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Posts Tagged ‘Tunnel’

Calm & Centered: Cemetery Tunnel Trek Reveals Huge Hill-Wrapped Buddha

13 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

A massive landscape intervention near Sapporo, Japan by architect Tadao Ando both conceals and reveals a 40-foot statue of the Buddha in the midst of a rural cemetery.

The designer was tasked with highlighting the scale of the figure — rather than setting it against something smaller, though, he surrounded the sculpture with a gently sloped and plant-populated hillside.

Thus enclosed, only the head is visible from the outside. Visitors have to make their way through a 120-foot tunnel to get the full effect, looking up at the statue from below. An arched concrete rotunda is revealed, and natural light casts down through a void above.

The design intention was to create a vivid spatial sequence,” says Ando, “beginning with the long approach through the tunnel in order to heighten anticipation of the statue, which is invisible from the outside.” Then, “when the hall is reached, visitors look up at the buddha, whose head is encircled by a halo of sky at the end of the tunnel.”

The greenery draped along the new landscape is designed to change with the seasons, blooming in spring and summer, thinning out in the fall then covered with snow in the winter. Visitors coming at different times of year will thus also experience the sculpture in different ways each time.

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The Light at the End of the Tunnel – 18 Totally Tubular Images

10 May

Tunnels have a unique lighting situation – they are dark in the middle, with the light coming from one end.

They can also be a great place to create or take unique photographs. Here is what 18 photographers created with photos of tunnels:

By Tore Bustad

By Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York

By Susanne Nilsson

By _ Liquid

By Indigo Skies Photography

By Rex Boggs

By ??? tocausan

By Matt Niemi

By Andi Campbell-Jones

By Hernán Piñera

By Vincent Lock

By darkday

By darkday

By Vaidotas Mišeikis

By pieter musterd

By Rahigrim Monasterios

By Simon & His Camera

By darkday

The post The Light at the End of the Tunnel – 18 Totally Tubular Images by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Shaolin Flying Monks Temple: Wind Tunnel Facilitates Midair Kung Fu Fighting

26 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Mixing modern architecture and traditional arena theater design, the Shaolin Flying Monks Temple features a massive wind tunnel that lets combatants in rural Henan, China, fly and fight in front of hundreds of fascinated observers.

The mountainous setting is home to the historical Shaolin Monastery (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and is considered the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and the Kung Fu martial arts practice (as well as the cradle of Chinese civilization more broadly).

Designed by Latvian architect Austris Mailitis, the pavilion is designed to be both contemporary while also deferential to the region and its traditions. The designer was commissioned based on a chance meeting at the Shanghai Expo in 2010.

The mounded shape of the complex and branching, trunk-like protrusion of the tunnel take their inspiration from a translation of Shaolin, meaning: mountain in the wood.

“The architectural and conceptual image pays respect to the beauty of surrounding nature and the historical heritage of the site. Developed in the shape of two symbols – mountain and tree – it serves as a platform for any kind of scenic arts focusing especially on flying performances.”

“The building method combines modern and ancient technologies,” explained the architect” — a laser-cut steel superstructure supports stone steps handcrafted using local quarry resources.”

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Tunnel of Books: Curved Shelves Wrap Bookstore Walls & Ceiling

25 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

book tunnel interior

Paired to fantastic effect, a series of arch-forming shelving units and a black-mirrored floor create a wraparound tunnel in a Chinese bookstore, punctuated by a fracture leading visitors through the resulting passageway.

book tunnel front view

book tunnel side view

Designed by Shanghai studio XL-Muse (images Shao Feng), these floor-to-ceiling shelves in the Yangzhou Zhongshuge bookshop drew inspiration from the winding and reflective Zhen Yuan river nearby, as well as the area’s arched bridges.

book cavernouse i interior

book curved reading room

book meeting space

“In the past, guided by water, many literati and poets visited and gathered here,” said XL-Muse, and these regional infrastructural icons were “used to be the guiding factor of culture and commerce, and they represent that the bookstore is the bond between humans and books at the same time.”

book wrapping volumes

book side view

book reader

The tunnel opens up into a vast library-worth realm of further reading in the cavernous interior, with architectural elements echoing the arches of the entry corridor. The rounded-and-arched theme is carried through in thin pillars and sloping displays.

book children reading

book kids space

Additional interior design dimensions come into play in themed reading spaces for children and adults, with starry ceilings and other humanizing elements. Here, furniture colors and shapes soften these spaces and make them more comfortable and inviting for longer-term occupation.

