The Booster Station is a public utility building which covers a technical installation, a pumping-engine for sluicing out sewage. That easily fits into the infrastructural ‘no man’s land’, where the elevated metro lines and railways dominate and is designed to be an attractive object for passers-by.
The program for the pumping-station consists of a voltage space, an overhead crane, three pumps, a bypass and an entrance. In the design all these different element come together in an efficient system, fit for the purpose and compact as an engine. With a clinging, aerodynamic skin the Booster Station presents itself as a streamlined engine that is connected to the underground sewage by incoming and outgoing ducts and pipes. With its cladding of stainless steel panels it reflects the movements, shapes and colours of the environment. At night the buildings tectonics come to the surface. The illuminated seams in the steal skin make the pumping-engine look like a mesh-model. Mass turns into mesh.
Facts
Client
Waternet, Amsterdam
Assignment
New build industrial building
Location
Spaklerweg, Amsterdam, NL
Area
450 sqm
Function
Sewage pumping station
Start design
February 2002
Start construction
November 2003
Completed
February 2006
Photography
DigiDaan
