Waste incineration plant: a concise orientation before we get practical.
Waste incineration plant: Quick notes
Architecture studio KPF has completed a waste incineration plant in Taiwan, wrapping its tiered structure with a spiralling, landscaped terrace.
Commissioned by the Taiwan Cement Company, the mixed-use building, named the TCC DAKA Renewable Resource Recycling Center, also houses a botanical garden, exhibition space, and a cafe within its sinuous volume.
KPF has completed a recycling facility and waste incineration plant in Taiwan
KPF designed the facility’s fluid concrete and steel form to have a “harmonious relationship” to its coastal site, which is situated between the sea and a nearby mountain range, and is also home to an existing cement manufacturing facility.
“The facility’s design was conceived to possess strong formal characteristics that draw inspiration from the striking industrial structures on-site,” studio director Bob Graustein told Dezeen.
Its tiered structure is built from concrete and steel
“Large-scale cylindrical volumes, structurally expressive towers composed of light-coloured concrete, and brightly painted exposed steel work have all informed the facility’s architectural language,” Graustein continued.
“The architectural expression is highly contextual through its concrete and steel materiality, curvilinear forms, and capacity to serve as an armature for vegetation,” added studio principal Bruce Fisher.
Textured concrete panels cloak the building’s lower levels
At the building’s landscaped front, a wide external staircase lined with seating winds up from ground level to a raised terrace and adjacent cafe. This is complemented by a cylindrical, tower-like elevator shaft that rises through the building to connect its nine floors.
A large concave podium forms the base of the facility and is clad with Ultra High-Performing Concrete (UHPC) panels developed by the Taiwan Cement Company (TCC).
Informed by local indigenous crafts, these panels are complete with a texture made up of various geometric patterns.
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“Rather than showcasing the material’s technical properties through smooth, minimal surfaces, the panels are embossed with a socketed texture drawn directly from local indigenous craft traditions,” Fisher said.
“The relief patterns catch and hold light throughout the day, creating a shifting play of shadow that accentuates the texture and animates the facade.”
A staircase connects the ground level to a raised terrace
Above this, the volume’s upper level is clad with perforated aluminium screens that draw light into the exhibition space and garden above, while also offering outward views.
Inside, the nine-storey facility is organised with public programmes at its accessible front, while the multi-level waste incinerator is contained at the building’s rear.
Connecting the two programmes is a viewing window within the upper level exhibition space, through which visitors can overlook the facility’s processes.
The facility houses a botanical garden, exhibition spaces, and a cafe
The industrial processes were also devised by TCC to reduce their environmental impact, with excess heat from the neighbouring cement kilns used to power waste incineration and the gasified output from this process then directed to the kilns to produce more cement.
“The facility integrates cement production and waste incineration into a harmonious ecosystem that advances both environmental stewardship and manufacturing and architectural innovation,” Fisher said.
A viewing window allows visitors to overlook the facility’s processes
Other industrial buildings recently feature on Dezeen include a power plant in Shenzhen, which Schmidt Hammer Lassen topped with a rooftop walkway and a tidal power station in the UK proposed by Marks Barfield Architects “to reduce reliance on fossil fuels”.
The photography is by Justin Szeremeta.
A short mention of Waste incineration plant helps readers follow the flow.
