Orchestrating Energy

ST. LOUIS ENERGY INTERFACE Solar, Algae, Biomass, and Microturbines 30 + MW

Anheuser-Busch Coal 26.1 MW

SW Bell Telephone Petroleum 17.2MW

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Energy production is in need of a sea change.

In the face of resource and climate issues, infrastructure needs to be designed differently. Engineers alone don’t have the tools to redesign infrastructure into something social. Architects have this capability because we deal directly with inhabitation, however, the conception of the building as singular object limits their potential conversation with the city. For this project, infrastructure is seen as a precedent that gives architecture license to be applied in a systematic way.

Power generation in the US depends on a dense but fragile, centralized system of transmission towers and cables dependent on isolated power plants. This structure has allowed for the dominance of fossil fuels as our main source of power.

Distributed generation is an alternative to this in which smaller generation sites are dispersed throughout electricity network. Their redundancy protects against potential blackouts and failures, but most importantly, gives the opportunity to use a variety of smaller-production energy sources. These sources fit within the city, and can come both physically and visually closer to the end user. Distributed generation can become a new typology of uncommon architecture that calls into question ingrained systems of power.

Energy can become a part of our everyday experience of the city.

Labadie Plant, 2,412 MW

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Howard Bend Plant, 39 MW

Stallings Plant, 82 MW

Granite City Works Plant, 78 MW Venice Plant, 491 MW Milam Gas Recovery Plant, 2.5 MW

Ashley Street Plant, 31 MW SW Bell Telephone Plant, 17 MW Anheuser-Busch Plant, 26 MW

initial area of study for distributed network

st. louis region existing power plants

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REDEFINING POWER A prototypical node located at Grand Avenue and I-64 in St. Louis investigates ways in which infrastructure can be rescaled to incorporate programs that benefit the city — the MetroLink, St. Louis University, and Grand Avenue — as well as renewable energy technologies of algae, biomass, and solar production.

ClaytonTamm

Energy research spaces are paired with city program spaces. Access is woven closely between these, giving an intmate view of each. A series Ellendale of continuous, curved ramps, carry both conduit and people through the building. They fold on themselves and lift to house program and create moments of rest within the busy urban context. Informal public gathering and events are supported in the central atrium, which provides views of the activities, energy production, and the surrounding city.

Midtown

Kings Oak Chaltenham The Hill

Clifton Heights

distributed network plan for St. Louis, Illustrator

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Central West End

Downtown West

Forest Park South East Tiffany McRee Town

The Gate District

Downtown

site plan of prototype, Illustrator; original scale 1/64” = 1’-0”

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RESPONSIVE PROGRAM

prototype plan at Grand Avenue, Rhino and Illustrator; original scale 1-16” = 1’-0”

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typical production:

diagrammatic combination of proposed production:

energy manifestation in plan:

heat and CO2

electricity transfer

people

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URBAN ENERGY The integrated nature of the ramps as both path and structure provides for an intimate blending of spaces for power and the city, but still allows for separation when needed. People are brought closer to energy even as they carry out their own daily activities, and can take part in a significant urban space that improves and amiplifies conditions found on Grand Avenue.

In this way, the power plant creates a programmatic justification for being in the city, in addition to its supply of energy to its surroundings.

Energy itself can become an important typology for our future cities.

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section at biomass production, Rhino and Illustrator; original scale 1/4” = 1’-0”

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entrance & use sequence from Grand Avenue

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public activity potential at inner atrium, Rhino, Illustrator, and Photoshop

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This project was completed as my Degree Project Studio for my Masters of Architecture at the Washington University in St. Louis Sam Fox School of Design + Visual Arts, Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design in December 2014.

Special thanks go to my instructor for the studio, Elena Canovas, and my instructor for the initial research for the studio, Derek Hoeferlin.

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