CHILTERN HILLS HEAT RECOVERY

The controversial HS2 proposal (economic, political and environmental concerns), offers a chance to recover excess heat within its bored tunnels. The passing trains generate heat through its movement via aerodynamic drag, air compression, brakes, and engine heat, the heat generated is trapped within bored tunnels and pumped out into the atmosphere. This process offers an opportunity to restore the excess heat and convert it into energy to be used for various purposes such as, district heating, energy generation, drying biomass, warming greenhouses, waste water treatment, and forest recovery. Within the first phase of the HS2 proposal there is the Chiltern Tunnel, a 16 kilometer bored tunnel, buried 90 meters deep, located in Buckinghamshire between Chalfont St. Giles and Chesham. The tunnel also has five seperate headhouse, four of which are ventilation shafts, for extracting excess heating and an entry point of emergency services. These are the point of intervention for the Chiltern Hills Heat Recovery, Chalfont St. Peter, the first ventilation shaft to surface, will be the proposals main focus. The approach provides a testing ground to further implication of heat recovery for rail infrastructure, in the current climate crisis the approach explores a clean-alternative means of energy production. The proposal is a catalyst for converting traditional rail vents into heat recovery centres, the modular design is intended to be reapplied to existing vents. The architectural language employed also reflects the process of heat accumulation over time with the use of inflatable ETFEs, the buildings facade becomes dynamic, inflating and deflating with the heat fluctuation.