Lord Foster's roofing-over of the Great Court at the British Museum was completed last December.
The £100 million refurbishment also involved the restoration of the former British Library Reading Room and the cloaking of the brick-built circular building in limestone.
What was once a private inner courtyard, cluttered with book storage buildings, is now a 6000 m2 public piazza covered by a curved, fritted-glass and steel lattice roof. Environmental conditions in the piazza are satisfied by a range of mechanical and passive systems, ranging from close-control air conditioning for the exhibition galleries to the tempered environment of the Great Court.
Architect: Sir Norman Foster & Partners; structural, building services and fire engineers: Buro Happold; construction manager: Mace; cost consultant: Northcroft.
Source
Building Sustainable Design
