Architect Dietmar Koering of Arphenotype has designed these electricity pylons for a competition to envisage a new power transmission network in Iceland.
Each pylon would be between 17 and 32 metres tall, with the shape of each one varying according to its longitude and latitude.
“A parametric code drives the heights in an continuous gradient, which will be manufactured physically through help of milling machines,” says Koering.
“Once the parameters are set, it is just the location of tower by latitude and longitude that will result in unique towers,” he continues.
The towers would be prefabricated and mounted on concrete foundation.
The project was devised for a competition organised by Icelandic electrical transmission company Landsnet and the Association of Icelandic Architects.
Here’s some more information from Arphenotype:
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Project: High Voltage Transmisison Line Towers for Iceland
Adaptability is an distinction of evolution, but today’s instant variations in [virtual] extended phenotypes call for something stronger: adaptability of nature! In nature material is used with optimum efficiency. Cells continually adapt to precisely fulfil their function.
Through researching organic forms and their production methods the intelligence of the material itself should support the design language, the lightness and stiffness. Fibrous systems and computation is the answer for this new task. Fibrous system in biology: inspiration! Like in the evolution through phenotypes, the production is based on a clear code; where the evolution part and the random variation is bounded to the specific landscape and site.
Architectural form and its relationship to nature, environment and society has rich antecedents to the human body. The idea is that the power net is building one main spine of nowadays society which enables living on a high standard in an age of communication; therefore the spines of the power net reflects an organic language.
The organic structure is covered with a high reflective “lotus-effect” colour. It will be cleaned through natural weather conditions and will reflect the nature itself, which strengthens the idea of a graphical integration to the landscape. The final tower will blend into its environment physical and virtual. It creates a feedback loop in the observed system.
Each transmission tower is shaped in height between 17m and 32m by computer-driven equipment according to its site / longitude and latitude. This approach permits the structures to be modelled and easily fabricated translating into a reasonable cost.
Construction:
For maximum strength and stability the construction method is based on the idea of a Tripod (tripods are related to triangles which will support the overall stiffness of the shape). The 3D data is optimally suited to adapt the change of the landscape. “… to monitor feedback from the surroundings.”; a parametric code drives the heights in an continuous gradient, which will be manufactured physically through help of milling machines. Once the parameters are set, it is just the location of tower by latitude and longitude, which will result in unique towers.
Material:
The main material used for the towers is an aramid-fibre-matrix bounded with eco resin through thermosetting, which gives the material stability to degration, UV, weathering and wind. The main structure will be built through filament winding and resin transfer moulding. This material allows also in computer aided manufacturing an organic design language without much more costs. The thickness of the material will change through the whole system, calculated by software to adapt the stiffness to site + location and natural forces like wind.
The towers will be prefabricated and mounted on site on concrete foundation, which will support the idea of natural material on site.
Today’s pursuit to build lightweight for economic, material engineering and environmental reasons is the logical response to today’s changing society where flexibility is the prime survival quality.
Future:
Once the system is set up it will be a leading manufacturing site for fibrous systems. It will not be bounded to specific design, because of its open system it will adapt different locations which will result in a world leading production company for transmission line towers for a world wide market. The high tech environment makes it hard to copy the design language and production method, which leads to a unique company.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:26 am
“This material allows also in computer aided manufacturing an organic design language without much more costs. ”
I don’t think is is the same cost as the High Voltage transmission of today.
“Today’s pursuit to build lightweight for economic, material engineering and environmental reasons is the logical response to today’s changing society where flexibility is the prime survival quality.”
Why ? Where ?
Organic shape ok but the structure is in “eco resine” but more eco resine than classical steel, so i don’t understand ?
But it’s a fresh idea about the shape that’s true.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:28 am
The Tripods are back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIlHoHiL4xE
March 30th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Now we do almost everything with this kind of language,even this!?
March 30th, 2009 at 10:54 am
“A parametric code drives the heights in an continuous gradient”…What are paremeters that he is talking about? or it’s just a high vocabuary which is used to make the project more sophisticated? And please i don’t see how this kind of inflastructure has anything to do w/ humanbody.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I thought Iceland was bankrupt? Can they afford these?!
March 30th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
How the hell do anybody gets up there for mantenance and repairs???
March 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
shouldn’t iceland be worrying about other things right now? as in their economy – or lack there of….
but on a more positive note – good to see organic shapes and forms coming into the light. even if it is just that – a shape. technology will catch up soon.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Good question Eduardo.
I’m still trying to figure out why transmisison line towers need such a radical rethink.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Looks like a completely necessary addition to the nations power grid! Why is Iceland filing for bankruptcy again? Who cares, I’m sure the citizens in that country are happy to spend their paychecks on taxes for these beautiful transmission lines. I know if President Obama asked me to spend a little more on things like this, I’d do so in a heartbeat!
