The largest eco-village in the UK has been voted one of the most important green buildings in the world.

Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZed, is the largest example of a sustainable community in the UK.

It has now reached global recognition after 150 green building experts, including architects, voted it among the five most important green buildings constructed since 1980.

The sustainable community was ranked joint fourth after the Adam Joseph Lewis Centre for Environmental Studies in Oberlin, Ohio, which came out at the top with 13 votes.

The zero-energy building, based in a university, is equipped with a waste water purification system, energy-efficient lighting, solar panels, a geothermal heating and cooling system, furniture with biodegradable upholstery and more.

The survey, conducted by Lance Hosey for Architect magazine, put BedZed fourth for the way the houses are designed to reduce heating and water wastage, while residents make sustainable lifestyle choices, such as driving less.

BioRegional’s head of communications Phil Shemmings said: “It is a testament to the design of the development that eight years later is is achieving global recognition. It is unusual with today’s pace of change that it is still a pioneer around the world.”

The California Academy of Sciences came in second behind the Lewis Centre with 11 votes.

The building boasts a green roof with more than 1.7m plants and is equipped with a solar canopy that will satisfy up to 10 per cent of the facility's annual energy needs.

The third most important green building in the Architect survey was the Genzyme Centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US.

The two-story, 350,000-square-foot office building was built on a site where a coal gasification plant once stood BedZed came in joint fourth after receiving seven votes along with Chesapeake Bay Foundation, in Annapolis in Maryland, America.