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Choi+Shine wins the BSA Unbuilt Architecture Award with Land of Giants™
Massachusetts-based design studio Choi+Shine has recently received the Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture Award for their creative concept Land of Giants™, transforming the generic steel-framed electricity pylons across the Icelandic landscape into unique, individual humanised forms.
After receiving an honourable mention for their initial male pylon figure in a 2008 design competition held by Icelandic power transmission company Landsnet, Choi+Shine were asked to return at a later date with full designs for a female figure, developed from a simple sketch on the competition board. Whilst Landsnet initially expressed an interest in seeing the concept through to realisation, the plans are yet to extend further than the design stage.
Each individual figure imagined by Choi+Shine can be adapted with 'only minor alterations to the well established steel-framed tower design' in order to capture a different emotion or gesture. The forms can be positioned to climb a hillside, crouch for increased strength, strain under the accumulated weight of the wires, interact with one another or turn to gaze at a nearby township.
As each pylon figure is assembled from the same basic parts - torso, head, thigh, hand and so forth - and preassembled joints, Choi+Shine insist that manufacturing costs could be kept to a minimum through 'identical production, simple assembly and construction'. Largely self-supporting, the 150ft high sculptural forms would be anchored by concrete footings for reinforced stability, with additional guy wires attached where necessary.
Sian Disson
News Editor
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