Shaping Beauty

Danish firm Gottlieb Paludan Architects has seen off competition from BIG, Henning Larsen Architects and 3XN to win a project designing a new biomass-fired heating and energy plant in Copenhagen.

Construction of the BIO4 unit forms part of a plan by the Danish capital to become the world's first zero-carbon city by 2025 – a project that also includes BIG's Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant, new wind farms and the now five-year-old Adelgade cooling plant.

img.0Biomass plant in Copenhagen by Gottlieb Paludan

The BIO4 unit will be located at the Amagerværket power station, where it will be visible from both the historic Kastellet fortress and the Copenhagen Opera House. As such, the brief was to develop a building that could become a landmark.

Gottlieb Paludan Architects envisions a structure clad with tree trunks and featuring a golden dome that will rise above the surrounding rooftops. Inside, it will accommodate a combined heat and power (CHP) plant fuelled by biological waste such as wood chips.

img.1Biomass plant in Copenhagen by Gottlieb Paludan - look up

"The recurrent theme in our proposal is the forest as a place and a source of CO2-neutral biofuel," said architect and studio co-founder Jesper Gottlieb.

"We develop the forest theme in the design of the facade by hanging tree trunks, which create surprising aesthetic and spatial experiences both from afar and close up," he explained. "The trunks' lifetime is more than 30 years, and if the trunks are worn out before the phasing out of the power plant, the trunks will be grinded to wood chips and fired into the plant's furnaces."

The addition of golden metal behind the facade is expected to transform the industrial structure into a beacon for sustainable heat production. According to Gottlieb, it will also "reinforce the natural glow of the forest".

img.2Biomass plant in Copenhagen by Gottlieb Paludan - inside

img.3Biomass plant in Copenhagen by Gottlieb Paludan - by night

Image courtesy Dezeen 

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Via Dezeen