Oz

Volume 6 Article 4

1-1-1984

The : Use and Reuse

Neil Jackson

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Recommended Citation Jackson, Neil (1984) "The Battersea Power Station: Use and Reuse," Oz: Vol. 6. https://doi.org/10.4148/ 2378-5853.1075

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Oz by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Battersea Power Station

Neil Jackson

Built between 1929 and 1934 and fur­ ther enlarged after World War II. the Battersea Power Station sits forlorn on the south bank of the in (Figure I). No long­ er does smoke trail from its great stacks; now. the dank piles of and the tangle of railway debris in the shunting yards give the building a wasted look. Yet it is a building of ac­ knowledged architectural interest which holds a special place in the hearts of Londoners.

As the subject of an adaptive reuse studio. the Battersea Power Station was presented to a fifth year design studio at Kansas State University in the Fall of 1983 . The problem was to 2a. Grundvig Church, Copenhagen by P. select a suitable new use for the build­ W. Klint, 1913 and 1926. ing. based on an analysis of the mas­ ter plan formulated by the local gov­ ernment. the London Borough of I. The Battersea Power Station. A view from the river. . and to present the pro­ posals in the most convincing man­ which serves the populace as much as ence to monumental columns charac­ ner. The issues involved were semio­ it will serve the building in question. teristic of antiquity through to logical; they were of image. of what Through such an approach. adopted Nelson's Column in the building said. and of making place. by the design studio. a fitting use for (1839) and Adolf Loos· then recent en­ the Battersea Power Station was to be try for the Chicago Tribune Tower Traditionally the issue of making place found. competition ( 1922)_~ The careful. al­ was one of establishing a use. a func­ most Expressionist articulation of the tion and an image. and of establishing Built at a time of architectural uncer­ surface of the building. the stepping an identity on a new and anonymous tainty. the Battersea Power Station and off-setting. and the massing and site. In urban centers where space is combined the formality of Classicism weight was closer to the new brick ar­ limited. it has become necessary to with the boldness of Continental chitecture of Scandinavia. than to the adapt and reuse the environment Modernism. The apparent symmetry contemporary architecture of the which has been created. and the issue of the exterior was matched by the Bauhaus. and spoke of P. W. Klint's of making place is now one of inter­ fluted columns. the afterthought of Grundvig Church in Copenhagen preting the identity of the buildings the consultant architect Sir Giles Gil­ (1913. 1922) (Figure 2) and Willem 2b. Battersea Power Station. A view 10 which exist and of extrapolating a use bert Scott. These columns made refer- Dudok's Hilversum Town Hall (1929) 2 from the south. Use Reuse

The first impression of the Battersea The Wandsworth Borough Pl an had Power Station is of its scale (Figure 3). called for a use which would serve the It is extremely large. much larger in residents of the heavily populated fact than any other building. except borough while not detracting from or the Houses of Parliament. which ad­ competing with the established urban dresses the River Thames. The build­ infrastructure. A shopping center. for ing contains two vast turbine halls. A instance. would not be appropriate. and B. located not between the chim­ Confronting the issue of making place. neys. as might be expected. but in the while providing a new use for the lower. subsidiary wings. The great Power Station. it was soon apparent mass at the center of the bui lding to the studio members that a function once held a myriad of transformers was needed which would relate both set on a multiplicity of levels. The to the physical form and sheer vol­ Government preservation o rder. ume of the building as well as one wh ich governs the building. requires which would reflect. semiologically. the retention of Turbine Hall A and its the image and intention of the struc­ control room and also. if ture. its site. and its location. To this possible. Turbine Hall B. where the end. four distinctly different uses later completed interior has the utili­ emerged. tarian look of the 1950's. Although the great turbines which one thundered ifl An indoor sports center would be the these halls have been removed. leav­ most obvious and the most needed ing only gaping chasms in the struc­ use for the building (Figure 4) This so­ ture of the floor. the image of the 3. The Battersea Power Station. A model. lution had already been proposed in building is still one of power. This is its the scheme the British architect Mar- most immediate message. tin Richardson proposed for SAVE Britian's Heritage in 1980. It is the use The power the building once pro­ which complies most clearly with the duced was electrical. This was a pow­ requirements of the Borough Plan. Al- er which crackled. sparked. and so. it would provide a valuable metro­ jumped. a power which was ex­ politan facility within an hitherto neg­ pressed figuratively in the zigzag flash lected corner of the borough. Yet as a of a thunderbolt as clearly as it was in use for the building. there is little the angular Art Deco of the first tur­ about it that relates semiologically to bine hall and control room. The build­ the structure-unless the idea of pow- ing was a homage to power as much er is taken in an Olympian sense. If as the work of Antonio Sant'EIIa and such a literal interpretation of power ® A the Italian Futurists had been twenty were to be accepted. a variety of solu­ 4. The Battersea Power Station reused as a sports center. A scheme by John Huber years earlier. which provides a much-needed facility for south-central London. tions might offer themselves. The II .. ·. ~ :~ ~ ~ :: l . • - ~ - ~ .. J- " \ . ~ · ~_ : .·. 't'J I ~ ;:; ~ , ,_ I.' i ~~ ,:~ .. _, .. .. ' . : .~ ·I .. ·!· ·-~ · I . Lj

