Jenni Wilson

The Neepsend Energy Demonstration, Sheffield

With each consecutive year a larger focus is placed on the construction industry to address energy reduction. Initiative such as LETI, and the 2030 Challenge are omnipresent, however often villainise energy as the antithesis of future design. Inspired by concepts in Barnabas Calder’s ‘Buildings and Energy’ (2016), this project proposes that in our new period of energy depletion, rather than abundance, its within our inherent nature to enjoy expressions of energy in our architecture.

The Neepsend Energy Demonstration employs various strategies to allow appreciation towards energy, whilst exploring sustainable approaches that go beyond current overarching benchmarks. Reusing an obsolete industrial structure in Sheffield, the scheme pushes existing boundaries on attitudes about reuse. The project houses a small-scale demonstration fusion reactor and exhibition space combining research, teaching, and public outreach. Nuclear fusion has been touted as the future ‘alchemist’s gold’, however is unlikely to solve our relationship with energy. The site becomes a central hub for the surrounding community, a visual connection to their energy, both through its literal production but also its expressions in people, passive solar and ventilation strategies, and aggressive reuse that enjoys existing energy. Making what has previously been considered an intangible force, tangible.