC). This works on the knowledge of temperature changes between deep and shallow waters in the sea, can create electricity. The energy island would also be a docking port for large tankers to help protect the docks built around the country. The tankers are getting bigger and the docks are suffering, with the use of the energy island the tankers would be able to dock comfortably.