FIRST FLCCR PLAN 5. The Battersea Power Station reused as academic housing. This model by Jennifer Garrett shows the roof of the building removed and the inner space treated as gardens and courtyard housing. bui lding could work as an academic The river also provided the scenic powerhouse (Figure 5) with a residen­ back-drop to the Pleasure Gardens tial village or campus within the shell which were built in for of the building. Yet such semantic the 1951 Festival of Britain. There the contortions do not indicate a new use; association with the vanished pleas­ more immediate reference needs to ure gardens of nearby was be sought. briefly revived. The same association could be expressed at the Power Sta­ The Battersea Power Station sits on tion where the opportunity of indoor 6. The Battersea Power Station as an aquarium. In this scheme by Mike Heule the the banks of the River Thames and is spaces would provide the security centrally placed aquarium is surrounded by office and retail accommodation flanked by Battersea Park. The rela­ lacking in the earlier. outdoor gar­ which provide the development with financial security. tionship of the building to the river dens. But in such an adaptation little the architecture. The building speaks satisfactorily resolved. was immediate and necessary; water would be present to reflect the image of power; it is a temple to power as was used to ferry fuel to the great and intention of the structure. much as Scott's earlier Liverpool Ca­ Reference should again be made to boilers which were. in turn. cooled thedral was a temple to God. It is only Antonio Sant'EIIa. to his Stazione Ae­ with water from the river. Thus. it When dealing with a building such as through a strong and puritanical ac­ roplani of 1912 3 and his Citta Nuova of 4 would be appropriate to relate the the Battersea Power Station. the prob­ knowledgement of the essence of the 1913-1914 . It is as important to ac­ building to the river. itself a source of lem is not to be solved through inter­ building that a use compatible with knowledge the Futurist interpretation power. through the introduction of pretation by association or even by the building's language can emerge of the building as it is to acknowledge 12 aquaria or marina facilities (Figure 6). location. but more directly through and the issue of making place can be its form and context. In the issue of 7. The Battersea Power Station as a museum of prime movers and methods of 8. The Battersea Power Station as a Transit Center and Museum of Transport. In transport. Here Kevin Kerwin has set the building on a plinth to separate it from this scheme John Wind runs the railway link right into the heart of the building, the surrounding industrial debris which Is allowed to remain. Turbine Hall A. making place the function needs to be is provided by the adaptation of the have been replaced by the railway The Studio members were: derived from the semiological inter­ peripheral spaces into a transit center link which runs directly into the heart Bruce Ferry. Jennifer Garrett Mike pretation of the building as much as (Figure 8). Thus. the museum facility of the building from London's nearby Heule. John Huber. Kevin Kerwin. Da­ from the qualifiable requirements of gives historical reference to the prime Victoria Station. Thus. this space. as a vid Kesler. Jonathan Knight Renae the context. If mechanical power is movers of the past while the building generative center for the building. re­ Roggenbuck. Brian Tempas. and John the language of the building. then a itself. regarded as a transit center. tains much of its former function. and Wind. gives credence to the prime movers function which relates to power and at the galleried control room above can NOTES the same time conforms to the re­ of the present. The building is seen as once again justify its existence. I . Fo r Loos' Chicago Tribune Tower see quirements of the context will provide the focus of intense activity; hydrofoil Charl es A. Jencks. The Language of Post-Mod­ the most suitable use. and hovercraft link the building to the To find a new use for an old building is ern Architecture. London. 1977. p. 53. illus. river. to the docks. and ultimately to a problem which is increasingly beset­ 85. 2. For Dudok·s Hilversum Town Hall see Rich­ This solution is found in the use of the the Continent; helicopter pads pro­ ting architects. Preservation orders ard Guy Wilson. " Willem Dudok: Modernist building as a temple of power. a mu­ vide for quick access to London's Gat­ demand the retention of buildings but not Mainstream ... A l A Journal'. 71. seum of prime movers and methods wick and Heathrow Airports; and per­ and clients look to their architects for August 1982. pp. 44-51 . of transport (Figure 7). with the great haps even dirigibles nestle between solutions. Now the issue is not so 3. For Sant'EIIa's Stazione Aeroplani see Rey­ voids of the building opened up to the giant chimneys Yet the strongest much one of making place but of placing ner Banham. Th eory and Design in the First Ma ch ine Age , New York . 1967. p. 116. illus. provide galleried spaces for the dis­ reference to power is demonstrated something. in the building. which 42. play of aircraft. ships. and railway lo­ internally. in Turbine Hall A. In this makes it. 4. For Sa nt'EIIa's Citta Nuova see ibid .. p. 11 6. comotives. Greater financial feasibility vast. Art Deco hall. the old turbines illus. 43. 13