Electricity Pylons are ugly eyesores at best, and Icelanders got fed up of seeing them dotted about the landscape, so a group of architects decided to rake up the challenge of making the electricity pylons interesting and turning them into a work of art.
The Land Of Giants was born!!!
“Making only minor alterations to well established steel-framed tower design, we have created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable,” the architects wrote on their website. “Seeing the pylon-figures will become an unforgettable experience, elevating the towers to something more than merely a functional design of necessity.”
Architects Jin Choi and Thomas Shine were the minds behind this fascinating project. “Like the statues of Easter Island,” wrote Choi and Shine, “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.”
The Pylon giants can be configured to work with their environment with the appropriate gestures. As the electrical lines climb up a hill, the pylon giants change posture imitating a person climbing. Over long spans, the pylon giants stretch to get the extra height needed, or they crouch to get the increased strength or strains under the weight of the cables.
The architects were awarded the BSA Unbuilt Architecture Award in 2010.
Photo Credit: Choishine.com