Page 224 - Beyond Decommissioning

Experience and lessons learned 205

Fig. 6.23 Fulham Broadway Underground Station.
Photo by M. Laraia, 2018.
6.2.4 Gasholders

Already for several decades, gasholders have been gradually made redundant and
demolished. This is due to technological progress: gas is now stored in the under-
ground mains network, rather than in huge above ground tanks (see also Glossary).
Unfortunately, the demolition program underway in many countries will leave the
urban landscape deprived of what, since Victorian times, has been one of its essential
features. For example, the London landscape is already altered by the removal of the
solid-type Battersea gas holder near the iconic power station described in
Section 6.2.1.12 Over the last few years, however, the awareness of the cultural mean-
ing of gas holders has alerted many opinion leaders and environmentalists, and
reconversion projects are coming up.
“A contest was organized by RIBA Competitions for British gas and electricity net-
work National Grid. It asked architects to develop proposals that could regenerate over
100 of the former industrial sites, dotted across the UK (Dezeen, 2017a).
Verhagen and Rodriguez’s proposal sees the wells left behind after the gasholders’
dismantling infilled with telescopic cylindrical blocks, while Max Architects has pit-
ched a housing development surrounding a circular boating pond.
Plans by 318 Studio would convert several of the pits to create a semi-subterranean
crematorium, and Outpost would encircle a circular patch of landscaping with a
mixed-use development housed in individual gabled blocks.
Wilson Owens Owens Architects pitched to convert a pair of the wells into an
indoor and outdoor sports center, with the latter enclosed by tall fencing, echoing
the distinctive steel framework of the demolished gasholders.