Image of the week
A different shade of grey
11 Jul 2022
With the exception of the poloidal field coil winding facility, operated by the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, and of the Cryostat Workshop, where India assembled and welded the 54 segments of the ITER cryostat, all buildings on the ITER platform come in the same livery: an alternating cladding of mirror-like stainless steel and grey-lacquered metal.
Contrary to most buildings on the ITER platform, clad in mirror-like stainless steel and grey-lacquered metal, the Control Building—because of its "singularity"—will be dressed in dark grey and undulating steel. (Illustration ENIA Architects)
For ENIA, the architecture firm that was chosen in 2009 to work on the exterior of the buildings, this choice allows the scientific installation to blend into its natural environment and also expresses, "the precision of the research work being performed inside of the buildings."
One building out of the 39 that the installation comprises, however, will be treated differently. Instead of an alternating cladding, the Control Building presently under construction will be dressed in dark grey metal "cassettes" at its base and in undulating stainless steel at its "crowning" upper levels.
ENIA explains its choice by the "singularity" of the building, which hosts the control rooms, computer systems and servers that act as the very brain of the installation.