Stiff radar tower, Radar tower in Ouessant, France.
Stiff radar tower is a slender light-grey reinforced concrete shaft rising 72 metres at Pointe Bac'haol, on a plateau 60 metres above sea level at Ouessant's north-eastern tip. Near the top the shaft widens into a round observation room ringed by dark rectangular windows, with a smaller white cylinder and a two-armed rotating radar antenna above. Metal brackets project from the shaft at intervals.
Operations began in 1982 following the Amoco Cadiz tanker disaster, which highlighted the need for improved maritime monitoring. The project was created in direct response to this accident to prevent future shipping disasters.
The tower's concrete core follows a principle set out by Jean Prouvé, and the structure is listed in France's general inventory of cultural heritage. Its radar watches the Ouessant traffic separation scheme, a three-lane sea route used by about 50,000 ships a year, with the lane for dangerous cargo running some thirty nautical miles offshore.
As this is a military installation, public access to the interior is not permitted. However, the structure can be viewed and photographed from public areas around the island.
Jean Prouvé applied his central concrete-core principle to the tower's structure, a method he had developed for prefabricated housing and public buildings. The shaft carries small metal brackets at intervals down its length, and at night a red flashing light marks the tower. The watch room sits about 120 m above mean tide level, roughly 60 m above the plateau.
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