Torsviks kraftvärmeverk ‹ Liljewall Arkitekter

Torsviks kraftvärmeverk

New, renovation and extension / Jönköping

Along the E4, between Värnamo and Jönköping, in the middle of the Småland forests, stands an industrial plant that attracts attention. With a 120-meter-high, illuminated chimney and a glazed boiler building, it is a magnificent structure that generates environmentally friendly district heating and renewable electricity for the residents of Jönköping. The Torsvik combined heat and power plant has been one of liljewall 's most important projects, first as a prestigiously won competition and then as a recurring task for expansions for more than fifteen years.

Year

2006 - 2015

Location

Energivägen 10,
556 52 Jonkoping

Customer

Jonkoping Energy

Contact

Tomas Hago
0765-487030
liljewall

Torsvik includes two boilers; one burns waste and the other biofuel. Together, the two plants account for 90% of the district heating needs and 20% of the electricity used in the Jönköping and Huskvarna area.

A build-up project over time

In 2002, we won an invited competition for Torsviks kraftvärmeverk . The competition task was to organize and design a large facility for incinerating waste on virgin land in a forest area along Europavägen 4 outside Jönköping. The competition and the location made us strive for a strong and cohesive concept and to seek economical solutions. One component was to manage traffic flows to a large number of gates in different directions. Another was to create an appealing expression for a place that so many cars pass through. The solution was a circular access road around a strictly geometric building set at right angles to Europavägen.

A hundred-meter-high chimney at the front was equipped with an illuminated glass slit along its entire height. The boiler building was also equipped with a glazed gable facing the road and clad in corrugated silver-shimmering aluminum on the other facades. The large slope of the site was handled with recurring “vector walls”, retaining walls made of stones within a framework of steel grating.

In 2013, the project was continued when it was desired to expand with office space and storage space. After several different sketches, a solution was settled on where an elongated rectangular two-story building was added as a bridge from the existing building, over the circular access road, to the hills outside the construction area. The extension is located at an oblique angle and is a visible departure from the previous rectangular layout.

Truck traffic also passes under the new office building. The large storage areas that were requested were hidden behind expanded “vector walls”, form elements that were already on site. In this way, the new building could be designed with a sleek high-tech expression and appear smaller than it actually is.

A major benefit of the extension was that the entire facility now had a welcoming entrance for staff and visitors outside the heavily trafficked facility area.

Office with yellow accents

If the office is strictly geometric on the outside, its interior is furnished with industrial yellow, angled walls in strong contrast to the facades. The color comes from the process parts of the original boiler building. Some yellow parts have also been allowed to wander out of the building in the form of angled benches in front of the main entrance. At the same time as the new office part, a new boiler building for biofuel was also built. This was designed as a “twin” to the original boiler building and was built within the circle.