GREENWICH WATERCYCLE PAVILION FOR THAMES WATERGreenwich Watercycle Pavilion for Thames Water

Water-recycling display at Millennium Dome

  • Project Date: 1999

Greenwich Watercycle Pavilion

In June 1996, Thames Water started to conceive and plan a new watercycle system, based upon an 'in-building' recycling system, to be placed by the Millennium Dome in London. The result was the Watercycle Pavilion, a glass structure located along the living wall of the Dome. The pavilion, which opened to visitors on 2 January 2000, is activated and framed by the circulation of water on its horizontal and vertical surfaces.

The Pavilion is attached to a treatment plant and serves as a window onto its mechanical inner workings. Elements of the recycling processes are displayed on a sequence of tall, mirrored, rotating panels that turn incrementally to reveal the treatment plant. The rotation is orchestrated so that the mirrored panels reflect and reveal the viewers, the information, the Dome, and the inside of the treatment plant.

When it rains, the Millennium Dome's roof acts as a giant collector that funnels the run-off to twelve hoppers, located where the Dome's roof touches the ground. This water then passes through reed beds and a treatment plant before being used to flush 900 toilets around the site. Water from the washbasins is similarly processed for reuse, and to ensure a constant source of water a borehole has been drilled to bring up groundwater. Further, the toilet sludge produced at the Dome gets directed to a sludge-powered generator, where it is converted into electricity to power the Dome and contribute to the national grid.