A waste treatment plant blending landscaping with architecture

At first sight it looks like an uncontaminated natural landscape, with a modern construction visible from far away that seems to blend into its natural surroundings. But in actual fact it is a garbage dump that has reached the limit of its capacity.

To clean up the site, the operator decided to ask for the assistance of the Catalan architectural practice of Batlle and Roig, famous for their projects successfully combining architecture and landscape, whose CTRV (the Spanish abbreviation) earned them an award in the “Production, energy and recycling centres” section at the 2011 World Architecture Festival.

Their design was guided by the criteria of logistical and economic sustainability, minimising the impact of the waste treatment centre’s activities.The plant was built on the area most topographically altered by the landfill, in an attempt to integrate the plant into the landscape and permit its recovery.

The big reinforced concrete roof acts as a technical element and integrates the construction with its surroundings. It is divided in half due to the different heights of the facilities below it, which will come together with time as plants gradually grow over the construction and fill the big circles full of earth a true green refuge.

The building itself has a reduced impact as it uses practically only rainwater and generates energy using biogas from the old landfill.On the basis of Battle and Roig’s concept, in a few years it will be hard to see the facility in the landscape, as their architectural and landscaping project will allow nature to take back what was subtracted from her.

Design: Enric Batlle, Joan Roig 
Location: Vacarisses, Catalonia, Spain
Photographer: Francisco Urrutia

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