One of MSSM ASSOCIATES projects,
The American Petroleum Institute estimated the world’s oil supply to be depleted during the second half of the 21st century. This fact, combined to the need for generating clean energy highlights the importance of alternative and geothermal energy sources.
Indonesia has around 130 active volcanoes and 25 geyser sites, but is only using 0.5 GW of its estimated potential of 28 GW (40% of the world’s potential). By 2025 it is aiming at producing more than 9 GW of geothermal power.
We respond to such a need from an architect’s point of view, integrating engineering knowledge to a global framework designed as an autonomous plant, conceiving Geothermia. Comprising the many functions needed for power production molded in an organic form, this geothermal power plant is adaptable to its environment, marking it as a semantic landmark expressing man’s imprint in nature.
Geothermia is a polyvalent concept with different morphologies proper to volcano sites, active or passive, but also for geyser sites in flat lands.
For the purpose of the project, we developed the case study for a geyser site in Iceland, where geyser steam is not enough for producing a large amount of energy. So we designed the system to pump heat from the hot underground: 6 wells are drilled to more than a mile deep to drain down water that is transformed into high pressure steam, which expands up through the turbine rotating its blades, generating electricity from the alternator. The steam then condenses to water, which is recollected in the reservoir, then pumped again underground. Apart from the mechanical chambers, an operational plant is developed vertically along the turbine, comprising sections for control and management, for maintenance and for research and development.
A blend between engineering and architecture, Geothermia is formed of two parts fusing one with the other where we wonder whether architectural space becomes a machine or the machine becomes an architectural form.
The skyscraper is perceived blending in the natural scenery, being that of a volcano-scape or of an icy platform of geysers, expressing the emanation of energy from within, in a vertical gesture. The vertical composition axis is at the same time the revolving axis of the machine, organizing the form in an irregular shape from the outside and regular from inside.
Geothermia transforms the energy of the magma, pumped hundreds of meters below the surface into electricity, thus translating the unlimited potential of the Earth into endless and clean power.
