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RotterZwam: Abandoned Water Park Turned Indoor Mushroom Farm

29 Apr

[ By SA Rogers in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Bags of old coffee grounds hang in the dank dressing rooms of an abandoned Rotterdam water park, growing oyster mushrooms. Two men turned the former Tropicana space, an old teen hangout, into the perfect damp, dim environment for their business, making use of the structure while the city council decides what to do with it. ‘RotterZwam’ rents the building on an anti-squat lease and have transformed it into a fascinating example of adaptive reuse and urban farming.

Tropicana is fairly infamous among Rotterdam locals, but closed after the former owner went bankrupt in 2010. The space had been plagued with problems, from hygiene to sexual assault. It sat empty until Siemen Cox and mark Slegers, RotteZwam’s owners, realized it looked like a giant greenhouse.

Though they hope that central glassed-in space – formerly the pool – will eventually become a greenhouse, for now, they’re making use of the dressing rooms and basement, which offer ideal conditions for fungal growth. The crew hangs bags of coffee grinds from the old Tropicana clothes hangers, and before long, they sprout oyster mushrooms.

They collect the coffee from local cafes, transport it in their carrier bicycle, and give the compost to worms to create an extremely low-waste operation. The produce about 20-50kg of mushrooms every week, and sell it to local restaurants, bakeries and food trucks. They also offer DIY mushroom-growing kits.

“Cities like Rotterdam produce nothing but waste and commuters,” they say in an interview with Vice’s Munchies. “This entertainment park represents that perfectly – we build things and, when we don’t want them anymore, we need others to clean it up, to sweep up our garbage. That’s not how nature works, though – in nature wast doesn’t exist. In this building we hardly ever buy a thing, because eery material or nail is already here.”

[ By SA Rogers in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Urban Camo: Bus & Train Fabrics Turned into Wearable Textiles

15 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

fabric matching transit dress

Transportation system patterns, right down to seat cloth details, are designed to last and look good even when stained by dirt and spilled drinks over time, making them an oddly suitable choice to turn into apparel.

transportation camouflage germany

Of course, what looks best under those strained conditions can also look downright strange when turned into suits for human wearers, as Germany artist Menja Stevenson explored firsthand.

fabric cloth outfit artist

“No matter how many subway lines, buses, trams, trains, and other public conveyances we ride, we are rarely left with a positive impression of the upholstery,” writes David Gibson of the BBC in discussing this art project. “As sure as roses are red and violets blue, transport fabric is a multihued graphic abomination, possibly crawling with pathogens.”

matching cloth

Stevenson contacted transportation officials and managed to get large enough sections and samples sent her way in order to start making her distinct urban outfits.

transit suit outfit

“For many years I had to take the bus to the academy where I studied art,” says the artist. “Such a pattern, like a lot of everyday things, imprints itself into our memory unconsciously without being actually perceived.Through my intervention the beholder (or passenger) becomes aware of the ‘invisible’ fabric.”

urban outfit

Of course, by outfitting herself in transit-mapping fabrics, Stevenson goes from being invisible to highly visible, inevitably generating conversations from curious onlookers who notice her fitting in while standing out (via Colossal).

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Last Stop: 2,800 Drowned NYC Subway Cars Turned Marine Habitats

04 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

dropping reef closeup

Since the early 2000s, decommissioned New York City subway cars have been seeded into the waters around New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and other eastern states, creating infrastructure for fish habitats along the coastal shelf running from New York to North Carolina. Artificial reefs like these can increase sea life concentrations dramatically in otherwise-flat subsurface regions, boasting up to hundreds of times as much biomass per area of seafloor.

dumping subway cars

dropping reef filling

In late 2000, the Metro Transit Authority began dumping 1200 old cars into the water; in 2007, another 1600 were added to the list. These frameworks of these sunken cars serve as replacement rock outcrops on which corals and plants grow, leading to oysters, mussels and further sea life. Photographer Stephen Mallon has spent years capturing this deliberate subway-dumping activity in action on the surface.

dropping reef then

Meanwhile, sequential underwater images show the subsurface results over time. The progress photos above and below were shot after 5 years and 10 years, respectively, demonstrating just how rapidly and effectively these places can become populated, first sparsely and then densely.

dropping reef now

The critical amount of biomass that develops makes these cars hotspots for diverse populations of underwater creatures all along the food chain, together forming self-sustaining regional ecosystems.

dropping car crane water

In turn, these locations can attract fishermen and divers as well, keen both to see the thriving populations of aquatic life but also to explore the underwater ruins of modern machines. Far as they may be from their original subterranean homes, these train cars still manage to serve citizens of cities along the Atlantic coast in their own unusual ways.

[ By WebUrbanist in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Built of Bombs: Unexploded Ordinance Turned Into Boats & Homes

16 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

A legacy of living in the most-bombed country per capita in world history, Laotian citizens have spent decades since the Vietnam War dealing with close to 100 million undetonated objects of local destruction.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the US covertly dropped hundreds of millions of bombs on the country, at an average rate of one bomb per eight minutes. Today, converted bomb remnants are visible across the country, used virtually intact to loft houses above flood planes, hollowed out and turned into watercraft or containers, or stripped down for scrap.

bomb architecture scrap lift

An entire (now shrinking) nationwide industry has grown up around finding, stripping and transforming cluster bombs into metal pieces and parts deconstructed or refit for various new uses. In many villages, bombshells are visible throughout the built environment.

