The Land of Giants Wins Award, But No Build Date
Here’s a great solution to the NIMBYism that building new transmission dredges up, commissioned by Landsnet, a public company that owns and runs the electrical transmission system in Iceland.
Elegant transmission pylons that look like Art.
“Like the statues of Easter Island, it is envisioned that these one hundred and fifty foot tall, modern caryatids will take on a quiet authority, belonging to their landscape yet serving the people, silently transporting electricity across all terrain, day and night, sunshine or snow.”
Land of Giants
The competition required that entries give specific consideration to the visual impact of the pylons, especially near urban areas and also in the wilderness.
The pylons had to be able to use identical construction technologies, enabling mass production using a library of pre-assembled parts.
These would be as mass-produceable as any pylons now made. Yet small variations among these tall imposing and iconic figures will give them uniquely human attributes. Some would seem to be glancing at each other as they pass. Ones near cities will bow down considerately, (while still being within the specs for safe pylons, of course.)
The honorable mention entry, halfway between Art and Science, Land of Giants, designed by Choi+Shine Architects, is typical of the future oriented, optimistic style of the firm.
Subtle changes from one to another would make them seem more human, to be telling an epic human story in time and space as you whir past them in your zero carbon jetpack…
Unfortunately, after the economic cataclysm in 2008, the electric utility has not moved forward on building the series, but it is considering the male and female pylon-figures as functioning monuments at the gateway to Reykjavik.
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