Lets make some pretty nuclear plants!

[Dartzap]

Independent

Britain’s new nuclear power stations and other energy infrastructure projects must be designed to look beautiful to garner essential public support, the Energy Secretary, Amber Rudd, has said.

The country is set for a complete overhaul of its energy infrastructure in the next decade as new green sources of electricity such as nuclear, wind and solar power stations replace polluting coal and gas plants.

Furthermore, flood defences will need to be built to protect buildings, along with weather-resistant transport, waste and water services, as climate change makes weather conditions increasingly extreme.

With so much costly construction planned it is crucial to make sure the public is on side – by making the projects visually inspiring, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary told The Independent.

Britain’s current nuclear power stations, which are all located at coastal sites, are notorious for their ugly functionality. “People in general want public structures to look good, as well as being functional. It’s not a trivial thing, when you have a big infrastructure project that you put time, effort and money into,” Ms Rudd said.

“We’re hoping to build new nuclear plants in the UK over the next few years and I think it is a reasonable ambition to make sure that these big projects have aesthetic appeal as well to help win the public over,” added Ms Rudd, in an interview at the Thames Barrier.

Ms Rudd said that her campaign to beautify Britain’s infrastructure had been inspired by her visit to the flood barrier, which she said is being used far more than originally anticipated as climate change increases flooding.

“These big infrastructure projects – that are part of climate-change adaptation or energy generation – are an integral part of our lives and I think we should make them more attractive to the public.

“The Thames Barrier is such an extraordinary, iconic structure protecting London – I’m feeling inspired to review what I look at in the future to make sure they don’t neglect [aesthetic considerations].”

Ann Robinson, of the uSwitch price comparison website, welcomed Ms Rudd’s call to visual arms. “I think she’s absolutely right. We’re a small island and it’s important to do things in a sensitive way. Public acceptability is important and the key to that is making the infrastructure as attractive as possible.”

Ms Robinson added: “A lot of these projects can be controversial and Amber Rudd is proposing to give people more say in local developments. Against this backdrop, it’s increasingly important that projects fit in with their surroundings.”

[Simon_Jester]

This is actually fairly sensible. If you're already committed to spending billions on a major piece of public works, making it look like something that was worth huge amounts of public money, rather than like a random pile of brutalist cement and metal greebles with a couple of cooling towers slapped down nearby.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I can get behind this. I'm in favour of nukes plants anyway, but if they look pretty too? So much the better.

[Borgholio]

This is actually fairly sensible. If you're already committed to spending billions on a major piece of public works, making it look like something that was worth huge amounts of public money, rather than like a random pile of brutalist cement and metal greebles with a couple of cooling towers slapped down nearby.

Just need to add some macaroni, fins to lower wind resistance, and a racing stripe.

[salm]

I predict that people are going to complain and want their old, normal looking nukes back because their three year olds could design better looking power plants than these "so called architects".

[madd0ct0r]

Sellafield is a mess, it wouldn't be hard to beat it:



compare to the glory of battersea

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... London.jpg

[Iroscato]

That second picture made my monitor cry, maddoctor
It's a good idea, but it makes me sad that we need to resort to what amounts to a paint job just to garner some public support for something that has the potential to solve our energy crisis, or at least be used as an efficient stop-gap until we really crack thorium reactors...

[madd0ct0r]

bloody hell. could someone fix that? sorry.

There is the philosophy that all infrastructure should be beautiful, or designed to fit its surroundings. There's no reason not to do it, especially when design costs are such a tiny fraction of the overall project.

[Purple]

If you ask me that second picture looks beautiful. It has just the right amount of Victorian in it.

[Isolder74]

The Second Power Plant looks like something out of Command And Conquer.

[salm]

The new ones are not going to look anything like the Pink Floyd album.
Probably more like this and the complaining will be epic.

[madd0ct0r]

Cardiff"s new energy from waste plant is not quite that extreme but yeah

[Purple]

Cardiff"s new energy from waste plant is not quite that extreme but yeah
image

I like that one.

The new ones are not going to look anything like the Pink Floyd album.
Probably more like this and the complaining will be epic.
image

That one is just stupid.

If you ask me, they should make the whole plant look like a Gothic style cathedral, complete with gargoyles.

