Bizarre Buildings of London - part 1: Strata SE1

Why does this London skyscraper have three wind turbines on top — and why do they never spin? Welcome to Bizarre Buildings of London, part 1. In this episode, we’re taking a look at Strata SE1 in Southwark — once the tallest residential building in London, nicknamed everything from “The Lipstick” to “The Dark Tower.” It was meant to be a beacon of green design… until those turbines turned out to be a noisy disaster.

Got a weird building you think we should cover next? Drop it in the comments! 👇

#london #citiesskylines #londonproperty

[JosephStealin]

One visit to any turbine could have saved them a lot of money 😂

[samwiseknows]

It was clearly strategic to get the planning to get this built. Of course they knew it was bull... But the council didn't...

[Cobra.]

You're partly correct. They turned them off when the guy in the penthouse complained about the noise. I know as my firm had something to do with it.

[DM-hpct]

I worked at Strata back in 2010 dealing with completions. The building was fraught with problems. Heat was a common complaint. The developer explained that it was residual heat from the building process and would soon escape. It never did. It was also put to us that the heat emanated from hot water pipes in the building, so adding more lagging would help. It made no difference.

I do not believe the issue with the turbines relates to noise. I stood in one of the two penthouses with the turbines turning and heard nothing All we knew is engineers were often over from Denmark, but after a while the turbines rarely turned. I was told that the problem was that the turbines would only work if the wind was coming from a specific direction. I have no idea if this was true or false.

The building once won an architects' booby prize called the Carbuncle Cup. I think that was unfair. It's subjective, but I think the building is beautiful. But flawed. How were the thermal mass calculations so flawed?

[vinom]

I used to cycle around London when I dropped out of school. London is so huge, you could cycle everyday for years and find a new street or area. Whenever I got lost or wanted to go home I just had to look up and find this building or the shard etc

[williamcarter]

There's a building in Singapore that has a wind tunnel on top of it that keeps the building cool instead of aircon...works really well

[daemoh]

Genuinely looks like a Super Villains head quarters

[DavidBrown-bsgg]

Seems like they knew it’d be a problem but got grants/approval based on supposed energy saving.. and always planned to turn them off

[ash.l]

“Wonder why they never seem to spin” right as there spinning.

[Roundhead]

I was the window cleaner there for 9 years, abseiling and cradle works.

[koholohan]

They should just remove the turbines and install 3 huge lights, maybe blue, white, red.

[trystanfrechette]

Here’s the biggest criticism world wide about wind turbines :

1. They look terrible
2. The noise is terrible

You’re telling me they forgot about the noise ?

[Itsalotofcash]

I can imagine if there was a zombie apocalypse how this building can come in clutch in multiple ways.

[potts]

Honestly my favorite building in London next to the Gherkin. It's a shame it has had so many problems apparently.

[shaun]

The designers and developers didn’t miss the flaw, the engineers did

[CorvoFG]

My old home. Until I moved out of London. Horrible building to live in.

[kamehamehapierwszy]

whaaaat? a large fan is also noisy? who would've thought lmao

[dwillow]

I moved in there when it opened... the service charge for those turbines is higher when they are off because they are broken and need cost extra.

[ruthlessluder]

Can you imagine living INSIDE a floor fan? I bet that's what those occupants feel like.

[theysaylikewhoop]

hearing “flats” and “meters” in an american accent was more disturbing than i’d expected