Photographer Mark Watson took a cross-country bike trip and documented these remarkable cases of reuse. “Scrap from such widespread bombing has been utilized in people’s homes and villages,” Watson said, “for everything from house foundations to planter boxes to buckets, cups and cowbells.”

bomb boat riverfront

While it may sound at first like an uplifting story of turning swords into ploughshares, there is a dark side to this tale. To this day, over 100 people die annually from accidental detonations, either from bombs still loose in the countryside or in attempts to deactivate or convert found ordinance.

Non-profit organizations working to clear the country of this danger estimate it may yet take another century to complete the cleanup process (via Inhabitat and Mark Watson of Highlux Photography).

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

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40-Foot Cargo Container Turned into World’s Tallest Periscope

18 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

cargo periscope

A brilliantly low-tech way to provide a unique view of the surrounding landscape, this massive yet cost-efficient shipping container periscope uses the same elementary construction principles as those childhood do-it-yourself milk carton equivalents.

cargo tower view port

cargo 45 degree mirrors

Framing a clear vista of the nearby Lagoa Santa, a Brazilian lagoon, this upturned container designed by Pedro Barata e Arquitetos Associados sits alongside a structure likewise built in part from containers.

cargo shipping tower

Though a one-off idea for now, this would be a great low-cost solution for sites where excellent views are close but building permanent staircases and decks would not be feasible.

cargo building in context

cargo container periscope

Analogous to the traditional role of a fireplace and chimney inside a home, the tall structure is also a natural focal point for outdoor gatherings.

cargo container building adjacent

A simple system of wood supports and set of mirrors tilted at 45 degree angles reflects the view above for onlookers below. It is ultimately designed to travel, set up to similarly enable views elsewhere, before coming to rest in a final spot yet to be determined.

cargo upturned container view

The architect is pleased with resulting reactions so far: “there’s always someone peeking through the vertical tunnel, trying to understand the ‘technology’ allowing them to do so. By connecting directly two different and faraway spaces, the Superiscope introduces people to architecture as hypertext”

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Turned up to 20MP: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 added to studio scene comparison

06 Aug

The Panasonic GX8 introduces a new 20MP Four Thirds sensor to its class. It provides dual IS, ISO up to 25,600 and UHD 4K video recording. It’s an all-around enticing update to Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds lineup, both for the potential of its new sensor and its rich feature set. We put it up against our studio test scene – take a look and compare it to its peers. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Modernized Monument: Crumbling Medieval Tower Turned Library

06 Jun

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

torre del borgo 1

Matte black steel and timber-clad stacked volumes fill in empty spaces throughout the medieval Torre del Borgo in northern Italy, a recent renovation stabilizing the crumbling stone walls and connecting the four stories together for transformation into a public library. Still strong after all these centuries, the stone shell of the fortified building works in concert with modern materials to create a space that provides an important function to the community, and helps preserve its history.

torre del borgo 3

torre del borgo 4

Before it was re-designed, the Torre was not only falling apart piece by piece, it lacked adequate means of passage from one floor to the next, and the interiors were unfinished. It needed structural support, extra space and additional windows to make it usable for the city of Bergamo.

torre del borgo 9

torre del borgo 7

torre del borgo 5

Architect Gianluca Gemini came up with “an architectonic and functional reinterpretation of the building” that identifies solutions to the degradation. Black iron ramps and walkways cut across the four main halls, making them fully accessible and highlighting a contrast between the smooth steel and glass and the rough, mottled stone. This solution is visually striking, invisible from outside and leaves plenty of room for library patrons to read and browse.

torre del borgo 8

torre del borgo 2

torre del borgo 10

The timber and concrete addition features floor-to-ceiling glazing to bring more natural light to the interior, and adds floor space, without significantly altering the original stone structure.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Converted Cockpit: Cockfighting Arena Turned into Sunken Garden

03 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

converted cockpit terraces greenery

Traditionally legal in Peru, many citizens nonetheless find cockfights a morbid and gruesome affair and are thus celebrating the transformation of this sunken coliseum into a meditative and memorial public green space.

memorial terraces trees water

Paths, greenery and water features were added in part to lend the sensibilities of monuments and memorials to the place, commemorating the animals who suffered and died within the ring.

convertd cockpit side stairs

Remade by 2.8x Architects, this coliseum in Lima, Peru, has many preserved and reused elements, including large stones and cast concrete either left in place or redeployed on the property with new purposes in mind.

fighting pit ring memorail

Since cockfighting has been historically seen a sport in the region (and heavily bet upon), bird fighting pits (aka “cockpits”) in the country have been correspondingly prominent and well-constructed places, not the seedy sideshows one may imagine in locations where it is illegal. The driving idea was to reflect the history of the space in the form of preserved ruins while also providing a new experience in this unusually enclosed, semi-subterranean space.

