Christoph Klanten & Michael Coersmeier
Battersea Power Stadium. RWTH Aachen (Germany)
A new Football Stadium for the Chelsea FC London
In June 2012, Chelsea FC declared an interest in the Battersea Power Station area in West-London. The idea of redeveloping the old industrial site has often been considered – but never as a football stadium. Immediately, football fans and journal-ists became enthusiastic, producing numerous sketches of what the new Chelsea base could look like. Several of which have been published. In the weeks to follow the rights to the area were awarded to an Investor Group from Singapore.
Our project explores the symbiosis of the old coal-fired power station from the late twenties and a modern football stadium. This acts in contrast to the proposal made by Chelsea FC in the previous year, which consisted of a stadium complex inserted within the historic structure. Our intention is to use the old building for access, ad-ministrative and affine uses. The stadium in effect will be built out of the east side of the power station allowing the existing complex to remain intact, and stand proud once again as an icon.
The surroundings will become a mixed use quarter, consisting of traditional London townhouses, a hotel/congress-center complex and offices. The old cranes and docks at the Thames site will become restaurants just as the arcades under the railway in the western part of the area. Parking spaces will be provided under-ground and in the southwest, including an old gas holder from 1935.
The regeneration of the Battersea Power Station and its surrounds not only pre-serves the history of a building, but that of an area, a city and a culture. It would pro-vide Chelsea FC and the London area with an iconic fortress that would be univer-sally identifiable, but most importantly it would prevent the destruction of an icon, which would act as a precedent for similar locations all over the world.
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