While it might not come as a great surprise that the UK’s largest conservation charity would opt for an ecologically sound building for its new central office, the fact that the National Trust headquarters in Swindon, Wiltshire, – Heelis, as the building is named – has achieved such a high environmental performance on a relatively tight budget is what distinguishes it from many other green buildings.
“It was not like working for a client with very deep pockets to come up with the ultimate green building that’s of no relevance to the rest of the sector,” says Jo Wright, a partner at Feilden Clegg Bradley, the firm that designed the building. “Anything [the National Trust] invested in had to pay back in less than 20 years, so it’s a straight commercial building.”