convertd sunken cockpit

One can still imagine the historical horrors that took place before the conversion – armed with spurs for battle, cocks set about slashing and scraping one another, often resulting in the death of one or both combatants. At the same time, an abstracted yin-and-yang symbol at the center of the sunken circle and lush vegetation on all sides (filling the former stands and seats) conjure fresh and more optimistic feelings and associations among neighbors and visitors.

converted cockfighting arena

From the designers: “So the curved lines of the terraces contemplated in the project go on top of the remaining concrete stands, and the levels of these terraces try to maintain the original levels of some of the stands. This way the proportions of the coliseum continue. In the same way, the central space of the garden keeps the same dimensions and characteristics of the arena where the birds used to fight. The project has as background the hills of the residential area. It is because of the surroundings where the project is located, with hills all around, that we chose irregular “talamolle” stone as the main building material.”

memorial garden at night

“We also used terrazzo, concrete, and green painted iron for some details like the fountain, the circular bench, the wire net, and the ramp at the entry among others. To reinforce the idea of a memorial garden and a place suitable for meditation, elements such as water, a circular ramp all around, and a curved path of stone crossing the central space were included. The path together with the central circular garden form the ying yang, that is the equilibrium center of the whole space. At night the diffused illumination has an important role too.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Shop in a Swimming Pool: Neglected Space Turned into a Store

13 Dec

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

swimming pool store aoyama 1

Until recently, this indoor swimming pool on the vacant ground floor of a 1970s apartment building in Tokyo was just an empty space, dry and disused for years. Now it’s a pop-up shop by Nobuo Araki known as ‘The Pool Aoyama‘ hawking clothing, accessories and swim-themed promotional items. The designers left the pool almost entirely intact, installing a glass floor that mimics the look of water.

swimming pool aoyama 5

swimming pool store aoyama 8

The shell of the abandoned pool and its steel ladder have become key elements of the final design, with the pool walls defining the space of the shop. Wooden stairs on either side of the pool meet to create a sort of bridge across the glass. White shelving units are mounted along the edges to display goods, and U-shaped stainless steel clothing racks hanging from the ceiling echo the look of pool hand rails.

swimming pool store aoyama 2

swimming pool store aoyama 3

The designers were drawn to the soft light, charm and quirkiness of the space, and the shallow depth of the pool lends itself well for adaptation into a showroom. A newly installed glass ceiling floods the room with natural light, and the bathrooms were turned into fitting rooms.

swimming pool aoyama 4

swimming pool store aoyama 6

swimming pool store aoyama 10

Entering the shop feels a bit like gaining access to a secret underground space that few are savvy to, as the door is simply marked with an inconspicuous sign reading ‘The Pool.’

[ By Steph in Architecture & Offices & Commercial. ]

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Bath House: Abandoned Public Restroom Turned Private Home

08 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

deserted loo pre conversion

The ultimate fixer-upper, real estate rarely looks so unpromising as this London dump did – thankfully, one architect saw potential beyond these potties, despite the place truly looking like shi… well, er, bad. In the end, the before-and-after shots speak for themselves – few buildings can boast such total turnarounds, converting crappy ruins into shining tur…, er, digs.

deserted public restroom uk

converted skylit underground condo

Located under the Crystal Palace Parade, these lavatories constitute just 600 square feet of space – not much by the standards of some cities but relative huge for England’s densely-packed capital.

deserted underground bathroom stalls

deserted london renovation project

Located by architect Laura Clark after just finishing up at the Glasgow School of Art, the strange site seemed a perfect challenge for an aspiring architectural designer wanting to take up residence in London.

converted home stairs ladder

deserted amazing subterranean home

At the intersection of various municipalities and built nearly a century ago, getting approvals turned out to be painfully difficult – even establishing who owned the property proved problematic. Eventually, though, it went up for sale and she was able to secure and start working to convert it.

converted house closet bathroom

deserted underground home skylights

The results of her efforts: a compelling home constructed for under 65,000 Pounds (around $ 100,000 USD), surprisingly open, spacious and light-filled compared to its cavernous original state. Along the way, the architect was able to reuse some old materials in the new construction and save some existing walls as well.

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Posts Tagged ‘Turned’

RotterZwam: Abandoned Water Park Turned Indoor Mushroom Farm

Urban Camo: Bus & Train Fabrics Turned into Wearable Textiles

Last Stop: 2,800 Drowned NYC Subway Cars Turned Marine Habitats

Built of Bombs: Unexploded Ordinance Turned Into Boats & Homes

40-Foot Cargo Container Turned into World’s Tallest Periscope

Turned up to 20MP: Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 added to studio scene comparison

Modernized Monument: Crumbling Medieval Tower Turned Library

Converted Cockpit: Cockfighting Arena Turned into Sunken Garden

Shop in a Swimming Pool: Neglected Space Turned into a Store

Bath House: Abandoned Public Restroom Turned Private Home

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Posts Tagged ‘Turned’

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