According to LAVA, the architectural firm responsible for the new energy storage centre’s design, the end result for the project will be a giant water tank, based off an old gas tank that once reflected Germany’s energy policy in the 1950s.
The storage centre will provide information on sustainable power and renewable resources. Solar and wind energy generated on site will be used to heat up the water inside the tower to produce heat energy – which will then be sold.
“LAVA’s design will transform the new water tank, a cylindrical-shaped storage centre, into a dynamic sculpture, a city icon, a knowledge hub on sustainable energy, fully accessible to the public, a strong symbol of the transition towards renewables,” LAVA Director Tobias Wallisser said.
“Formally and geometrically the new water tank will not be much different from its predecessor. So this raised the challenge for us: How can the parameters of energy regeneration, decentrality, networking, flexibility and adaptivity be made visible in the design of the outer shell?
“How can an adaptive, dynamic system be produced without extreme technical control? Our task was to transform a big heavy industrial tank into a dynamic object,” Wallisser said.
The transformation of the tank involves a multi-layered facade structure inspired by the geometries of nature. An inner shell, an insulating layer of mineral wool panels of different shades of blue, wraps the building. A spiral helix staircase positioned around the cylinder continues the “energy loops” circling the structure rising dramatically up the facade to the top.
A cable network arranged between the annular supports forms the outer façade layer and gives depth and a varied, dynamic appearance. Approximately 11,000 diamond-shaped plates of stainless steel are hooked with an ingenious connection to this steel network, allowing them to rotate horizontally up to 45 degrees in the wind.
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