The city of Uppsala invited BIG to design a biomass cogeneration plant to supplement Uppsala’s existing energy infrastructure during the peak loads in the dark and cold fall, winter, and spring.
With its beautiful old town, home to the oldest university in Scandinavia and the impressive Uppsala cathedral, it required careful consideration to integrate a vast structure into the historical skyline.
With only seasonal use the new power plant would be vacant in the summer months during peak season of tourism and festivals.
BIG decided to radically transform the public perception of a power plant visually and functionally.
BIG’s design proposal fuses two conventional industrial archetypes into an unconventional hybrid: the plant and the greenhouse.
Both have been developed to provide a rational and efficient form of enclosure to massive industrial facilities: for manufacturing and agriculture respectively.
By harnessing the economies of scale associated with greenhouse structures it is possible to provide a 100% transparent enclosure to provide the future massive silhouette on Uppsala’s skyline with an unprecedented lightness while allowing the citizens to enjoy educational glimpses of what happens within.
Rather than the conventional, alienating hermetic envelope of traditional power plants the crystalline volume serves as an invitation for exploration and education. The next generation of creative energy. Source by Bjarke Ingels Group.
Location: Uppsala, Sweden
Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group
Partners in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader/Architect: Marie Lançon
Project Manager: Jakob Sand
Project Team: Aaron Hales, Danai Charasti, Julia Boromissza, Michael Andersen, Teodor Javanaud Emden, Timothy Burwell
Collaborators: Sla, Ramboll, Dk+Se, Akt Ii, Luchinger Meyer Bauingenieure Ag, Spacecape
Area: 7250 m2
Year: 2014
Client: VATTENFALL
Images: Bjarke Ingels Group
