Ripon Building, Chennai Central find ‘new addresses’

A masquerade competition is in full swing across the 15 zones of Greater Chennai Corporation. Road users are treated to “masquerade masks” distinguished by designs ranging from minimalist to complex.

Oddly, the masqueraders have no say in the design, being insentient power transformers that know and feel nothing. As these gizmos plug away at the mundane business of electrifying neighbourhoods, a group of humans operate the creativity switches behind the scenes, getting these transformers to wear masks that make a statement about the zone’s design sensibilities.

According to GCC sources, each zone has carte blanche in the choice of designs for the metal view cutters that would come around power transformer installations. The local zonal officer, the executive engineer, and sometimes even the regional deputy commissioner would be among those putting their heads together and deciding on the designs.

Ripon Building on Santhome High Road, right outside Santhome Higher Secondary School
| Photo Credit:
PRINCE FREDERICK

There are places where the designs seem to simulate novelty architecture. They are however essentially just deft use of the paint brush preceded by a tested metal cutting technique. According to the GCC sources, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining is at play — putting it in layman terms, the machine tools used in the metal cutting process are controlled and directed by a computer.

Post-production work, executed after the metallic view cutter has been mounted around the transformer, involves the artistry of human hands. The metal that had been cut to reflect parts of a known object would become a canvas. That is how one gets a glimpse of Ripon Building on Santhome High Road, right outside Santhome Higher Secondary School; of the largely ogre-coloured stunner called the Chennai Central on the tail-end of Kutchery Road close to Santhome High Road, and of the stately Secretariat structure on Santhome High Road near CSI School for the Deaf.

Clearly, the local GCC authorities in these parts are upping the creativity quotient, as the afore-mentioned examples illustrate.

GCC sources reveal that in Zone 3 (Madhavaram), a view cutter sports images of the peacock. In Zones 9 and 10, work around many transformers are still under way. By October 15, view cutter installation works across the zones should be completed. Altogether, across the 15 zones, over 3,000 view cutters are being installed around power transformers.

The best of designs would come to nothing and can in fact be an eyesore if features are not built into the view cutters to prevent posters from being glued to them. A new generation of metal view cutters, such as the one installed around a transformer on East Mada Street in Thiruvanmiyur sport short rods that jut out of the view cutters to prevent pasting of posters. These rods blend into the design. GCC sources observe that even the old view cutters will have these projecting rods welded into them, aesthetically.