DH ECOENERGY PLANT
DH AVILA is the second Ecological Power Plant designed and built for DH Ecoenergías, a pioneer company providing district heating out of renewable energies in Spain.
The plant in Avila belongs to a wider project across many cities in Spain and, thus, reproduces some of the geometric and material decisions already visible in Palencia's Thermal Plant, although some conditions vary significantly.
The site is a slopy plot in an industrial area next to the city center. The massive basis allows, in this case, to adapt the lower level to the ground floor avoiding a very expensive basement. Concrete texturized walls up to 5.40 m model the area and generate a flat surface on which the machines are placed. This upper level is wrapped with a similar façade system as the one used in Palencia, with some geometrical variations.
Inside the light and translucent upper level, a viewpoint provides a general observation deck of the installations. This device allows visitors to have a pedagogical approach to the venue.
DH Avila is a close relative to DH Palencia. They are different and similar at the same time. They share an interest in restoring the institutional and public character of these infrastructures, a commitment to transparency, and a dedication to educating the public about how to decarbonize our cities.
ENERGY, TRANSPARENCY, PERIPHERY
Ecological thermal power plants for 20 Spanish cities
ENERGY
Infrastructures: the scale of the collective
Medium-sized cities have become the spearhead of a new sustainable urbanity, which is committed to soft mobility, energy communities, ecological corridors, cradle-to-cradle design and advanced architecture.
TRANSPARENCY
Architecture: the scale of the disciplinary
This project must be an icon and a reference within energy and environmental transition. Therefore, its architecture must symbolize this shift of paradigm. A transparent infrastructure that shows, as part of its pedagogical role, how renewable energies are improving the public health in our cities.
PERIPHERY
City: the scale of the cultural
The periphery of contemporary cities is increasingly marked by the presence of large logistic facilities that serve the gentrified dense city and the new life of teleworking -in the city and outside it-, lacking urban architectural or landscape character.
The architecture of the emblematic places, the centers of our cities, the monuments and big public buildings has already been built. Today we architects need to focus our attention on places that grow without a center, without urbanity, without character, without architecture... it is a generational task and an opportunity for our cities that we must not miss.
