The rarely spinning turbines of the Strata Tower, south London

The rarely spinning turbines of the Strata Tower, south London

Voted ‘Britain’s ugliest new building‘ by readers of  Building Design magazine (and thus the holder of the  2010 Carbuncle Cup), the 43-storey Strata tower in south London presents a distinctive outline with its three turbines fitted to the roofline.

The rarely spinning turbines of the Strata Tower, south London

The changing London skyline: Brixton views

The rarely spinning turbines of the Strata Tower, south London

A view of the Strata tower in December 2011. The turbines weren’t moving.

London Razor - high tech skyscraper with built in turbines

March 2010 view of the tower under construction seen from Brixton. More: London Razor skyscraper packs wind turbines, Bladerunner-style.

Please note: this article has now been updated and posted here: The totally pointless, rarely-spinning turbines of the Strata Tower in south London

24 Comments on “The rarely spinning turbines of the Strata Tower, south London”

    1. Its not so much the noise or vibration that has shut the turbines off, more like the £54,000 + vat a year maintenance costs for generating hardly anything that is the real factor. I know, I was involved in the second year budget for that building.

      1. I’m a resident on a 8th floor block in pimlico and I can honestly say this huge fancy tower one at St George’s wharf that has a wind generating rotor on the top is a white elephant.
        It never rotates. I’ve even emailed the manufacturer in Wales to see if they have had some teasing problems, they never replied….. Perhaps there’s another good story to tell on this not so eco friendly development?

  1. Houston, Texas (USA) has a similar building called the Hess Tower. It serves as an office building, but no contains no residences. We had a huge wind storm (I can’t recall if it was a hurricane … which Houston is prone to have) many years back, and one of the blades came off and fell to the street below. Luckily, no pedestrians were injured or killed.

    Soon after that, they removed the windmills at the top of the building. A shame really because I thought it was such a great, futuristic design.

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