One trait that I see over and over again in designers is that they’re always looking for ways to improve things. Whether it’s Le Corbusier with the density of Paris, or Michael Graves with a teapot, designers look at the world differently than the rest of us.
That belief holds true for Brookline-based architects Jin Choi and Thomas Shine of Choi + Shine Architects, who saw beyond the simple function of electrical pylons and designed giant, 150-foot figures with arms raised to carry electricity across the countryside.
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.
Originally designed for a 2008 contest in Iceland to redesign powerlines (how they lost, I have no idea), Choi and Shine entered the pylon design into the Boston Society of Architects‘ Unbuilt Architecture competition this past spring. That, they won.
Despite the large number of possible forms, each pylon-figure is made from the same major assembled parts (torso, fore arm, upper leg, hand etc.) and uses a library of pre-assembled joints between these parts to create the pylon-figures’ appearance. This design allows for many variations in form and height while the pylon-figures’ cost is kept low through identical production, simple assembly and construction.
The idea of these towers running across the bare, Icelandic terrain is pretty epic, but I wonder how they’d look running along I-95, bringing power from Connecticut to New York City. Or just a few walking away from the power plant in Everett, across the Mystic from Charlestown.
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.
(via Boston Phoenix)
