Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Beam, Facade, WindowsBio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - WindowsBio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Table, Windows, Chair, BeamBio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Image 5 of 12Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - More Images+ 7

Schwendi, Germany
Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Image 5 of 12
© Jens Weber

Text description provided by the architects. When wood burns certain natural cycles are naturally completed: chemical energy turns into light and heat, water turns into steam and then rain, mineral salts transform into ashes and fall back down to the ground and carbon dioxide is given off into the air.

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Beam, Facade, Windows
© Jens Weber

But when wood burns properly, all this turns into energy which may be used creating less environmental impact than any fossil fuel (either oil or gas). It may seem strange, but burning wood and safeguarding nature are perfectly compatible.

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Windows
© Jens Weber

This is the underlying philosophy of Schilling Power Station, which, together with the nearby sawmill, turn the woodburning cycle into something genuinely virtuous: waste products from the sawmill in the form of bark and wood chips become combustible biomass serving the power station. In turn, the power station generates energy in the form of heat to cover the sawmill’s energy requirements. This completes the circle, and that would be enough in its own right.

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Table, Windows, Chair, Beam
© Jens Weber

But that is not all, because the extra energy generated is supplied to a nearby hospital, and the electricity produced could potentially supply up to 1450 detached houses in the surrounding neighbourhood. Schilling Power Station shows how nature and technology can combine successfully, where technology means generating energy and nature provides the biomass required to serve this process (the biomass, which, as an alternative and renewable energy source, could provide at least 20% of the overall energy supply required by 2020).

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Image 8 of 12
© Jens Weber

In architectural terms, this translates into an aesthetic form of ecology: transparency, lightness, stylistic clarity. A cube-shaped glass and steel core forms the case holding a visible technological heart that hides no secrets; a cylindrical coating made of planks of larch wood, woven around the core like some kind of craft texture, provides a natural, suspended filter with the outside environment; a semi-spherical dome made of zinc acts like a heavenly vaults on the roof; a sheet of water, on which everything rests, is a dematerialised rendition of what has been built: earth, air, water and fire set in the pure forms of a cube, cylinder and sphere. A geometric way of supplying clean energy at 0 km or, rather, 25 km, which is the maximum distance from which the Schilling sawmill obtains its wood supply.

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Fence, Beam, Handrail
© Jens Weber

The very same wood which, in other forms, the power station transforms into both an energy supply and decorative texture at the same time, drawing on a language also capable of communicating with all the surrounding country houses.

Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners - Image 10 of 12
Elevation

Project gallery

See allShow less

Project location

Address:Schwendi, Germany

Click to open map
Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Bio Mass Power Plant / Matteo Thun & Partners" 09 Sep 2013. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/423318/bio-mass-power-plant-matteo-thun-and-partners> ISSN 0719-8884

© Jens Weber

德国,施文迪,生物质发电厂 / Matteo Thun + Partners

You've started following your first account!

Did you know?

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.