Animal sculptures double as concept power lines in austria
Concept power lines shaped as animal sculptures can supply energy across the nine states in Austria. Dubbed the Austrian Power Giants, these electricity structures are molded depending on the animal representing the state. 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.
all images courtesy of Austrian Power Grid
Stork and stag energy lines have been designed for pretesting
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. They add that traditional power line designs are not publicly well-received across the country’s regions, so by crafting animal sculptures as power lines, they hope that their reception will be more positive.
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. The miniature models of the Austrian Power Giants are set to be on display for public viewing at the Red Dot Museum in Singapore until October 2026, after having received the Red Dot Award 2025 for concept design in electrification and decarbonization.
view of the stork sculpture
view of the stag sculpture
two of these concept power lines have been designed for pretesting
the design teams hope to install the infrastructure across the nine states in Austria
project info:
name: Austrian Power Giants
companies: Austrian Power Grid, GP designpartners, BauCon | @gpdesignpartners
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