Marsh Fox concept wins design pylon competition for third Estonia-Latvia electricity interconnection

At a ceremony held at Kultuurikatel on June 21, the winner of the competition held by Elering to find the best architectural solution for the design pylon on the third Estonia-Latvia electricity interconnection was announced, the winner being the Marsh Fox (Soorebane) concept created by Sille Pihlak and Siim Tuksam from the architectural firm OÜ Part.

Chairman of the Elering Board Taavi Veskimägi said there were more entries in the contest than expected and there were a number of exciting design solutions from both Estonia and abroad. “The architectural ideas have been exciting, and now the engineers will take over the work to identify ways to make the winning design a reality. Hopefully we can bring this idea to life and show that even a power line can be attractive in the natural environment.”

Member of the jury and designer Maria Pukk said that in the estimation of the jury, the winning design was very strong both in form and in terms of its technical solution. “A structural whole has been created which is very pleasing to the eye. The artist is able to think like an engineer, but also to express themselves as a designer and to get a good understanding of the structure.”

The object of the concept contest was the pylon planned near the village of Risti in Lääne County on Elering’s Harku-Lihula-Sindi 330/110-kV high-voltage line. As the pylon will be placed in the protected Kuistlema bog and in the area between the busy Ääsmäe-Haapsalu and Risti-Virtsu roads, the goal of the competition was to find the most suitable solution, both architecturally and functionally, for its location.

From the 17 entries that were submitted, the jury decided to declare the conceptual design known as Marsh Fox (Soorebane) the contest winner (with a prize of 4 000 euros), the creators of which were Sille Pihlak and Siim Tuksam from the architectural firm OÜ Part.

Second prize (3 000 euros) was awarded to the design known as Network (Võrk), designer: Rene Sauemägi from DAS arhitektid OÜ.               

Third prize (2 000 euros) went to the Electrify conceptual design, created by Quirin Krubholz from the Austrian architectural firm Madame Architects ZT GmbH.

Special prizes (1 000 euros each) were awarded to the Electricity Grove (Elektrihiis) and Needle (Nõel) conceptual designs, which were designed by Ljudmilla Georgijeva, Tiia Vahula and Margit Aule from KAOS Arhitektid OÜ and UnSeen OÜ and Lembit-Kaur Stöör, Ülo-Tarmo Stöör and Silver Liiberg from ÖÖ-ÖÖ ARHITEKTID OÜ respectively.

Special mention was made of the Kurluu conceptual design, created by: Helina Maalt, Joanna Kordemets, Annika Laidroo, Illimar Truverk and Sander Paljak from Arhitekt11 OÜ.

Winning design

All designs: http://vana.elering.ee/disainmasti-ideekonkursile-laekunud/