Power Station, Lelystad
Technological state of the art and the
energy industry were the design premises for the new electric power station in
Lelystad. It is not merely a building with machines to produce electricity
freestanding in it. The sheath needed to keep the weather out and the noise in,
has itself become part of the machinery.
In fact each production unit has a dual
sheath. First there is the full-length fibre reinforced synthetic membrane
draped over a number of forty-metre-tall steel lattice trusses. A second sheath
covering the sound-producing and rotating components is there for purposes of
sound absorption and thermal insulation. This inner sheath combines with the
transparent glazed heads as the turbine hall.
Its unique location, on an island joined
to the coast by a dyke accessible to the public, adds to the reveal-all ethos
of the new power station. The 'engineer's logic' of the light and airy shell
underscores the image of a clean and efficient means of energy production.
These machines look as natural a part of their surroundings as the power
pylons, windmills and polders. Its scale and distinctive form lend the power
station landmark status, also at night when the two translucent 'caterpillars'
glow with a blue light issuing from within.
Client
Electrabel Nederland n.v.
Architect
Benthem
Crouwel Architekten
Competition
2006
