New pylon design winner revealed

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14 October 2011 Last updated at 10:52 GMT A T-shaped design has scooped a £5,000 prize in a competition to find the next generation of electricity pylons.

Danish engineering firm Bystrup beat 250 rivals to win the Royal Institute of British Architects contest.

It set the challenge to replace the familiar "triangle" design - in use since the 1920s - in May, although there is no commitment to build them.

An increasing number of pylons are expected to be needed to connect new wind, nuclear and hydroelectric plants.

Time for T?

Bystrup's architect Rasmus Jessing said he aimed for a more positive shape than the traditional "grumpy old men" design, as they are known in Denmark, to carry new forms of renewable energy.

"Hopefully in the next couple of years it will be time for T - the T-pylon," he said.

Six entries shortlisted in the competition, organised with the Department of Energy and Climate Change and energy firm National Grid, have been on show in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. The five runners-up received £1,000 each.

The jury - which included Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, leading architects and energy officials - rated entries on design quality, functionality, and technical viability.

After calling for entries to be "both grounded in reality and beautiful", the judges took into account the public response to the designs and the teams' abilities to create them.

'Ingenious structure'

Mr Huhne praised the T-pylon as "an innovative design which is simple, classical and practical".

"Its ingenious structure also means that it will be much shorter and smaller than existing pylons and therefore less intrusive," he added.

The five runners-up were awarded £1,000 each

There are more than 88,000 pylons in the UK, carrying up to 400,000 volts of electricity over thousands of miles.

Most are about 50m (165ft) high and weigh some 30 tonnes but Bystrup says the 20-tonne T-pylon would stand at just 32m (105ft).

The pylons could be coloured to blend in with the countryside, while a stainless steel version for coastal areas would offer protection against corrosion from airborne salt, it says.

National Grid says it wants to work with Bystrup and two others: Essex-based New Town Studio - which designed the lattice-framed Totem pylon - and Ian Ritchie Architects, of London, with its sleek Silhouette.

Organisers say the target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 will lead to electricity playing an increasingly important role in the UK's energy mix.

A subsequent proliferation of pylons and underground cables "have the potential to transform our landscapes for good or bad, and for generations to come", they said.

Repair costs

Campaigners frequently complain that pylons blight the countryside, while Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt described damage they cause as "beyond belief" in a Parliamentary debate in July.

However, National Grid says it is 10 times as expensive to lay underground cables which are also more difficult and costly to repair.

And the 1920s pylons retain some fans.

Flash Bristow, from the Pylon Appreciation Society, said they were an "elegant engineering solution".

"Existing pylons I appreciate because they're a lattice design, so when you look at the pylon what you see, a lot of it, is actually the background coming through."

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Steve Jobs' Greatest Legacy May Be Impact On Design

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Steve Jobs introduces new MacBook Air models at Apple headquarters on Oct. 20, 2010. Some say one of his greatest legacies is his impact on design.

Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, was obsessed with computers from an early age. In 1975, when he was 20, Jobs was part of the Homebrew Computer Club — a group of early computer enthusiasts obsessed with making computers more popular.

"People [would be] all together in a room, jostling, bubbling with ideas, bringing in new technology, new chips, new displays, new networks, new software, everything new," says John Gage, a former member of the club.

Gage says from the beginning, Jobs' talent was to see all that clutter and cut through it, "with the result, an elegant, simple, human usable device."

"That was Steve's genius," Gage says. "He saw clearly how to take this enormous complexity and make something a human being could use."

In 1984, Jobs introduced the first MacIntosh computer at the first MacWorld in front of an audience of thousands. Jobs lifted a cover and revealed a boxy computer with easy-to-read graphics.

The computer voice identified itself, said, "It sure is great to get out of that bag," and went on to poke fun at IBM computers.

"Never trust a computer you can't lift," it said. The MacIntosh had a mouse and graphical user interface — not the first computer to have them — but it was the first computer with those features that was commercially successful. The Mac made the computer a creative device for the average person.

"He brought music and art," Gage says. "He brought visual sensation. He brought capabilities to the computer that were not dreamed of by those that were at the lower levels of putting together the chips that would do the fast computation or store all the bits of a picture."

In 1985, Jobs was pushed out of Apple in a boardroom coup. But after he left, the company floundered. He returned in 1997 and stripped down the company the way he stripped down design — cutting out product lines.

Robert Brenner was at Apple during the time Jobs was gone. When he returned, Brenner says, he unleashed the power of the company's designers.

"There obviously is a culture and an environment there as a designer if you're good that will ... support you in doing great things," Brenner says.

In 1998, Apple introduced the iMac. It was one piece and a smash hit. In 2001, the iPod reshaped the idea of an MP3 player, with a simple user interface that had a wheel in the front that you could turn to scroll through all your songs in a little window.

Then in 2007, Apple entered the smartphone market. Jobs poked fun at the other phones and smartphones, and then he introduced the iPhone.

"What we want to do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been and super easy to use," Jobs said at the time. "This is what iPhone is."

Brenner says Jobs was obsessed with making his products just right and using the best materials — not plated plastic, but real machined metal; not black plastic but glass. Brenner says Apple would build a new factory if that's what it took to make the product right.

"Very few companies would do that, say, 'Here's an object we believe needs to be made this way; let's go out and create an entire infrastructure to do it,' " Brenner says.

Brenner says Jobs raised the profile of design. Brenner, who now has his own firm, says there's a dark side to that: Everybody wants products to look just like Apple's.

"If it's not a machined piece of aluminum with black glass and one button it's not good," Brenner says.

Still, Brenner says the world of computers is a better place because Jobs and Apple took care to make high-quality, accessible products that have transformed everything from the way we listen to music to watching movies and communicating.

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Remembering Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

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Even now, there is more we don't know about Steve Jobs' health struggle than we know.

Apple aims to keep the Jobs magic alive — from his management style to his infectious enthusiasm.

His address — a rare case of the Apple co-founder talking about himself — inspired many.

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