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Olson Kundig Designs Office Made From Wind Turbine Parts
Posted By
Bridgette Meinhold
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Architecture,Environment,Renewable Energy |
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Olson Kundig Architects’ 1,700 square-foot office addition was inspired by wind turbines — they deconstructed the turbine down to its main parts, which include sections of the tower and the blades. Two sections are used as the entrance to the office – one lies horizontally on the ground and the other is stood vertically. Visitors and employees enter the office through the horizontal tube that pierces the ground level of the office and leads to the vertical tower and a spiral staircase with a skylight in the top. A large fan (shaped like wind turbine blades) and vent are suspended in the tube — this system operates like a solar chimney that pulls warm air up and out of the building to naturally ventilate it and reduce the cooling load.
Solar panels on the office’s sloped roof provide renewable energy, and the roof’s angle directs rainwater into a rain garden and the adjoining landscape. Inside the office, materials like steel and concrete are left raw and unfinished to minimize coatings and toxic materials, ensuring a healthy and safe working environment. The two-story office building attaches to the company’s manufacturing plant in Anacortes, Washington, where the fabrication of the wind turbine towers takes place.
Seattle-based Olson Kundig Architects have designed an impressive office made from wind turbine parts for wind power manufacturer T Bailey Construction and Fabrication. The design of the new headquarters (located next to T Bailey’s tubular tower plant)
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Olson Kundig Architects designed this 11,700 sq foot office addition to T Bailey’s manufacturing plant in Anacortes, WA.
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As T Bailey fabricates wind turbine towers in their fabrication plant, they wanted to utilize these parts in their office addition to show off their products as well as their interest in renewable energy.
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The office space features two wind turbine tower sections that are used as the entrance to the office.
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The inspiration for the office design came from deconstructing the wind turbine into its parts – the tower sections and the blades.
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Two tower sections are placed nearby the manufacturing plant – one horizontally and the other vertically.
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The roof of the plant is extended to create a two-story office building built around the tower sections.
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Solar panels are added to the roof to generate power for the office.
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The vertical tower acts as a solar chimney for the office. It is coupled with a fan and skylight that pulls out hot air from the office, providing natural ventilation.
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The materials for the office building are left raw and unfinished to give the whole office an industrial feeling while minimizing the presence of toxic finishes in the office.
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T Bailey wanted to show off their fabrication skills along with their interest in wind energy by using wind turbine parts in their new office addition.
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The plant and office are located right on the coast near Anacortes, Washington.
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The steel tower sections will be left unfinished in their natural raw state.
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The roof is also used to direct rainwater runoff onto a rainwater garden and nearby landscape.
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