Designing Multi-Benefit Transmission Corridors

As the energy grid changes in response to growing electricity demand and changing geographies of energy generation, expanding and strengthening the electrical transmission system has emerged as a central challenge of the energy transition. But transmission corridors need not be simple technological landscapes, exclusively reserved for the movement of electrons—multi-benefit transmission corridors hold out the promise of advancing social, ecological, and economic value at the same time that they contribute to the strengthened power grid of the future.

While energy landscapes run through the physical, cultural, and ecological context of communities, they are rarely treated as intentional objects of design or public experience.  Landscape architectural design is well-positioned to imagine an expanded vision of ecological benefit and public participation aligned with the expansive space of transmission corridors.

On August 15th, a participatory workshop at the University of Pennsylvania will bring together a multidisciplinary group of interested participants to explore this potential of novel multi-functional arrangements and designs for the typology of multi-benefit transmission corridors. The workshop will identify novel opportunities and potential benefits associated with layered, integrated multi-benefit transmission corridors; make the benefits of layered infrastructure legible to users and communities through novel experiences and a curation of spatial design sequences; and explore landscape principles for the design of innovative high-performing and multi-functional multi-benefit transmission corridors.

This workshop is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office through the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in support of the Connecting Community Benefits with Transmission Corridors (ConCord) Initiative, which is aimed at increasing awareness of the public, community, and environmental benefits associated with transmission infrastructure.

For more information email Nicholas Pevzner, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Landscape Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, at pevzner@design.upenn.edu.

If you require any accessibility accommodation, such as live captioning, audio description, or a sign language interpreter, please email news@design.upenn.edu. Please note, we require at least five (5) business days’ notice.