HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Buildings & Architecture


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2011, 11:25 PM
scalziand's Avatar
scalziand scalziand is offline
Mortaaaaaaaaar!
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Naugatuck, CT/Worcester,MA
Posts: 3,506
Iceland Considers Humanoid Pylon Design to Carry Electricity


Iceland Considers Humanoid Pylon Design to Carry Electricity


August 16, 2010
By Duncan Geere, Wired UK



An architecture and design firm called Choi+Shine has submitted a design for the Icelandic High-Voltage Electrical Pylon International Design Competition which proposes giant human-shaped pylons carrying electricity cables across the country’s landscape.

The enormous figures would only require slight alterations to existing pylon designs, says the firm, which was awarded an honorable mention for its design by the competition’s judging board. It also won an award from the Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture competition.

On their website, the architecture firm said: “Making only minor alterations to well-established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figures will become monuments in the landscape. Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.”

The figures can be placed into different poses, with the suggestion that the landscapes could inform the position that the sculpture is placed into. For example, as a power line ascends a hill, the pylons could look as if they’re climbing. The figures could also stretch up to gain increased height over longer spans.



http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/20...trical-pylons/
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 3:58 AM
austin242 austin242 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Austin
Posts: 591
Simply brilliant!!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 4:08 AM
HowardL's Avatar
HowardL HowardL is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: East Lakeview, Chicago
Posts: 1,180
Super groovy cool.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 7:45 AM
LMich's Avatar
LMich LMich is offline
Midwest Moderator - Editor
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Big Mitten
Posts: 31,745
I'd always thought it'd be neat if they just simply added curves to all of the end parts.
__________________
Where the trees are the right height
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 9:18 AM
M.K. M.K. is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: §¡კ₪@דч®ɛ€...۩™ -> աաա
Posts: 3,934
Those Structures finally got 'Human friendly' to our Green Environmentalists. Complicate Designs, but loved them !
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 11:51 AM
MolsonExport's Avatar
MolsonExport MolsonExport is offline
The Vomit Bag.
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Otisburgh
Posts: 44,708
Really quite inspired.
__________________
"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."-President Lyndon B. Johnson Donald Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man, a weak man's idea of a strong man, and a stupid man's idea of a smart man. Am I an Asseau?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Aug 31, 2011, 7:10 PM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
Very cool. But impractical.

It's a given that the cheapest, strongest structure that uses the fewest resources will not be at all like these. Therefore, doing sculptures will require some combination of more cost and more materials. Plus, with variation in the design, a lot of design and construction inefficiencies. What utility or politician would ever choose to spend a lot more money for pylons, and do something that non-sustainable?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Sep 1, 2011, 1:58 AM
aro1419's Avatar
aro1419 aro1419 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Philadelphia, Pa
Posts: 317
they kind of creep me out, not going to lie
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Sep 1, 2011, 7:59 AM
LMich's Avatar
LMich LMich is offline
Midwest Moderator - Editor
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Big Mitten
Posts: 31,745
Quote:
Originally Posted by mhays View Post
Very cool. But impractical.

It's a given that the cheapest, strongest structure that uses the fewest resources will not be at all like these. Therefore, doing sculptures will require some combination of more cost and more materials. Plus, with variation in the design, a lot of design and construction inefficiencies. What utility or politician would ever choose to spend a lot more money for pylons, and do something that non-sustainable?
Quote:
The enormous figures would only require slight alterations to existing pylon designs, says the firm
I don't know if the firm is just blowing smoke, but if it's true, why not? We might not pay for design aesthetics in this country, anymore, but we're not the entire world, either. You know, there are public sectors in this world that still design both things that actually work while simultaneously designing them to look nice/interesting, too. Hell, it's not even just outside the US, either. My little city's public utility is currently constructing a new natural gas power plant that looks like this...


Lansing Area Capital Gains

...when they absolutely could have easily designed something more generic and unadorned. I wish we'd stop applying such discouraging and defeatist local framing to anything that dares to look at good as it actually works.
__________________
Where the trees are the right height
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Sep 2, 2011, 1:28 AM
vid's Avatar
vid vid is offline
I am a typical
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Thunder Bay
Posts: 41,172
Considering how much materials have to be used, it isn't "more sustainable" or "greener", but it does look cool.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Sep 2, 2011, 2:02 AM
mhays mhays is offline
Never Dell
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 19,748
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMich View Post
I don't know if the firm is just blowing smoke, but if it's true, why not? We might not pay for design aesthetics in this country, anymore, but we're not the entire world, either. You know, there are public sectors in this world that still design both things that actually work while simultaneously designing them to look nice/interesting, too. Hell, it's not even just outside the US, either. My little city's public utility is currently constructing a new natural gas power plant that looks like this...


Lansing Area Capital Gains

...when they absolutely could have easily designed something more generic and unadorned. I wish we'd stop applying such discouraging and defeatist local framing to anything that dares to look at good as it actually works.
Because you can make something look nice much more easily and sustainably, as this building has done. You don't need to waste steel or create safety issues like the pylons would. The cost of the plyon project would be a major scandal and a massive additional cost.

I can see aesthetics trumping a moderate cost difference, but this wouldn't be moderate. And sustainability should be a major priority for any utility...sustainability, even it it means being utilitarian on many things, should trump sculptural and unsustainable.

The sculpture pylon idea sounds interesting on the surface, but it would be the worst nightmare for any utility -- not walking their (typical) talk on sustainability, and not using ratepayers' money efficiently.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Sep 2, 2011, 2:11 AM
Rizzo Rizzo is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Chicago
Posts: 7,280
Quote:
Originally Posted by LMich View Post
I don't know if the firm is just blowing smoke, but if it's true, why not? We might not pay for design aesthetics in this country, anymore, but we're not the entire world, either. You know, there are public sectors in this world that still design both things that actually work while simultaneously designing them to look nice/interesting, too. Hell, it's not even just outside the US, either. My little city's public utility is currently constructing a new natural gas power plant that looks like this...


Lansing Area Capital Gains

...when they absolutely could have easily designed something more generic and unadorned. I wish we'd stop applying such discouraging and defeatist local framing to anything that dares to look at good as it actually works.
That brick better be made of fly-ash my friend
Reply With Quote
     
     
End
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Discussion Forums > Buildings & Architecture
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 2:38 PM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.