Architect: Branimir Medić & Pero Puljiz, de Architekten Cie.
Location: Enschede, The Netherlands
Client: Essent Warmte
Artist: Hugo Kaagman
Building contractor: WAM & Van Duren Bouw
Realization: 2007-2009
Photos: Jeroen Musch, Hugo Kaagman
This power station is an instrument of education: designed to develop a sensibility for the consumption of energy and sustainable cohabitation. Combined heat and power plants are usually neutral industrial struc-tures that are situated at some inconspicuous location. By contrast, the Stadshaard (literally the ‘city hearth’) stands at a prominent spot in Roombeek, where a neutral building would be out of place. With the Stadshaard’s dimensions (a building 10 metres high with a 40-metre chimney) it would, moreover, be impossible to realize an ‘invisible’ building that merges with the surroundings.
The Stadshaard is a gateway building for the district of Roombeek, an eye-stopper and a point of refer-ence. Its basic form is simple, while its elevations are clad in one-metre-square panels with expressive motifs and figurative depictions. These are reminiscent of the delftware tiles that line Holland’s traditional open hearths and therefore hint that this structure might have something to do with fire and warmth: the City Hearth.
Delftware tiles often have figurative motifs that are anecdotes about everyday life. The figurative depic-tions for the Stadshaard allude to energy generation, to famous buildings or people from Enschede and to themes that recur often in the work and life of the artist Hugo Kaagman. The result is the biggest delft-ware artwork in the Netherlands.
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Jeroen Musch
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- © Hugo Kaagman
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- © Hugo Kaagman
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- © Hugo Kaagman
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- © Hugo Kaagman
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- plan
Jesus Christ!!!
Don’t blame him, he didn’t attend any of the meetings.
Again the dutch architects try something “new” by combining old motives (Delfts Blauw: the blue painted ceramic tiles from XVI-century which are a strong part in dutch cultural developement) with new techniques and content. This renewed content is very obvious in the picture with the church in the background.
Although the function of the structure is purely technological/infrastructural. But the big question is: doesn’t it look like a mosque to you?
Finally and in the end “Delft’s Blue” has become a muslim motive… only in Holland…
This building is Amazing! Five stars for such beautiful idea.
i guess the polish pavillion was inspired by this project….
funny, first I thought it was a mosque but no, a dutch power plant: delft blue
Yes, it looks very much like a mosque
On maps it is missplaced. Correct location is 52°13’51.66″N 6°53’21.13″E
I think you all have mosque on the brain. Why is anything decorative need to be a mosque. I think it’s rather good for a decorated shed. I think Venturi might even like it.