The One Angel Square is an office building in the English cit of Manchester. Its began in 2010 and ended four years later in 2013 when the building was officially opened. Today it is considered by the locals to be one of the focal landmarks of the city. One Angel Square currently houses the head office of the Co-operative Group.
The edifice is 72.5 meters tall and is presently the 12th tallest building in Manchester. One Angel Square is the focal centrepiece of the NOMA development area. The NOMA development project is a £800 million project located in the northern quarter of the central parts of Manchester. The project covers an area of 20 acres and is at the moment the largest development project in North West England. Once done the area will have both residential and commercial building and will house numerous local businesses such a man and van services. The presence of moving companies will ease the moving to the area and more importantly will provide to the people an easy to high quality man and van services.
Currently the One Angel Square is one of the most sustainable large scale edifices in the United Kingdom and Europe. It is built in full accordance with the BREEAM standard and is rated by BREEAM as an outstanding building. One Angel Square is powered by a biodiesel cogeneration plant using rapeseed oil. This power is used to provide heat and electricity throughout the building. Solar panels are also used to maximize its passive solar gain and therefore provide additional power to the heating system of the building. One Angel Square has also a double-skin façade which allows it to use natural ventilation for the cooling of the edifice. Other green installations on the building are adiabatic cooling, rainwater harvesters, greywater recycling systems and waste heat recycling systems.
The building was designed by architects 3DReid in May 2009 and has a sliced egg or ship appearance as some architectural experts described it. During its construction the building’s scheme surpassed its pan-European sustainability aims and achieved a world-record BREEAM score of 95.32%. This amazing score was reached in December 2012 several months before the completion of the edifice. The One Angel Square is also an energy-plus building which produces surplus energy and emits zero carbon emissions. Since 2011, the One Angel Square was received numerous awards and accolades for its sustainability aims and fascinating aesthetics.
Some of the building most prestigious awards are listed down below:
– Gold Award by the Considerate Constructors Scheme in 2011 (the building achieved a score of 38.5 out of 40)
– Architect of the Year and Sustainable Project of the Year by the Builder and Engineer Awards in 2011
– Bronze Award by Green Apple Awards in 2012
– Sustainable Achievement Award by Property Week Awards in 2012
– Best Office Building by BREEAM Awards in 2013
It is because of all these facts that today this fascinating building is regarded by many to be one of Manchester’s must visit edifices.