The Hulk

Conceptually, the incineration plant in Twente creates a filter between the rough landscape surrounding the city of Hengelo and the ultra-modern technology inside. It creates a unique connection between the external and internal landscape, between the harsh and the delicate, between the past and the future of waste. The object adopts the characteristics of the piles of waste around it and the properties of the invisible processes of incineration and decontamination. Incineration and decontamination of emissions, two functionally independent processes, can be compared to the digestive process of organisms.

Each year, 230,000 tons of waste and emissions must be incinerated and decontaminated. This analogy between the "digestive process" of the incineration plant and the digestive process of humans and animals inspired us to create an insect; a metallic, green dung beetle with mechanical features of a beetle that feeds on all that waste around and excretes clean gas.

We allowed this idea, this theme to permeate the entire project. The main building and the five secondary objects around it - air-cooled condensers, a slag processing facility, a weighing facility, an administrative building, and a technological facility with filters for decontaminating emissions. Its echo resonates in every detail of the complex and in every piece of furniture inhabiting the building like tiny insects.

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The incineration plant, situated amidst piles of foul waste, may be a repulsive assignment for some, yet for others, it presents an exceptional opportunity. Surely, no client in this case would demand an optimistic-romantic image of a happy family with children frolicking in heaps of trash… Moreover, how often do you get the chance to build a gigantic structure not for people, but for machines. A building with several halls comparable in size to the spaces of medieval cathedrals. All conditioned solely by the ergonomics of the machines. This mechanical, metallic beetle in Hengelo is controlled by just 7 people.
In the book "Unesen I slipped away", Maurice Nio also states a few facts about this project: The project lasted 5 years; over 3000 people were involved; the documentation included over 16,000 drawings, which were consulted more than 1.5 million times in 8 world languages. During the process, 120 contracts were signed, of which only one ended in a lawsuit. The misunderstanding coefficient of 5% was multiplied 75,000 times during the process.

The incineration plant in Hengelo will never become a tourist attraction. Dune by David Lynch was not a box-office hit, yet there is a group of people who simply love those Geiger harvesters and a few individuals who build them.