'The Giant's Vases' - STATUS: Demolition Underway!
By Hope Jones
Why do we often consider vernacular and public architecture worthy of protection whilst industrial megastructures remain unworthy of conservation rights? This question emanates from the soon-to-be rubble of the West Burton cooling towers in Nottinghamshire, scheduled to be demolished in 2028. To emphasize the romantic significance of these monumental structures in our lives, before researching this topic, I believed these cooling towers to be called ‘the giant’s vases.’ This title, coined by my mother, prompted my interpretation of industrial forms as sculptural compositions. The foundations for this interpretation were also laid in the initial construction plans, when engineers commissioned Sculptor Henry Moore to decide where the towers were to be situated. Thus, Moore was curating the landscape as an exhibition backdrop to these sculptural megastructures.
To place the sublime architectural, hyperboloid cooling towers into perspective, each one is taller than St Paul’s Cathedral, at 114 metres or 374 feet. The structures have closely interacted with artists over the decades, with Sculptor Anthony Gormley describing them as ‘manmade volcanoes.’ Additionally, minimalist fashion designer Margaret Howell hosted a 2023 exhibition entitled British Cooling Towers - Sculptural Giants, to draw attention to the Twentieth Century Society’s (TCS) attempts to secure listing for the remaining towers at Ratcliffe-on-Soar after their efforts to preserve the West Burton structures in 2022 were unsuccessful.
Internal structure of a nuclear cooling tower.
Image courtesy Steven Dijkshoorn.
These cooling towers are so widely polarising that society is torn between viewing them as the ‘Carbon Stonehenge,’ a title offered by TCS Campaign Director Oli Marshall, or alternatively as monochrome brutalist scars upon the landscape. Despite controversial discourse emanating from the presence of these structures, Historic England has declared that the cooling towers lack the distinctiveness required to reserve the right to be protected.
The internal courtyard of Pirelli headquarters, Milan.
Image courtesy of Federico Balestrini.
Although widely contentious, these cooling towers demonstrate how evolving stylistic preferences can alter national appreciation of architectural and artistic forms, a theme consistently seen throughout the history of art. Upon completion of construction in 1963, the cooling towers of West Burton were awarded the Civic Trust Award. West Burton was the first of a collection of ten post-war power stations around the UK, and yet, just over 60 years later only three groupings of the monolithic cooling towers remain. For many, the demolition program of the towers has become emblematic of a fossil-fuel-free future, a prospect worth fighting for, but should it be to the detriment of these brutalist gems, ignoring alternative sustainable options offered by repurposing the towers?
INOTA Music Festival, Lake Balaton and Soweto Vertical Adventure Centre, Johannesburg.
Image courtesy of Bence Szemerey and Soweto Towers.
When considering other nations’ repurposing of the cooling towers, giving them a role within the contemporary environment, the UK seems to lack this same sustainable imagination. In 2007, a shell-like structure was built around a cooling tower in Milan; with self-supported pathways adjoining to the cooling tower core, the structure serves as Italian tyre company Pirelli’s headquarters. Additionally, in 2023, three cooling towers were repurposed as a backdrop lighting installation for the INOTA Music Festival near Lake Balaton, Hungary. Finally, the most playful redefinition of the cooling towers can be observed at the Soweto Towers Vertical Adventure Centre in Johannesburg. Completed in 2008, these eclectically muralled mega-structures became platforms for one-hundred-metre bungee jumping and a climbing wall that ascends the ‘vase’ itself.
After examining the architectural significance of these cooling towers and the creative ways in which they have been repurposed to suite contemporary needs, one question remains: is the United Kingdom applying cancel culture to architecture which once acted as a catalyst to climate change, therefore blinding us from considering more sustainable options than simply eradicating ‘the giant’s vases?
Bibliography
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