PROJECT: PYLON+, RIBA Competition

LOCATION: British Countryside

DATE: 2011

The competition invited proposals for a new generation of electricity pylons that explored the design of the 'object' as well as the relationship between our energy infrastructure and pylons' location.

Wind turbines have proved unpopular additions to our landscape. Yet our National Grid has been carried by pylons across the same landscape for decades. We therefore saw the opportunity to adapt an accepted infrastructure to carry an energy producing component and make double-use of these elegant pillars in our landscape.

We collaborated with engineer Jane Wernick to design a pylon capable of creating energy at the same time as distributing it. The PYLON+ design could transform the grid and, if rolled out across the country, could get close to meeting the Government's micro-generation energy target of 2% by 2030 on its own. It could generate electricity locally by incorporating up to 8 vertical axis wind turbines each - this could reduce the number of separate and sporadic wind turbines in the landscape.

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