Relaxing in an industrial landscape, an ensemble of public baths combined with Westpoort waste incineration plant in the former Amsterdam docklands.

Every year, the Amsterdam Waste and Energy Company (Dutch initials AEB) burns some 1.4 million tonnes of household waste. The energy freed by the incineration process provides 16,000 homes in Amsterdam-West with hot water and every public building in the city as a whole with electricity. This key role played by the AEB in converting waste to energy means nothing to the average Amsterdam citizen. Nor is there any effort at Westpoort to broadcast the fact.
In adding baths to the incineration plant, this aspect of the AEB is brought into view. And because they are public baths, it gives everyone a peek into the world of waste disposal.
The act of intertwining these two unrelated building types,
waste incineration plant and bath-house, incites space for encounter and a wider array of options. Both AEB and Westpoort Thermae stand to gain from this. The public baths draw on the generated energy, the building's loose-fit format, the by- products of the incineration process and the impressive industrial setting. The AEB in turn is placed in a new, more environmentally acceptable light.
The quantity of impressions one gets when walking through the AEB complex is immense. You pass throbbing and hissing engines, feel the blistering heat of the ovens and enjoy a panoramic view of the docks. By channelling all these impressions and tuning them to the individual programme components of the bath-house, a a visit to Westpoort Thermae will be an experience never to forget.
The bath-house itself consists of baths, treatment rooms, saunas and a restaurant. Spaces such as the treatment rooms where visitors to the bath-house need to relax in peace and quiet have a more hermetic quality. But there are also rooms where those visitors have a sense of being part of the industrial setting and the waste incineration process. In Westpoort Thermae the interface between burning waste and hedonism is cranked up. CO2-neutral bathing just a splash away from Amsterdam!

Place of education: AvB Amsterdam | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Rob Hootsmans, Rien Korteknie, Joost van Hezewijk