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Secret Studio: Suspended Mobile Room Slides & Hides Under Busy Overpass

25 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

Designer Fernando Abellanas has built a remarkable micro-dwelling in Valencia, Spain, that slides into position under a bridge, suspended safely out of sight from the traffic passing by above.

The clever construction of the room’s frame allows it to roll over tilted sections of beam, making its way between a lofted and secluded position and the top of a slope on the other side for entry and egress.

A hand-crank lets the dweller move the enclosure back and forth without any need for an external power source. Furniture and fixtures, meanwhile, stay put, attached to the vertical span of bridge supports where the room docks.

Embracing a minimalist approach and industrial palette, this urban refuge has flexible walls that can form an enclosure and act as privacy screens, allowing the occupant to hiding completely behind raised plywood surfaces.

A light-touch approach means the structure leaves essentially no footprint – it glides lightly around existing infrastructure. And its built-in mobility mechanism assures castle-like protection, vertical space acting as a natural moat.

Indeed, the designs were based on childhood fantasies and real-worldassociations with hard-to-access spaces like tree houses and table forts easy for children to access but hard for adults.

The dull hum of the road is a bit like the buzz of a family going about its business — the buffer of concrete also dampens some of the noise, making the space less loud than it would be to occupy a space alongside the highway.

Abellanas has long been fascinated with furniture as well as forts, and his work with other artists and architects reflects an ongoing interest in paradigm-challenging designs do-it-yourself guerrilla interventions.

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

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Invisible Graffiti: Uncanny 3D Overpass Art Simulates Transparency

03 Feb

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

3D graffiti artist Milane Ramsi has combined two challenging types of urban art into a single installation, making a concrete pillar appear to vanish while producing three-dimensional lettering.

The installation wraps a concrete support post for a highway overpass in Karlovy Vary, a city in the Czech Republic. The work spells the artist’s name in reverse, appearing to pierce the pillar thanks to a combination of colors overlaid on a simulated background. The purple gives a general shape to the work while the yellow adds apparent depth and dimension.

His other works range from tags to 3D-looking works that appear to pop off the wall, but this particular piece combines elements that span graffiti types and styles.

tree wrap

In invisibility aspect is reminiscent of another clever work of roadside art, a wrapped tree designed to look like it has been cut across the middle, leaving the top half portion of the trunk and branches to seemingly float on air. And below: Tree Line by photographer Zander Olsen.

tree-line

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

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Animal Overpass: LA Wildlife Crossing to Be Largest in US

09 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

la crossing proposal

Set in urban Los Angeles over a calculated spot along the 101 Freeway, an audacious freeway overpass has been designed to reduce deaths among mountain lions, pumas and other wild species populating the area. While such wildlife crossing exist in various forms around the world, this would be the biggest of its kind in North America at 165 by 200 feet, and perhaps the largest urban example on the planet.

wildlife crossing example

ecoduct bridge wildlife crossing

The crossing is set to connect two areas of protected public land, in the Santa Monica Mountains to the south and the Santa Susana Mountains to the north, stitching a fragmented habitat back together. Covered in native greenery, it would provide a safe passage for animals across the busy freeway below and could double as a crossing for hikers and mountain bikers as well.

wildlife crossing in bamf

Backed by local politicians and wildlife protection organizations, the project was vetted for feasibility by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and is set to be funded with public money. It is intended primarily to protect animals, but also benefits motorists who can also be harmed in wildlife-related accidents.

animal crossing design

There are smaller-scale precedents around the US and the globe, variously set above or below roads help animals both large and small. Some are larger, including tunnels or bridges for bears, cougars, deer, elk but others are smaller and species-specific, like the above aerial trellis for mice and squirrels in Australia. In some cases, as with a certain species of crab (below, also: Down Under), the crossings are essential to maintaining balanced ecosystems and supporting local economies.

crab crossing

Many of these kinds of structures can be found in more rural states around the country, while very few bridge metropolitan highways. “I don’t know anywhere where people have tried to put such a large wildlife crossing over such a busy highway in such an urban landscape,” said Seth Riley, a wildlife ecologist with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service (additional images via Wikipedia).