Educational and Research Center for Dual Vocational Education - Conversion of the Florești Electric Power Plant

Authors’ Comment

The project proposes the reactivation of the Florești Electric Power Plant, Prahova, an interwar industrial heritage landmark, by transforming it into an educational and research center for dual vocational education.
The main intention is to understand the ruin not as an inert remnant of the past, but as an active resource for the community.
The former power plant, once part of the region’s energy infrastructure, becomes a place where memory, education, and sustainable production can coexist.
The intervention preserves the existing industrial shell and introduces new reversible volumes that activate the spaces without erasing their identity. In this way, the old structure remains visible and present within the user’s experience.
The former technical flow of energy production is reinterpreted as a new educational flow: from cultivation and research to production, learning, and community exchange. The Boiler Hall becomes the core of the project, hosting the school and the educational greenhouse, where theory and practice meet directly. The Machine Hall is dedicated to study, research, and collaboration, while the Transformer Hall accommodates temporary housing for students and teachers. Through this organization, the project responds to the lack of local educational infrastructure and to the need for vocational training in the agri-food field.
Architecture becomes an instrument of regeneration, capable of connecting industrial heritage with the contemporary needs of the community. The materials — brick, concrete, wood, and metal — create a dialogue between old and new, between memory and contemporary intervention. Natural light, nature, and the movement of the user become essential elements of the spatial experience.
The project does not seek to replace the identity of the power plant, but to continue it through a new, necessary, and compatible function. The Florești Power Plant is thus transformed from a place of energy production into a place of knowledge, community, and belonging.