Flavio Gisler

What if a building is not a consumer, but a producer of energy? A thorough investigation into Swiss electricity production facilities and its networks — with the Laufkraftwerk Letten as central protagonist — leads to the astounding finding that due to heat loss, no less than 2% of the yearly production capacity of the Letten turbines is being dumped in the Limmat. But what if we could recover this ‘dumped’ energy and re-use it on the spot? A calculation clarifies that the lost energy accounts for 140 households that could be added to the 7000 households the Laufkraftwerk currently provides with electricity. This becomes the programme for a bold and radical development scenario in which ‘wasted’ heat now ‘energises’ a new and monumental housing block standing proud, slim and tall on top of the existing Laufkraftwerk Letten.