‘T’ design wins out in electricity pylon competition
Green design news – by GreenWise staff
14th October 2011
A T-shaped design has been announced the winner of a competition to find a new generation of pylons to keep up with the UK’s goals for greener energy.
The
T-Pylon, designed by Danish engineering firm
Bystrup, beat off five other finalists and over 200 submissions from the around the world for the £5,000 prize, although there is no guarantee yet the new design will become a familiar sight on the British landscape.
The '
Pylon of the Future’ was launched in May by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, National Grid and the Royal Institute of British Architects, to find a
design to meet the needs of Britain’s changing energy infrastructure. Many new electricity pylons are needed to meet the rapidly increasing demand for electricity and to connect new
renewable and low carbon sources of power, such as wind, nuclear and hydroelectric plants.
"This is an innovative design which is simple, classical and practical. Its ingenious structure also means that it will be much shorter and smaller than existing pylons and therefore less intrusive," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, who was one of the judges in the design competition.
Further development
National Grid will now work with Bystrup to develop its T-Pylon design further. However it has said it also wants to do further work with two other finalists in the competition – Ian Ritchie Associates on their Silhouette design, and New Town Studio’s Totem design.
"The Totem and Silhouette designs are worthy of further consideration – both of them have strong visual appeal and characteristics that could work well in different landscapes," Nick Winser, executive director of National Grid, said. "We are genuinely delighted at the prospect of working with all three companies to develop some real options for the future."
Scale models of the three pylon designs along with the three other runner-ups have been on public display at the V&A museum.
Sir Reginald Blomfield’s familiar steel lattice pylon design has been in use since the 1920s.
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