2022-2023
Speculative Design

The Bartlett School of Architecture
Tutors: Prof. Laura Allen, Tom Budd, Prof. Mark Smout

Silvertown Battery Park -1

A Sustainable Trasformation of Silvertown
Located at the centre of an area undergoing large-scale urban regeneration, Silvertown Battery Park responds to the urgent need for an energy system upgrade to support the incoming population as the area is redeveloped. It is an innovative energy infrastructure and a vibrant public space for local communities. The dockland waterscape and the site are turned into a solar panel blanket that captures solar energy, and the five battery landscapes store the energy helping to balance supply and demand, vital for transforming from fossil fuel to renewable energy. Instead of chemical batteries, each battery landscape employs natural material as a renewable energy storage medium. The performative landscapes demonstrate energy storage technologies as a science spectacle and transform them into public space.

The People’s Plan for The Royal Docks, 1983
A landmark community-focused plan was proposed to oppose the LDDC's regeneration plan focused on financial potential. The lack of community open spaces and amenities is still one of the problems in Silvertown today. Image source




A solar panel blanket covers the dockland water surface and the site. Five battery buildings store energy in renewable materials. A number of architectural elements include modular walkways and energy instruments emerging from the solar panel blanket. The intervention in various scales defines the project's master plan.

A set of energy instruments is scattered across the site to assist and reflect the process of capturing and storing energy at a street furniture scale. Energy clouds and gateways emerge from the site’s periphery, providing exciting glimpses into the wonderful future world beyond.


Palace of Electricity at the 1900 Paris World Exposition, illustrated by Ewald Thiel
Electricity is demonstrated as spetacle, technology process and public engagement facilities like electric tramway, telephot, electric boat. Image source





Early Stage Masterplan Iteration
Employing hand drawing and model making to integrate the study of the technological landscape and the site. The study tests how to occupy the place with a human-scale instrumental landscape.


 © 2026 Chia-Yi Chou 周佳怡