[salm]

If you ask me, they should make the whole plant look like a Gothic style cathedral, complete with gargoyles.

You can never have too many gargoyles but it won´t be done because aping past eras is usually regarded as rather tacky.

[Purple]

If you ask me, they should make the whole plant look like a Gothic style cathedral, complete with gargoyles.

You can never have too many gargoyles but it won´t be done because aping past eras is usually regarded as rather tacky.

And buildings that look like someone can't draw a strait line ain't?

[The Vortex Empire]

If I were in charge, all residential and infrastructure buildings would be Art Deco, all government buildings would be Neo-Classical, public gathering places like concert halls would be Neo-Gothic.

So nuclear plants should have this sort of aesthetic:


Instead, we'll likely see either boring Brutalist designs or hideous post-modern styles.

[Irbis]

Furthermore, flood defences will need to be built to protect buildings, along with weather-resistant transport, waste and water services, as climate change makes weather conditions increasingly extreme.

Funny that, if the exact same requirement was applied to renewables of any sort (except dams) they would instantly wither and die as even sneeze ruins them. I wonder what they want to weather-proof though, no NPP was ever destroyed by weather and even in Fukushima things would have been ok if not for colossal, utter and mind-boggling idiocy of people who designed and run it...

If you ask me, they should make the whole plant look like a Gothic style cathedral, complete with gargoyles.

*cough*

[Purple]

Instead, we'll likely see either boring Brutalist designs or hideous post-modern styles.

I'd take brutalism over the modern garbage any day. A solid block of concrete still looks better than something that appears to have melted.

*cough*

That works. Although I was thinking of something more along the lines of proper European cathedrals. Like these:
1.
2.
3.

Imagine an atomic plant with facades like those! Especially #3.

[AniThyng]

The Second Power Plant looks like something out of Command And Conquer.

The building in cnc was deliberately modeled after that one...

[orbitingpluto]

Gothic Cathedral-styled nuclear plants are a freaking cool idea, but the potential for symbolism is something that I think will cause protest. I think art deco has a better chance, though I wondered for a minute about prairie-style.

1
2
3

It's better suited to houses though. 1 and 2

[Irbis]

If we're throwing ideas, if you want to combine industry, classic architecture, grand scale and splendour of progress there is nothing better than socrealist style:

1
2
3

[biostem]

I wonder if you could just make the power plant look like, well, some regular houses or such. Better yet, what about building some sort of "living roof" structure, and have the roof slope toward the outside world, so people looking at the plant just see plants & trees...

[salm]

If you ask me, they should make the whole plant look like a Gothic style cathedral, complete with gargoyles.

You can never have too many gargoyles but it won´t be done because aping past eras is usually regarded as rather tacky.

And buildings that look like someone can't draw a strait line ain't?

This particlular one? Well, in my opinion it is but in general it is still regarded higher than just copying old styles. I tend to agree but that is just a personal opinion.

Nuklear Power Plants usually consist of basic geometry like cubes, these iconic cone shaped chimneys, cylinders and capsules. Optimal premises for a sleek, minimalistic and functional design. Perhaps an iNuke or something.

[Purple]

This particlular one? Well, in my opinion it is but in general it is still regarded higher than just copying old styles. I tend to agree but that is just a personal opinion.

If you ask me the reason why new styles look so bad is because old styles did everything that was good already. And the urge to newer copy at any cost leaves architects designing ugly things just for the sake of being original.

[salm]

This particlular one? Well, in my opinion it is but in general it is still regarded higher than just copying old styles. I tend to agree but that is just a personal opinion.

If you ask me the reason why new styles look so bad is because old styles did everything that was good already. And the urge to newer copy at any cost leaves architects designing ugly things just for the sake of being original.

This has probably been said by every generation and isn´t true imo. If you just image search the term "contemporary architechture" you´ll porbably find some buildings you like.

People probably just notice the stuff they find ugly and annoying more than all the other buildings.
A significant amount of people also seems to have to get used to certain styles (one major factor that generates the complaining). The ones that find new stuff ugly will be same that protets 40 years later when one of their beloved (former ugly as sin) beautiful pieces of history gets torn down. That´s why we shouldn´t listen to the complaining.

People don´t register the vast majority of architecture anyway. Only very iconic buildings are registered and these are allways open to draw controversy because of their iconic nature.