Beauty in Eco-Technology – A Sewage Treatment Plant as a Spatially Attractive Structure

Facutly of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, 31-155 Krakow, Poland

^* Corresponding author: awojtowicz@pk.edu.pl

Abstract

The increasing awareness of the protection of depleting natural resources results in new challenges for us to face. The necessity to treat domestic water is one of such basic challenges. The intensive development of modern technological solutions in this field creates new possibilities - including those related to the architectural shaping of structures. Simultaneously - following the example of other municipal infrastructure buildings - thanks to the development of technology - sewage treatment plants become structures that are more accessible and spatially attractive. The goal of this article is to answer the question whether these types of urban engineering elements can constitute a structure that is spatially attractive in terms of the tissue of urban and suburban areas, and if so, then under what conditions? The study was performed using a method of analysing a selection of structures in Poland (the first part of the article), in addition to an analysis of examples of good practice regarding such projects in other countries, which constitute state of the art aesthetic solutions in this regard (the second part of the article). The result of the study will allow finding the answer to the question: what is it that causes some sewage treatment plants to have the opportunity to become a significant spatial element, while others only fulfil their technological functions? The results of the analyses performed by the author could form the basis for performing comparative studies of this scope on other examples, including both sewage treatment plants, as well as other municipal infrastructure buildings of a city.