The student Stefanie Hug has chosen the focus «Architecture & Structure» for the autumn semester 2022 in the Master of Architecture. In the video interview below she explains the very unusual task and her project.

Stefanie Hug writes about her project: «The four most prominent dams in the Grimsel region; the Räterichsbodensee, Seeuferegg, Spitallamm and Oberaar dams, literally form the foundation of the new power plant. Structures up to 400 metres high made of steel will be placed over the existing dams and filled with wind turbines. The four steel structures create a composition in the landscape, as they differ in dimension. The differentiated sizes result from the different sizes of the dam walls and their crests. The tops of the dams determine the distance between the main supports. For example, the Spitallamm dam with the narrowest crown width of four metres has the lowest steel structure of 250 metres – the widest crown of the Seeuferegg dam at six metres has the highest at around 400 metres. There is a grate between the main pillars. On the one hand to hold the whole structure together and on the other hand to place the wind turbines on it.»

«The wind turbines from the Swiss company «Agile Wind Power» do not rotate like conventional wind turbines – they rotate around a vertical axis. These have the advantage of requiring less space, as they do not have to align themselves and face into the wind in order to rotate optimally. The position of the three rotor blades of the vertical turbine continuously optimises itself. For example, a wind turbine has a diameter of 30 metres and a height of 50 metres. In the best wind conditions, 16 revolutions per minute are measured.

The four steel structures contain a total of 82 such wind turbines. One wind turbine has 750 kilowatts of power. If it is assumed that one person consumes 1000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and the turbine produces half of its maximum power, one turbine is enough for 3285 people per year. Thus, the new wind power plant can supply electricity to almost 270,000 people per year.»

«The same importance is to be attributed to the building as to its problematic. It is about the relationship between expression, form and landscape as well as people, environment and utility. It is to become a symbol for the future. In this way, something unprecedented has come into being.»