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Tunnel Visions: 15 All-Encompassing Explorable Art Installations

20 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

tunnels brooklyn 1

Few art experiences short of virtual reality are quite as immersive as entering a tunnel, literally surrounding yourself with an artist’s vision, blocking out nearly all sensory input not related to the installation. You’re temporarily transported to a dimension that’s not quite real, often unsure where the tunnel might take you. These 15 tunnel-based art installations offer explorable landscapes, inviting you to walk or even crawl through structures made of light, yarn, tape, salvaged wood and textiles.

LED Light Installation in Wellington by Angus Muir

tunnel LED

tunnel LED 2

tunnel LED 3

A permanent LED light installation inside a Wellington tram tunnel forms a shimmering, shifting series of arches that blink and change colors. The Wellington Car Cable Company commissioned artist Angus Muir to create the kaleidoscopic landscape of light,

The Pixels Crossing in Paris by Miguel Chevalier

tunnel pixels crossing

tunnel pixels crossing 2

tunnel pixels crossing 3

French artist Miguel Chevalier created a temporary tunnel connecting the Forum des Halles and the Place Carée in Paris, with shimmering, multicolored scenes moving in synch with a wave pattern of sound, giving commuters an otherworldly experience as they walked along the transit route.

‘Terminus’ Ribbon Tunnel in Georgia by Megan Mosholder

tunnel terminus

tunnel terminus 2

tunnel terminus 3

Placed in the grass outside Atlanta’s Hambidge Center of Creative Arts and Sciences, ‘Terminus’ by Megan Mosholder offers a visual representation of the city’s potential if only they solved their transportation problems. The installation consists of ribbons strung along a frame, and light projected onto them to resemble a blurred train passing through a station at night.

‘Tunel’ by Rejane Cantoni & Leonardo Crescenti

tunnel tunel 1

tunnel tunel 2

Any visitor stepping inside this interactive kinetic sculpture by Brazilian artistic duo Cantoni-Crescenti watched the architecture of the tunnel shift and transform in response to their own body weight and movement. 92 metal frames are individually controlled by a series of springs and cables, linked in a chain, so that your weight might cause the floor to incline or a section of the walls to rotate toward you.

Tube in Tirol by Numen/For Use

tunnel tube 1

tunnel tube 2

tunnel tube 3

Crawl around in a series of net tubes suspended high up off a gallery floor at this installation by Croatian-Austrian design collective Numen/For Use. ‘Tube’ is a maze of rope tunnels that mostly lead to dead ends, snaking up through an atrium and into the second level of Austria’s Architekturforum Tirol gallery.

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Tunnel Visions 15 All Encompassing Explorable Art Installations

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World’s Longest Tunnel Slide Opening at Sculptural London Monument

30 Apr

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

arcelormittal slide main

Experience monumental sculpture like you never have before with a new 15-story tunnel slide that spirals around London’s ArcelorMittal Orbit monument, set to be the world’s longest. The UK is really pushing its public art to the next level by adding a record breaker to a record breaker, as the sculpture already holds the title of tallest in the nation. The slide wraps around the sculpture 12 times, and it takes forty seconds to get from the very top to the bottom in a trip through the tube.

world's longest tunnel slide 2

Opening to the public on June 24th, 2016, the Carsten Höller-designed slide features both opaque and transparent sections so riders get brief glimpses of the London skyline before plunging back into darkness. A tight corkscrew section snakes its way around the red geometric structure, ending in a straight run to the ground. The slide’s total length is 584 feet.

world's longest tunnel slide 3

world's longest tunnel slide 4

world's longest tunnel slide 5

London erected the strange and rather controversial ArcelorMittal for the 2012 Summer Olympics, offering panoramic views of the city from its location in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tickets for the attraction are already on sale for £15 ($ 22), with a limited number available each day, and you can book more than one ride at a time.

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[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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80,000 Tiles Tell Story of Amsterdam’s Growth in New Bike Tunnel

22 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

bike path tiles

A 361-foot tunnel connecting the historic city center of Amsterdam to its revitalized industrial waterfront district symbolically links past and present with a stunning mural made up of 80,000 tiles. Design firm Benthem Crouwell used iconic Delft blue tiles to paint a picture of a fleet of ships on treacherous seas, taking inspiration from 18th century Rotterdam tile painter Cornelis Boumeester.

bike path tiles 2

bike apth tiles 3

bike path tiles 4

Stretching the entire length of the Cuyperspassage tunnel, which is open only to pedestrians and cyclists, the mural bears a striking resemblance to Boumeester’s depiction of the Warship Rotterdam and Herring Fleet, completed in 1725.

bike path tiles 5

bike path thiles 6

This traditional view of the Netherlands starts to shift and change the further you walk or bike into the tunnel. The illustrative style starts to get pixelated about halfway through, growing more and more abstract until it’s simply an arrangement of blue-hued tiles.

bike path tiles 7

bike path tiles 8

It’s a beautiful way to symbolize the growth and change the city has experienced over the past few centuries, with the potential to become as large a part of the nation’s cultural and artistic identity as the work that inspired it.

