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Medal Winner 2020

Devil’s Valley Geothermal Co-operative

Part 2 Project 2020
Robert Beeny
University of Westminster | UK
This project is situated in a region of Tuscany known as the Devil’s Valley. Over the last century this area has become synonymous with the production of renewable, geothermal energy. The infrastructure related to this industry dominates the landscape; vast concrete cooling towers neighbour quaint rural villages whilst a glistening web of pipelines run delicately over the hills and through the valleys. Yet today the industry is in jeopardy as central government green incentives are being withdrawn, threatening the local communities who rely on this energy source to power their homes and businesses.

This project attempts to regain control of the region’s socio-economic future by imagining a new rural co-operative powered independently by its own geothermal well and pipeline. No longer at the mercy of large corporations and governments, this self-build development will see artisans producing traditional food and drink using clean, residual thermal energy extracted deep from the earth. This collective produce cheese, wine, craft beer and basil etc all linked to a terraced landscape and structured according to the temperature of each use, as the temperatures degrade along the cascading pipeline. The architecture becomes lighter and more open as a greenhouse typology becomes more prevalent.

Robert Beeny

Tutor(s)
Anthony Boulanger
Callum Perry
Stuart Piercy
2020
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