March 30th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Imaginative shapes, hardly rational to make the pbjects of engineering, ore problem to construct such structure in one piece, build up on site… or am I incorrect?
March 30th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
really like it… bravoo,
yeah serious question about maintenance??? can dezeen provide any answers from the architect?
March 30th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I have designed a system, where they bury high voltage underground. It is non visible, half the price of today’s and does not cause cancer in the long run. And it is parametric too.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Has this been built? Will this be built? What is the cost?
March 30th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
A great way to recycle chewing gum. Bravo
March 30th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
‘Overdesigned’ is the word
March 30th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Star wars….
March 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Beautiful forms that cause more problems while solving a problem that doesn’t exist. There are dozens of ways to hang high-tension power lines already, and they may not have elegant curved forms, but their utilitarian forms do what needs to be done and have become an element of the vernacular landscape. Sometimes good enough really is.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Wow.. but Eduardo Baroni has a very good point. They sure look nicer than the ones near me and might reduce NIMBY-ism about pylons but I wouldn’t want to have to climb one!
(NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard. Not sure if it’s used outside of the UK..!)
March 30th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
this is silly. what we need is new systems of electric grids that are cleaner, more efficient, and innovative. not just fancier ways to support electric wires.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Great, I was waiting for a reason to throw our current towers into a rusting pile. Remember that the greatest design flaw of the power grid is the loss of energy from transmission and transformation. Solve that problem with these shiny towers, please.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
it’s so beautiful…
March 30th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Inappropriate!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
wow…pretty, but really simply empty formalism…outside of a kind of esoteric design process, i am not sure the cost of these could even come close to breaking even (or matching the cost of existing towers for that matter)…functionalism and utility doesn’t matter to the people that are interested in this kind of parametric design, which is inherently self-referential and, ultimately, pastiche…oooooh, look at how fancy I can get with the computer now!!!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
is this really necessary?
March 30th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
well, if you can get up for maintenance, you cant get up for commiting suicide, so sthg positive, ….. is this relatinship to human body?
nice shape, but where are parametrics?
March 30th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
just more silly shapes with a foolishly intellectualized description. make a riduculous shape, call it parametric (which it isnt) and say it can be constucted just ‘with the aid of cnc milling machines’ (which it cant). no rigour or critique or intellegence. just fraud!
March 30th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
What is the stuctural performance of these? Were they derived through
an evolutinary structural algorithm or are we looking at an oversized barstool. No wonder engineers get pissed.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
“Remember that the greatest design flaw of the power grid is the loss of energy from transmission and transformation.”
Exactly. Spend the money on decentralizing electricity production and make it in smaller amounts closer to the consumer.
It would be nice to see some images and diagrams on how the parameterisation works on this project.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
change for the sake of it. what is wrong with the current version? not cool enough?
March 30th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
From a form perspective – They hand’s down beat your standard steel pylon . . but they suffer the typical students ‘elevation syndrome’ (looks good in elevation, horrid in perspective) The fluid/organic references are too literal and unrefined to have any real meaning.
I really challenge how the “final tower will blend into its environment physical and virtual . . . .The organic structure is covered with a high reflective “lotus-effect” colour”
I can understand (again) the (very) literal connection with using a mirror finish to reflect an environment, that’s great – now you have thousands of kilometers of 30m tall blinding reflective towers running parallel to your roads.
Quote – “Each pylon would be between 17 and 32 metres tall, with the shape of each one varying according to its longitude and latitude”
How the hell do you replace a part if a piece breaks ?
From a social/economic standpoint – this isn’t the best time to indulging excessive extraneous design, people need electricity – not their power poles to be deconstructed into design art by arhcilectuals.
Next.
March 31st, 2009 at 1:31 am
These just look like an excuse for an unusual form. There is no practical benefit to the design, if anything it will make things MORE difficult, in both manufacture and maintenance. A more appropriate response to the breif would be to construct more with less (considering the environmental and economic climate), and perhaps an innovative way of raising the cables as well as maintaining them.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:11 am
Its parametric? Who cares. These things are going to change so gradually over such a large distance, that no one is ever going to notice.
How would you experience this? Driving alone the power lines for days at a time?
Oh, and envisioning a new power network? The old one has transmission wires strapped to a tower high up in the air. I think this “design” does the exact same thing.
“The idea is that the power net is building one main spine of nowadays society which enables living on a high standard in an age of communication; therefore the spines of the power net reflects an organic language.”
…therefor the spines…reflect an organic language. What does this even mean!!!? What a lame excuse
March 31st, 2009 at 5:34 am
Surrealism + Zaha
March 31st, 2009 at 6:08 am
Seriously? Really? I’m should throw together something in Maya with some B.S. explanation and post it to Dezeen. I expect it will be posted considering they post pretty much everything else that comes their way… Come on, I really am starting to get depressed with what is accepted as ‘design’ these days…
I want thoughtful articulate beautiful nuanced meaningful but REAL design… not this… especially not in this climate… it’s not doing our industry any good…
March 31st, 2009 at 8:26 am
For me, the repetative nature doesn’t gel well with the organic forms. It works well with the ‘old’ industrialised versions we are all used to- or perhaps I’m just aclimatised to them! Argh!
