power lines shaped as animal sculptures supply electricity across austria

"The design teams - a collaboration between the companies Austrian Power Grid, GP designpartners and BauCon - say that the stork and stag designs have already been developed and pre-tested for structural stability and high-voltage performance to check whether producing power lines shaped as animal structures is even possible. They expect that these nature-inspired designs can increase 'public acceptance of grid expansion projects in their respective regions' and become symbols of fauna-themed infrastructure."

"Take the stork, a long-necked wading bird, which represents Burgenland for its annual stork migration, with Rust being considered a city of storks. Then, there's the stag, the animal symbol for the wooded foothills of the Alps in Lower Austria. The nine federal states where the design teams hope to install the power lines shaped as animal sculptures include Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and Vienna."

"For them, it's a way fo the towering infrastructure to 'harmonize with nature' and 'to strengthen the economic and tourism location in the regions and ultimately lead to increased acceptance of grid expansion projects by the general public.' So far, only two of these Austrian Power Giants, the stork and the stag, have been designed for pretesting to see if they can be built and if their structural and electrical engineering are feasible."

Concept power lines shaped as animal sculptures can supply energy across nine Austrian states under the name Austrian Power Giants. Each design is molded after an animal representing its state, such as a stork for Burgenland and a stag for Lower Austria. Design collaboration between Austrian Power Grid, GP designpartners and BauCon developed and pre-tested the stork and stag models for structural stability and high-voltage performance. The designs aim to harmonize towering infrastructure with nature, increase public acceptance of grid expansion, and strengthen regional economic and tourism value. Two models remain in pretesting to assess buildability and engineering feasibility.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine