PowerPlay by Mohamed Chemali asks what happens when sport, renewable energy, ecology and civic life are designed as one urban system.
The project is more than a sports facility. It treats community movement, local waste, learning spaces and public energy infrastructure as linked parts of the same city metabolism.
Project images
What the project proposes
Mohamed recently graduated from the University of Westminster with a 2:1 and is stepping into practice as a Part I Architectural Assistant. PowerPlay uses the culture of grassroots football as a starting point for a wider civic proposal.
The project imagines a district-scale biomass cogeneration plant tied to public sport and ecological learning. Rather than hiding energy infrastructure away from everyday life, it makes production, waste, movement and education visible.
Why the idea is strong
- Sport gives the project an existing community rhythm.
- Energy generation is presented as public infrastructure, not a sealed technical box.
- Kinetic sports spaces make movement part of the environmental story.
- Gardens, wetlands and open-air classrooms add climate literacy to the civic brief.
Portfolio lesson
For a project this ambitious, the portfolio needs to show hierarchy. The reader should quickly understand the site, the energy loop, the public programme and the experience of people using the place.
Showcase a systems-led project
Architecture Social Showcase is useful for student work where a strong environmental or social system needs a clear public explanation.
- Explain the system in plain language.
- Show how people move through it.
- Use drawings and images that prove the relationship between concept, programme and place.
Architecture Social view
Stephen’s recruiter view is that regenerative design projects can stand out, but only when the idea is legible. A practice needs to see how the proposal works, not just that it sounds ambitious.
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