Proposal to build electrical pylons as statues | Hacker News Reader

Proposal to build electrical pylons as statues

choishine.com

34 pointsbootload16 comments

I like it. We need more people asking, "why can't <functional element> also be art?" Old-world cities have an embarrassment of riches in this area (this starkly contrasts with American cities), to the advantage and well-being of their citizenry. And they got that way because people asked that question.

Most people never ask, or worse knee-jerk assume that any "impure" design must have some huge hidden downside.

These are the pylons dotted over the landscape in the UK. They were designed in the 1920s and don't look too bad. But many people consider them a blot on the landscape:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/andysimspon43/10081837164/size...

They are are to be superceded by a new design from Danish architects Brystrup who were the winners of a 2011 competition to design a new pylon for the UK. Their winning design uses much less material than current pylons but the appearance is a little utilitarian and bland.

Here is a small gallery of entries from the 2011 pylon design competition including Brystrup's design:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15293922

Proposal to make something that is expensive; but simple in design, and easy to fix. Into something that is super expensive, complex to fix, and some may say.. cheeky in design.

Is it that expensive? In terms of raw materials it may cost more, but not double. The use of prefabricated parts (torso, limbs) reduces each tower's uniqueness and therefore complexity of repairs. Fabrication of unique beams is well within the repair capability of a mobile crew. Is the actual material cost of each tower a major component of a transmission line cost model? I am betting no; transmission wire, ongoing maintenance, land and rights acquisition, and monitoring probably make up the bulk of a transmission line's cost. Finding actual data on this is proving to be difficult, however.

You're preaching to the wrong audience. Not all people understand "engineering" or "maintenance".

Reading comments here is like getting back in time several years ago when it was first submitted. Same comments, different people.

Pylons average about 30 tons each and steel costs $300-$400 per ton. The UK has about 88,000 pylons. If the new design increases the weight by 20%, then material costs alone would be about $2100 each or $168 million to replace them all.

There's already a "Mae West" pylon: http://www.hydroquebec.com/comprendre/transport/types-pylone... (top left picture)

This is fairly tasteful, but in general I dislike making things look other than what they are. It's so easy to get wrong and become kitsch and tacky like fake candles and fireplaces and those fake palm tree cell towers they have in SoCal and Florida.

The fake tree cell towers are all over (they are saguaros in AZ and pine trees in Northern California). I don't think they're meant to be art, but rather are meant to reduce impact on wildlife.

They're meant to reduce the impact on influential people who would oppose cell-towers in certain places.

The company that invented the towers also make fake lighthouse and windmill cell towers.

I 'm not sure i d like to see a perpetually electrocuted giant coming at me. They should be proposing a few more, inanimate designs. De gustibus ...

I don't know, that's got an aesthetic of its own. At the very least it would make a great metal album cover.

Seems neat until someone has to actually climb up one.

I once read that the design for the first electric pylons, when they were created in the 20s/30s, were designed by German architects from the Bauhaus school, around the time when they were experimenting with metal (tubular furniture, etc.). Gropius apparently liked pylons. However, I never found any sources to this. Anybody know?

Found it. The Milliken brothers [1], together with the architect Reginald Blomfield, designed the first standard pylon in Britain. Also see [2].

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/may/22/national...

[2] http://www.gorge.org/pylons/structure.shtml

Disney already did this

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