Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. (ABB) Award 2009 - N. Chollet and Y. Gramegna

The jury awarded a special mention and a price of CHF 500 for the Master Thesis "The Energy Question in the Megalopolis: Another Powerhouse for Tokyo" which was ranked in third place.

"For a Master Thesis project demonstrating a great coherence between a research phase, based on the energetic issues and the future of very large cities, and the translation of this research in a strong and innovative architectural concept."

The Energy question in the Megalopolis: another powerhouse for Tokyo.

What is the future of energy production in very large cities? As a case study, the city of Tokyo was chosen. The Kyoto's protocol says that Tokyo has to produce at least 20% of renewable energies by the year 2020. Today, the city is only producing 2.7%, therefore an urgent innovation is required. Japan possesses a large available tank, the ocean, which offers a huge biomass resource: the seaweed.

The idea of this project is to use this resource and to transform it into electricity. Such a power plant is only efficient if it takes advantage of the heat produced during the transformation. This additional energy can then be injected into the heat supply system of the city.

The project is a power plant prototype situated in the urban tissue, close to the consumers for efficiency reasons. It uses the rivers as a supply infrastructure and, in the extreme density of Tokyo, it takes place under the highways, the only leftover spaces.

The project tries to show how this usually banished object, can activate a neighbourhood. The prototype is not only producing energies but contains other programs. Education (museum, library, congress centre) and leisure (thermal baths, restaurants) are also composing this power plant.