Abstract
This project reimagines the ash landscapes north of Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire as a decentralised energy terrain where renewable generation and public life converge.
Barlow Mound, once a coal ash deposit formed through decades of extraction, is now envisioned as an ecological reserve in transition. Reusing site-sourced materials, such as biomass ash and reclaimed industrial components, is used to construct decentralised hydroelectric and wind systems. Landscape architecture that connects technical systems and public spatial experiences: for instance, the upper reservoir functions both as an energy storage system and as a public swimming pool.
A continuous route connects three thematic landscapes, each engaging with the monumental structures of the power station while interpreting different sustainable energy resources: Coal Storage and Water, Factory Remnants and Light, and Cooling Towers and Wind. Along the path, visitors encounter water, wind, and light not as abstractions, but as tangible experiences interwoven into everyday space.
Electricity generated on-site first sustains the project itself, then supplies nearby villages, and finally returns any surplus to the national grid.
Ultimately, the project stages a dialogue between the monumental presence of the still-operating Drax Power Station and a dispersed, adaptive energy future, transforming the end of extraction into the beginning of symbiosis.
