PROJECTS

STUDIO

Teesside Power Station

 

The studio was commissioned to design a biomass power station that would serve two thousand new homes in Stockton, near Middlesbrough, in the north of England. From the studio’s research, normal new power facilities always seemed to be chaotic collections of separate pieces of equipment placed on the ground next to a chimney. Unlike these typical disparate arrangements, the studio chose to gather the facilities into a singular structure, clustered around the 85-metre high chimney stack, improving the power station’s functional efficiency, as well as simplifying its composition. Earth excavated from the site is banked up to dampen the factory-like vibrations of the plant’s equipment and forms planted slopes within a public Power Park around the station’s base. Sculpted from the ground, the power station fuses with the surrounding landscape to make a space for walking, picnicking, tobogganing. The power station’s structural geometry is based on the repeated use of identical steel elements and aims to minimize the area of the building envelope. And by leaning on the largest pieces of machinery, it borrows their structure in order to reduce the need to construct large and costly column-free spans. Inside, the whole building is a living museum and school of power, creating a local resource and tourist attraction by bringing people into contact with a working power facility. A series of large multi-functional spaces are also available to the surrounding community, where they could even get married or hold their Bar Mitzvah, looking out over the River Tees.

Teesside Power Station

 

The studio was commissioned to design a biomass power station that would serve two thousand new homes in Stockton, near Middlesbrough, in the north of England. From the studio’s research, normal new power facilities always seemed to be chaotic collections of separate pieces of equipment placed on the ground next to a chimney. Unlike these typical disparate arrangements, the studio chose to gather the facilities into a singular structure, clustered around the 85-metre high chimney stack, improving the power station’s functional efficiency, as well as simplifying its composition. Earth excavated from the site is banked up to dampen the factory-like vibrations of the plant’s equipment and forms planted slopes within a public Power Park around the station’s base. Sculpted from the ground, the power station fuses with the surrounding landscape to make a space for walking, picnicking, tobogganing. The power station’s structural geometry is based on the repeated use of identical steel elements and aims to minimize the area of the building envelope. And by leaning on the largest pieces of machinery, it borrows their structure in order to reduce the need to construct large and costly column-free spans. Inside, the whole building is a living museum and school of power, creating a local resource and tourist attraction by bringing people into contact with a working power facility. A series of large multi-functional spaces are also available to the surrounding community, where they could even get married or hold their Bar Mitzvah, looking out over the River Tees.

Client

Bio Energy Investments

Location

Middlesbrough, UK

Appointment

2009

Size

61,000sqm

Project Leader

Mat Cash

Studio team

Ole Smith, Jennifer Chen, Pikyan Luk, Hannah Parker, Robert Wilson

Collaborators

Arup, David Langdon