Sustainability

Competition Winning Entry for San Diego

BLDA’s competition winning entry for a new industrial landscape

Desalination power plants have an overpowering visual presence in our landscape.

By their very nature they are mysterious; a pulsating network of complex steel structures and pipes that glow at night with the hum of potential energy.  

But what of their potential? Can we make the desalination plant more friendly?

We proposed a new type of desalination plant where low-tech solar distillation is prioritised and supplemented by renewably driven reverse osmosis. Power plant and people assimilate in an uplifting visual experience, engaging with a code of architectural design where vertical, active and intelligent systems constantly assess and recalibrate the local dynamic environment.

This raw power is expressed in this design by its architecture.