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Wayfinding in Subways: 3D Blueprints Show NYC Tunnel Systems

27 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

nyc underground blueprint render

Inspired by detailed three-dimensional maps of Hong Kong subway stations, a New York artist has painstakingly documented and rendered a gorgeous series of helpful underground diagrams.

nyc subway 3d maps

Exiting a subway network can be a disorienting experience. While stair signage and sidewalk compasses can help, anyone navigating based on landmarks or other surface features is lost. Project Subway NYC by Candy Chan is a step in the right direction. Using pen, paper and a camera, she meticulously recorded directions and relative positions of tracks and lines, referring to Google and MTA resources as a baseline.

nyc complex subway navigation

She then took the results into AutoCAD, verified those drawings in person, and proceeded to model and render the results using Rhino, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to produce 3D maps. Her explorations have helped her identify pain points for navigating these multilevel stations.

nyc subway station map

From CityLab: “The first batch includes five stops along Broadway: Columbus Circle, Times Square, Herald Square, Madison Square, and Union Square. But Chan hopes to do more, in Manhattan as well as in the outer boroughs. Since the project just launched two weeks ago, she’s gauging people’s reactions to decide which stations to explore next.”

nyc track paths stairs

Still, 3D maps may not in themselves be a solution – murals, screens, signage or other indicators tied to visual landmarks from the world above would be a welcome addition for those who cannot read English or simply navigate using different means and methods.

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Prism Break: China’s Eye-Soothing Rainbow Road Tunnel

19 Jan

[ By Steve in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

China Rainbow Tunnel 2
A 1,000-foot long rainbow underpass in Zhengzhou, China is designed to help drivers’ eyes adjust from daylight to a artificial lighting and back again.

China Rainbow Tunnel 2b

China Rainbow Tunnel 2a

Break out the Skittles, it’s time to drive the rainbow! Well, almost… the Cheng Avenue rainbow tunnel isn’t quite ready for prime time though it’s already cost Zhongmou County a pot of gold – about 100,000,000 yuan (about $ 16 million) and counting.

China Rainbow Tunnel 6

China Rainbow Tunnel 8

China Rainbow Tunnel 8b

The tunnel (actually a shallow underpass) is located about 50 meters north of the S223 Provincial Highway intersection just outside Zhengzhou in China’s east-central Henan province. The area around the project appears rather dry and drab; the soil radiating the pale yellow hue of dust blown eastward by strong winds scouring the Gobi Desert.

China Rainbow Tunnel 9a

China Rainbow Tunnel 9

China Rainbow Tunnel 7b

China Rainbow Tunnel 7a

If civic planning authorities intended to alleviate the visual monotony by injecting some color into the landscape, a 400-meter (1,312 ft) long “rainbow tunnel” is one way to do it. No matter if some bureaucratic committee can’t decide on a single hue: the rainbow tunnel has got ‘em all!

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Prism Break Chinas Eye Soothing Rainbow Road Tunnel

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Paint Me White Again: Tunnel Type Graffiti Taunts Authorities

28 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

paint me white again

Well known for stenciling big block-lettered phrases on walls around his native Newscastle, this piece is unusually blunt (as well as hilarious), amounting to a multi-part conversation between the artist and the city.

street art blank wall

street art painted over

Even better than the original ‘COME ON AND PAINT ME WHITE AGAIN’ dare is the later response after the municipality indeed whitewashed the first work: ‘BOOORING’, using his same signature typography in black paint.

joke around the corner

mobster street art checklist

mobstr newcastle reblog this

While not all of his work is quite so meta-minded as this series, this sequence remains a great illustration of how graffiti is generally temporary as well as contextual, and can have elements of humor and self-reflection beyond simple tagging. Some of his works are best seen in video form rather than via photographs, hence a few fun short films below.

A self-described minimalist, Mobstr explains the origins of his nom de plume, which are none too surprising: “It is a play on the term mobster which is someone who deals in organised crime. Most of my work is illegal however a lot of organisation goes into it. So as a joke I use the idea of it being organised (art) crime.” Also, he had a lobster named mobster.

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