Electric Dreams

From: The architects' blog
 Posted by: Tarek Merlin
27 May 2011
 

Ever since I stuck my finger into an electric socket when I was about nine, (I was ‘helping’ my dad rewire the house and, although he had specifically told me not to, he had left the room for a second and well, I wanted to see what electricity felt like), I have been fascinated with the stuff.

My dad, (a retired Geophysicist who, it should be noted, worked in the oil industry), would often explain how fossil fuels are finite and will inevitably one day run out, and that we would have to find a viable alternative.

I’m sure it didn’t really sink in at the time, nonetheless the act of burning a raw material until it’s gone has always struck me as a rather stupid thing to do but because there is/was so much of it, it didn’t seem to matter.

And besides, the alternatives are not without sin. Some methods of generating electricity are actually powered by the burning of fossil fuels, which surely must be the definition of stupidity, but the methods that don’t, involve giant turbines and wind farms which can actually disturb natural the habitats they displace, not to mention the obvious aesthetic and even potential physical dangers to the inimitable nimbys that they coexist with. Electricity remains, however, essentially a viable and renewable energy source.

The fact that the strength of electricity diminishes the further it has to travel has also always been a bemusing peculiarity to me when you look at the lengths in which we have gone to do deliver it from power source to home. The procession of the electricity pylons marching across the countryside and into our towns and cities is now a sight we take for granted.

The original, designed in 1927 by Sir Reginald Bloomfield (from an initial concept by the Milliken brothers), has enjoyed free reign over the land ever since, marauding around the country like an army of big friendly giants spewing out electricity like spaghetti.

This is not to say that the iconic lattice design is without its admirers. Just like any eccentrically British design it has its eccentric cult following; there is an official ‘Pylon Appreciation Society’ and a website called ‘Pylon of the Month’ - which features…a pylon of the month. My personal favourite is this from September 2010 an, albeit unbuilt, example from Choi + Shine Architects.

Choi & Shine’s pylon proposal

That childlike fascination with electricity, the invisible energy, hasn’t waned for me but the reality of its production, to the huge visual and physical impact of pylons, right down to the electric powered vehicles and products on the market now, offer up serious design challenges. And if we don’t get them right we all have to live the consequences.

The rather unfortunately designed G-Wiz, for example, which just looks like it would be like driving inside your mum’s hairdryer, now thankfully has some serious contenders with everyone from Mini to Peugeot producing all electric models, most notable perhaps is the recent addition of the all-electric Hummer, which I am very excited about in quite a childish way.

The electric hummer

I will dream tonight about electricity - what the pylon could be, how to design a credible electric car and try to remember what electricity feels like.