Landscapes and architecture of thermoelectric power stations in Italy

Several recently closed and underused thermoelectric power stations in Italy are the topic of the energy company enel’s project Futur-e. Here, some of those plants are described and several reflections at different scales are offered, useful to deal with such technical spaces from a design perspective. The paper will show that these plants are usually part of a global network of fuel flows and part of the ‘operational landscape’ (a definition provided within the context of the recent concept of ‘planetary urbanization’). How such power stations can influence their local context to generate a ‘landscape’ is discussed. The plants are then analysed in terms of their recurring spaces and structures as well as the unexpected environments, such as ‘natural’ areas or even archaeological sites that, strangely enough, may be found inside their borders.

L’articolo tratta di alcune centrali termoelettriche dismesse o in via di dismissione presenti in Italia e coinvolte nel progetto Futur-e di enel, proponendo descrizioni e riflessioni a diverse scale, utili per affrontare questi ‘spazi tecnici’ da un punto vista progettuale. L’articolo mostra come le centrali termoelettriche siano spesso parte sia di una rete globale di flussi di combustibili, sia di quello che, nell’ambito del concetto di ‘planetary urbanization’, viene definito come ‘operational landscape’. Alla scala locale, il testo evidenzia come alcune centrali possano influenzare il proprio contesto, generando un ‘paesaggio’. Infine, vengono descritti gli spazi ricorrenti e le strutture che caratterizzano le centrali, nonché gli ambienti inaspettati, quali aree riconquistate dalla natura o talvolta siti archeologici, che possono essere trovati all’interno dei loro confini.

Parole chiave:Centrali elettriche; paesaggio; architettura

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Chiara Geroldi, Landscapes and architecture of thermoelectric power stations in Italy in "TERRITORIO" 86/2018, pp 92-100, DOI: 10.3280/TR2018-086013