Jasmijn Rothuizen

The Plant

A new typology for sustainable energy plants in the city. 

The energy transition is a huge effort to provide the Netherlands with sustainable energy. Generating energy is on the eve of a major change. Coal and natural gas power plants are making way for wind farms and solar fields. A positive change in our energy transition. Not only the Dutch countryside, but also our cities are facing this inevitable change. These require a new approach within the urban area. Where now energy is mainly generated outside the city, more and more local sustainable energy plants are popping up within the city.  

To prevent our cities from once again having to deal with a new generation of anonymous and meaningless utility buildings - elusive, inaccessible, unwanted - it is vital to see these power plants as an architectural task in their own right. This way, we prevent these new buildings from blocking the city and the energy processes become experienceable for the resident. As an architect, I want to ensure that these power plants are given a place in the city, where we not only create space for the development of renewable energies, but through which we can also enhance the urban liveability.   

My thesis research is a search for a new typology of the power plant. Here, it is important that power plants become accessible, have a recreational function and the technology can be integrated from various perspectives. A positive change in our energy transition. Not only the Dutch countryside, but also our cities are facing this inevitable change, these require a new approach within the urban area. Where now energy is mainly generated outside the city, more and more local sustainable energy plants are popping up within the city.    

'The Plant' is a decentralised energy supply that meets the heat demand of people living in the immediate vicinity of the plant. The new strategy transforms the large urban heat network for the city into a local network for local residents. Residents can literally experience where their heat comes from.     

With minor adjustments in the development plan, the power station becomes the heart of the neighbourhood. Precisely a place for all residents. Several paths for walkers and cyclists run through and around the building in the city park. As an icon, the power station gives identity to the neighbourhood.    

By turning the building inside out, technology is made visible. The different facets of technology are pulled apart to make the building permeable and accessible. By adding public functions, which make use of the different energy flows in the building (food production, catering and various accommodation functions), it becomes a multifunctional power station. This will make the new plant a pleasant place to visit, enter and use the building.   

'The Plant' shows that energy facilities need not be hidden away, but can actually add value to the living environment in the neighbourhood. 

Graduation date: 22 March 2022 
Graduation committee: Machiel Spaan (mentor), Jeroen Atteveld, Kamiel Klaasse
Additional members for the exam: Dafne Wiegers, Floris Hund