For more than two decades, the Battersea coal-fired power station, rumored to be the largest brick building in Europe, has sat dormant on the south bank of River Thames in London. The facility, built in 1939, was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for the city’s iconic red telephone booths and the Bankside power station, which, in 2000, Herzog & de Meuron converted into the Tate Modern. Since the Battersea plant stopped producing electricity in 1983, developers have proposed various schemes for the beleaguered site—amusement parks and cultural centers, among them— but none has managed to leave the drawing board.
Once again, there is talk of resurrecting the site. In June, Rafael Viñoly Architects and Real Estate Opportunities (REO) unveiled an 8-million-square-foot master plan for the 38-acre property. Viñoly—who reportedly beat out Norman Foster and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for the commission—envisions transforming the 70-year-old power station into a mixed-use complex. The boiler house would contain residential units and a hotel, the old control room will be converted into an energy museum, and the defunct turbine halls would be filled with shops and public spaces. The scheme also calls for new construction around the power station, most notably an office campus that would be covered by a so-called Eco-Dome made of ETFE, similar to The Eden Project by Nicholas Grimshaw. Rising from the dome would be a 1,000-tall glass tower containing residential units. This tower would serve as a chimney, drawing warm air out of the campus.
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