If it was based upon this ‘code’ and that generated efficient varied forms from a selection of prefabbed structural elements, tailored to its location that would also be cool…
Overall, I guess we need to question the form. Other ideas about efficiency/green-ness etc. are no problem.
March 31st, 2009 at 10:21 am
that look ridiculous!
March 31st, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I like it. It is beautiful, but even for all this design and this beautiful concept I just can’t see it fitting in the icelandic nature. – and for you all…. Iceland isn’t bankrupt… just needing a foreign currency from you guys:) but we’re happy to spend our last money in beautiful design:)
April 1st, 2009 at 1:06 am
whatever guys…It’s Iceland, the Bjorkland
.
They seem to be trying to fit their landscapes to the sets of the surrealistic music videos of their trademark singer
“Joga”
Emotional landscapes,
They puzzle me,
Then the riddle gets solved,
And you push me up to this
State of emergency,
How beautiful to be,
State of emergency,
Is where I want to be.
I hope that through this we can understand them
April 1st, 2009 at 1:08 am
by the way, I can see Bjork singing close to one of those transmission towers
.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:09 am
worst dezeen contribution ever…you guys are able to do so much better!
and why the hell are architects lying to themselves?
April 1st, 2009 at 7:37 am
Dancing Ballerina in the landscape!
It is impractical,
It is expensive,
It is emotional,
It is explosive,
It is beautiful.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:54 am
“Human Behaviour”
If you ever get close to a human
and human behaviour
be ready to get confused
there’s definitely no logic
to human behaviour
but yet so irresistible
April 1st, 2009 at 11:45 am
The above only got a mention in a competition completed at the start of 2008.
The winning entry can be seen here:
http://fila.is/img/web/Landsnet-1-verdlaun-litil.jpg
As you can see it is much simpler and cheaper.
April 1st, 2009 at 1:53 pm
These transmission tower pylons described in the article were just one of the entries in the competition to envisage a new power transmission network in Iceland. This entry was not one of the top three choices but you can see the winner of the contest at: http://www.landsnet.is/Uploads/document/TL_Tower_A1_Sheet.pdf
Much more traditional look, but “enhancing” the design of traditional transmission towers to some extent.
And in response to some of you thinking of Iceland as a bankrupt country, it is not so. Maybe the economy of Iceland is hitting a low, low after a financial crash, but in contrast to many nations, yet to hit their lowest, we have started to sort things out and rebuild.
So come to Iceland and enjoy a beautiful nature while currency rate, as a result of financial crisis, has never been so favourable
April 1st, 2009 at 9:48 pm
This is not interesting at all. Sorry.
April 1st, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Great Idea…?
However, it seems like one more masturbation with the voronoi application…can we please stop using this and actually get back to some architecture!
Voronoi should simply be banned by archiects!
But good attempt…great visuals!
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:06 am
I think it is beautiful. Stupid replies like ‘it is expensive’ or ‘do we need this sort of design in the current financial climate are rediculous. Should architects stop being creative because there is less money available to be spent at the moment???? no!
It is super elegant! keep doing what you are doing!
April 2nd, 2009 at 9:17 am
I just love Iceland
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 am
Architects should not stop being creative. Architects should have some self control and stop their ego masturbation and do something CONSTRUCTIVE.
Pun intended.
What question was actually answered with this solution ?
Nothing.
Thats why it didn’t win.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Structural design is about problem solving and finding new and innovative ways to improve our state of living. Though it may be ’super elegant’ to some, this design clearly creates more of a problem than it solves.
April 9th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Only one word: unrealistic!
April 9th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
The materialout of which the tower is to be built has not been used in this kind of huge structure. What about maintenance, repairs, wind pressure strength,……. ???
April 25th, 2009 at 1:05 am
It shows that there is absolutely no technical project understanding on the designers side. Current structures are designed for max structural integrity with a minimal use of material, easy and standardized component replacement, and lowest cost to the current system.
It is Perdy … but everyting else about it is non-sense.
If money should be invested into the grid, it should be done so with wind-mills and solar-plants … not alienized poles.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
To Parametricist:
Cancer ??? Yeah, right !!! The electromagnetic field of the Earth is stronger than any generated by power lines… No (serious) studies have been able to prove without a doubt the relation between cancer and power lines.
Anyway, this kind of structure is not useful in any way. It is just a futile effort, and it doesn’t solve anything.
December 21st, 2009 at 11:11 pm
there is no problem that tower design to solve !!!!!!!