Heidelberg Energy Park, German Building, Architecture Competition

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie Park + Building

Competition Entry Building, Germany – design by LAVA

4 Aug 2017

LAVA News

Laboratory for Visionary Architecture News – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Tower, Germany
Design: LAVA with A24, White Void, Priedemann and Transsolar

image from architects
Stadtwerke Heidelberg Tower Building
A new energy storage tower for Stadtwerke Heidelberg (SWH) in Heidelberg, Germany has broken ground.

10 Oct 2016

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie Park + Storage Building

Design: LAVA with A24, White Void, Priedemann and Transsolar

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie Park + Building

FROM STORAGE CYLINDER TO CITY ICON

Beacon, knowledge centre, tourist attraction and … energy storagecentre.

LAVA’s winning architecture competition entry for an energy park and energy storage building in Heidelberg, Germany for the Stadtwerke Heidelberg, will commence construction in 2017.

The existing cylindrical-shaped storage centre is transformed into a dynamic sculpture, a city icon, a knowledge hub on sustainable energy and fully accessible to the public with city views.

LAVA assembled a Berlin-based expert team to develop the design concept including A24, White Void, Priedemann and Transsolar.

Tobias Wallisser, LAVA director, said: “Our starting point for the concept was:
‘How can the parameters of energy transition, decentralisation, networking, flexibility and adaptability be made visible in the design? How can an adaptive, dynamic system be produced without extreme technical control?’”

LAVA’s solution was a multi-layered facade structure, inspired by the geometries of nature – leaves, spider webs and reptile skins. The result is a dynamic, ever-changing surface of light and shadow, animated by wind, turning the building into a beacon of a dynamic new energy regime.

An inner shell coloured in different shades of blue wraps the building. Tilted elliptical rings positioned around the cylinder continue in the outer façade with “energy loops” circling the structure and rising dramatically to the top. A cable network between the steel rings forms the outer façade layer.

Around 20,000 diamond-shaped plates of thin stainless steel are hooked with a simple elastic connection in the meshes of this steel network allowing them to twist up to 90 degrees in the wind.

“This number of plates matches the number of households supplied with energy by the network,” said Wallisser, “a visual signifier of the impact new technology can make.”

“The complex interplay of movement, light and shadow is generated by sun and wind, with no additional energy or complicated technology required.” At night the inner shell is illuminated in the colours blue, green and white with LED lamps mounted below the stairs.

Visitors will experience this exciting place as a three-dimensional structure.
Across a bridge, they will reach an elliptical entrance level. Two elevators
take them on a journey, giving panoramic views as they are transported to a
roof terrace with large staggered terraces and event spaces and a bistro. The
emergency stairs are two vertical promenades of knowledge.

The access bridge, the facade and the transfer of knowledge elements are all
designed as different sized oval-shaped steel elements with varying
orientations.

Visitors will be able to receive information throughout the three-dimensional
energy park, from the challenges of energy transition in the city of
Heidelberg, to technical details of the utility company Stadtwerke, to
renewable energy sources on site.

The thermal storage complex will be one of the tallest buildings in Heidelberg
at 56m high. It will be a key component of the application of renewable
energy as it compensates the gap between heat production and consumption
in the city.

Wallisser added: “Our new ‘knowledge repository’ replaces a gas tank, which
in the 1950s was a symbol of energy policy. It will be a strong symbol of the
transition towards renewables.”

“The design showcases LAVA’s re-skinning research, our philosophy of ‘more
with less’, and demonstrates bringing sustainable technologies alive.”

LAVA has just been named as the 2016 Laureate of the European Prize for
Architecture for architects who have ‘blazoned a new path and direction for
an architecture that is deeply humane and committed to forward the
principles of European humanism’.

LAVA’s winning entry [and the other 13 shortlisted entries] will be on display
in the IBA (International Building Exhibition) in Heidelberg, showcasing the
use of sustainable energy, from 20 to 22 October 2016.

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie – Building Information

PROJECT CREDITS

ARCHITECTS LAVA – Tobias Wallisser, Alexander Rieck, Chris Bosse
Team: Julian Fahrenkamp, Christian Tschersich, Angelika Herman, Jan Kozerski, Elvira Perfetto
LOCATION: Heidelberg, Germany
CLIENT: Stadtwerke Heidelberg, in cooperation with IBA, Heidelberg
STATUS: Design competition winner; construction due to commence 2017
SIZE: 26m diameter; 56m high; storage volume 19.600m3; storage power: 40 MW; site of energy park; 10.000m2

PARTNERS:
Landscape designers: A24 Landschaft – Landschaftsarchitektur GmbH: Stefan Robel, Jan Grimmek, Oliver Ferger
Media: White Void GmbH: Christopher Bauer, Anna Pilarska, Lukas Mroczkowski
Energy: Priedemann Fassadenberatung GmbH: Lars Anders, Stephanie Heese
Façade: Transsolar Energietechnik GmbH: Prof. Matthias Rudolph
IMAGES: LAVA

LAVA BACKGROUND

LAVA merges future technologies with the patterns of organisation found in nature to
build a smarter, friendlier, more socially and environmentally responsible future.
Naturally evolving systems such as snowflakes, spider webs and soap bubbles
generate new building typologies and structures – the geometries in nature create
both efficiency and beauty. But above all humans are the centre of their work.

Stadtwerke Heidelberg Energie Park + Building images / information from LAVA

LAVA

Location:Heidelberg , Germany ‘

Architecture in Germany

German Architecture

German Architecture Designs – chronological list

German Architecture News

German Buildings

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picture © KCAP and ORANGE Architects
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image from architect
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