ESTER BELMONTE
LAPUENTE
Architect + Designer




The adventures of Alice In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, are the main idea around this architectural project that modifies the old and huge Battersea Power Station of London.
Pop Wonderland Garden is a tale-project inside of a tale that tells us how to introduce a modern Wonderland inside the old londoner factory. And this modern Wonderland is going to be a greenhouse garden, a cultural centre and a POP cathedral at the same time.
A parallelism between the known Alice world, surrealist and crazy, and our world nowadays, almost as hetereogen, mixed and surprising or even more, is defined here. That's why even if the idea could seem unreal or too fantastic at first, it actually isn't.
Let's create then some characters that, even if coming from Wonderland, relate also to established prototypes of persons found in the society today. Kids, old people, problematic teenagers, persons with money, workers in paro, tourists or inmigrants are mixed in this garden where everyone finds a place to get lost in, discover or enjoy the magic of contrast and strangeness.
The architectural proposal is a group of big and small prisms with triangular section that meet with no order in the huge central space of the Power Station, as if it was a mysterious and pointy town, composed by different sized pieces. The roofs are very inclinated and some prisms reach huge heights as well. The structures of them are Tree-like and are placed in two of the parallel sides. Sustainability is also really important here. There is a hole system that evacuates rain water from the roof area and uses it for the irrigation of the garden. Passive ventilation systems assure the best air movement possible inside the building. Moreover, the future development of the urban area around it is carefully thought. It will grow from the central "castle" and be organized by roads and water rings that could be sailed. And everything will look like a little fairytale-style village.