This wind-turbine nacelle once sat atop a giant machine in the Dutch city of Eindhoven; designers turned the 10-metre-long retired shell into a tiny house

What happens to a wind turbine when its working life finally ends? In the Dutch city of Eindhoven, designers found an extraordinary answer by turning one of the machine's most recognizable components into a place to live. Called Nestle, the project transforms a retired wind-turbine nacelle—the large housing at the top of a turbine—into a compact, building-code-compliant tiny house. Created by Dutch architecture and design studio Superuse in collaboration with energy company Vattenfall and other partners, Nestle demonstrates how components from decommissioned renewable-energy infrastructure can potentially be reused instead of simply being recycled or discarded.

The prototype was completed in 2024 and presented during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, where its unusual appearance offered visitors a glimpse of what circular architecture can look like when designers work with an object that was never intended to become a building.

The starting point for Nestle was a Vestas V80 2MW turbine nacelle measuring about 10 metres long. Superuse describes the selected nacelle as approximately 3.5 metres wide and 4 metres high, while other project materials give dimensions of roughly four metres wide and three metres high, reflecting differences in how the curved shell's dimensions are measured. What matters most is that the designers deliberately chose one of the smallest nacelles capable of accommodating a tiny house.


The nacelle originally belonged to a wind turbine at the Gols wind farm in Austria. According to Superuse, the turbine was installed there in 2005 and operated for about 20 years, producing 73 gigawatt-hours of electricity—enough, according to the studio, to supply more than 29,000 households with a year's worth of electricity. After its time high above the ground ended, its nacelle began an entirely different second life.

The idea emerged from a larger challenge facing the wind industry. Thousands of turbines are expected to be dismantled or replaced as the global wind fleet ages, creating an important question about what happens to their components after decades of service. Many turbine parts, including steel structures and certain mechanical components, can be recycled relatively easily. But recycling generally means processing materials so they can become raw inputs again, and that process can require additional energy.

Vattenfall and Superuse instead explored the possibility of preserving a component in something close to its existing form. Vattenfall had invited four design firms to consider second-life uses for retired wind turbines, and Superuse deliberately selected the technically demanding option of transforming a nacelle into a usable building. The project therefore became an experiment in “reuse instead of recycling.”

Superuse's approach was particularly ambitious because the designers did not want Nestle to remain merely an artistic installation. They investigated Dutch building requirements, including questions surrounding insulation, daylight, interior functions and habitation. The objective was to demonstrate that a nacelle could become an actual building rather than simply a sculptural object. The completed prototype contains a kitchen, bathroom and living area, with the compact interior carefully arranged inside the existing shell. The designers also incorporated modern energy technology, including a heat pump, solar panels and a solar water heater. As a result, the project combines an unusual reused structure with systems associated with contemporary energy-efficient living.

Inside Nestle, the contrast between its industrial origins and domestic purpose becomes especially striking. From the outside, the structure still looks unmistakably like part of a wind turbine, preserving the curved aerodynamic shell that once housed the turbine's machinery. Inside, however, the space has been reorganized around everyday human needs.

Woodwave carried out the transformation based on Superuse's designs, while structural engineers developed the new internal construction and specialists supplied the technical installations. The result illustrates a central principle of circular design: instead of forcing an old object to disappear completely, designers can preserve its recognizable identity while changing its function. The nacelle no longer needs to shelter a generator and gearbox; its shell can instead provide the envelope for a compact living environment.

The project's small footprint is also part of its significance. Superuse describes the challenge as designing a house within the smallest nacelle that could realistically accommodate one. Rather than selecting a larger structure to make the task easier, the team treated the limited dimensions as a design constraint. That decision encouraged efficient planning and demonstrated that unusual industrial components can be reconsidered as architectural spaces.

The Dutch Design Foundation reported that the concept was developed around the possibility of permanent living, with the team examining practical questions such as whether a kitchen and bathroom could fit and how building regulations concerning daylight and insulation could be addressed. Nestle ultimately became a tangible prototype that allowed visitors to experience the idea rather than simply read about it.

Nestle also represents a broader shift in the way designers think about the end of renewable-energy infrastructure. Wind power is associated with clean electricity generation, but the physical infrastructure itself still has a finite service life. When turbines are dismantled, the question is not only how their materials can be recycled but whether some components can retain their physical form and continue serving useful purposes.

Vattenfall has emphasized that reuse can reduce the processing required to recover materials, potentially avoiding some of the energy and emissions associated with recycling. Nestle does not by itself solve the wider challenge of wind-turbine decommissioning, and a prototype is not evidence that every nacelle can economically become a home. Instead, it demonstrates a possible pathway that can be tested and developed for other applications.

Nestle's most memorable achievement may therefore be its ability to change the way people see an object that would normally disappear at the end of a machine's life. A nacelle that once stood around 100 metres above the Austrian landscape has been brought down to earth and transformed into a compact living space.

At Dutch Design Week 2024 in Eindhoven, the project showed that circular architecture can begin with an unexpected question: what if an industrial component did not need to become waste at all? Superuse, Vattenfall and their partners turned that question into a functioning prototype, preserving a retired turbine shell while giving it a completely new purpose. Nestle is ultimately more than a tiny house—it is an experiment in reuse, demonstrating how the structures of yesterday's energy infrastructure might become part of tomorrow's circular built environment.