A new building for the UK Environment Agency's Bodmin regional offices fills the space between two Victorian buildings with a modern structure that makes its ecological bias clearly visible. The idea of an environmentally conscious design, including a planted roof and natural stained timber cladding, was suggested to the client by the architect, Form Design Group of Plymouth. The planning authority eagerly took up the design, convinced that the building's low profile and flat planted roof would reduce its impact on the Victorian buildings. The new building's timber construction uses wood from a managed woodland at Longleat Estate in England. Oak cladding is treated with a tinted organic coating of oil and wax.
Rainwater drains off the rooflights onto a gravel margin and waters the rooftop vegetation.
Gutters, downspouts, and piping convey rainwater from the catchment area to a filtration or storage unit. For collection systems used solely for irrigation, filtration can be as simple as leaf screens combined with a roof-wash system that drains particulates from the roof during the first flush of rain. Cisterns, which range from small drums to structures storing thousands of gallons, can be made from a variety of materials, including galvanized steel, concrete, and polyethylene. The new Conservation Learning Center at The Nature Conservancy's Disney Wilderness Preserve helps to facilitate work and study at the preserve, while reflecting the environmental concerns of the project's partners. The 12,000-acre preserve, a cooperative effort between The Nature Conservancy, the Walt Disney Company, the Greater Orlando Airport Authority and several public agencies, was established in 1992 near Orlando, Florida to compensate for the loss of wetlands caused by additional development of the Walt Disney World Resort.