HS2 Limited and The Department for Transport is supporting a competition launched by The Royal Institiute of British Architects (RIBA) to find an aesthetically pleasing design for overhead lines along British railways, specifically for use on the HS2 line.
Ten designs have been short listed and with titles such as Origami Birds and Overhead Rhythmic Structures, you can only imagine the visually pleasing aspects that some of the power cable designs have for the train track that will be running through our areas of outstanding natural beauty.
See for yourself below.
The brief for the competition, called Aesthetic OLS (overhead line structures), sets out the importance for certain parts of the planned route, in particular the Colne Valley viaduct, to have an aesthetically pleasing overhead line structure design which is more visibly appealing to line side neighbours.
Doreen McIntyre, of Harefield Against HS2, said: “The brief made absolutely no mention of the need to consider noise aspects of overhead lines, or any of the wildlife protection measures trotted out in the Environmental Statement.
“They have all diligently designed stuff to minimise the visual impact and create sophisticated design elements without realising there will be huge noise barriers and security fences alongside anyway.
“Honestly, how many ways can there be to design a pole.”
She added: “It looks like this is a typical bit of HS2 piecemeal thinking. The overhead structures are being designed in isolation from the thing they will be sitting on. Hillingdon Council and everyone else has been calling for state-of-the-art viaduct design. We could never get that from a jigsaw approach like this.”
Joanne Wallis, RIBA Competitions Consultant, explained the designs are purely to give ideas for the future design of the HS2 line.
She said: “HS2 are supporting the competition and a technical representative is on the judging panel. However it is very much an ideas competition at this stage and really looking at innovation for the future.
“There is no commitment to adopt the winning design at this stage however there is funding available for up to four finalists to be selected for further development or prototyping.”
Doreen McIntyre has sent in her own design, titled Birdy Overhead Line Structure (BOLS).
She said: “The owl motif is terribly fashionable right now as we all know, and of course a poignant memorial to the barn owl population that will be wiped out by HS2 structures.
“The pole-top avian sculptures should of course include vultures and dodos, representing other attributes of HS2. The trains themselves will of course represent the you-know-what that usually accumulates below roosts.”
What do you think of it? Get West London thinks it could be a real contender, but perhaps you prefer Uxbridge Gazette editor Alan Hayes' unique design?
He said: "I wanted to sum up HS2's attitude towards the British public and the British countryside with an instantly recognisable symbol, and I think this does the job.
"It took me about as long as HS2 took over its environmental impact survey. About 10 minutes. I call it Vee-Locity, and I wish I'd entered it now, because I think it stands a really good chance alongside the other entries."
If you can do better please send us your design for the HS2 overhead lines to zoe.drewett@trinitymirror.com or tweet them to @zoegazette.
We hope to compile an alternative gallery of innovative, but most importantly, aesthetically pleasing, designs to complement the true beauty of the HS2 railway track and 3km viaduct that will run through Hillingdon Outdoor Activity Centre (HOAC) lake rendering it effectively unusable, before continuing through the Colne Valley Regional Park.
