Bosch Centraal is a speculative proposal for a train station that is both a city park and a gravity battery. Since 2017, the Dutch railroads have used renewable electricity from wind parks off the coast of the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland. While this is a good step in the energy transition, it is also a theoretical reality. There is no direct relationship between the production of electricity and the train. If there is not enough wind during the day, the train gets its power from a local gas plant, while if it’s windy at night, the electricity might be lost because there is no demand. Bosch Centraal aims to restore the relationship between power production and consumption by lifting the roof of the station when electricity is abundantly available during the night and releasing electricity by lowering it during the day.
As such, it balances the power grid but also creates a readable and fluctuating architecture. As the roof is raised and lowered, it creates an ever-changing spatial experience of the station, while the crane towers function as gauging rods that show the amount of power stored in the raised roof. The towers also function as variable elevators that give access to a rooftop park, which provides both the weight for the gravity battery as well as an ever-changing view of the city.
Instead of hiding energy storage in an industrial box outside the city, Bosch Centraal proposes urban energy storage that celebrates the energy transition as an opportunity for new types of public spaces.