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Posts Tagged ‘WWII’

Devil’s Slide: Deserted Bay Area WWII Bunker Hovers in Midair

14 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

devil slide pillbox

Built on Devil’s Peak (along a promontory known as Devil’s Slide), this obsolete base end station was designed to spot, triangulate and radio in sightings of enemy ships approaching the San Francisco Bay.

devils slide mound

Rounding the bend along California’s scenic coastal State Route 1 from either north or south, it is impossible to miss the incredible bunker, which appears to float over the earth around it. While the area is fenced off, a parking zone nearby is used by some explorers as a place from which to venture closer to the structure, located just south of Pacifica and past a hillside highway tunnel.

devils slide

Though this is neither safe nor recommended, it is also possible to climb into the viewing slot on the first level then walk the stairs to the top – unofficially: the view is incredible. Meanwhile, the edges of the bunker have turned from supports to supported, cantilevered precariously over their surroundings, allowing you to walk up and sit under thousands of pounds of reinforced concrete.

devils slide cantilever

devils slide behind

While it looks like the work of nature, the apparent erosion surrounding the lone structure is reportedly a man-made effort designed to pave the way for further development, presumably by the military. At the same time, natural causes would not be too much of a surprise or stretch, considering that this section of highway has been known to close due to everything from earthquakes to landslides – the next disaster very well might take this abandoned building with it. The land and bunker are meanwhile owned by a private party and officially off limits (though with limited fencing).

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Devils Slide Deserted Bay Area Wwii Bunker Hovers In Midair

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Concrete Retreat: 100 Sq Ft Home in WWII Dutch Defense Bunker

Sleek and multi-functional custom wood, glass and steel elements are set against a little-modified industrial concrete and metal backdrop in this stunning …
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Brutal but Beautiful: Book of 88 WWII Coastal Military Ruins

Traveling 23,000 miles over 4 years, photographer Marc Wilson has amassed an amazing collection of images spanning bunkers, gun emplacements, observation …
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Weightless Space: Ghostly Floating Room Hovers in Midair

A fantastic feat of architectural trickery, this anti-gravity ante-room installation appears to hover in thin air and open up into nothingness. It sports a …
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Brutal but Beautiful: Book of 88 WWII Coastal Military Ruins

08 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

world war eerie images

Traveling 23,000 miles over 4 years, photographer Marc Wilson has amassed an amazing collection of images spanning bunkers, gun emplacements, observation posts, command centres and other wartime infrastructure around Europe.

wwii coastal war ruins

war time bunker remnants

In his book, The Last Stand, 86 of the resulting images are arrayed to tell a complex story of different times and places. More than merely photographing these haunting remnants of war, however, Wilson also provides highly articulate reflections on everything from their site-specific purposes and aesthetics to their broader places in military and architectural histories.

war ruins woods

world war remnant architecture

“Composed of copious quantities of poured concrete,” many of these structures “defy and eschew any established aesthetic sensibilities: no hint of the classical, the gothic or the baroque here. Their geometries, purely contingent, were designed to resist the effects of the latest developments in projectile technology, their profiles shaped to deflect such missiles and avoid any direct percussive explosions on their structures.”

orld war brutalist remains

world war encampments

world war concrete bunker

His shots are carefully composed and timed, often taking place in the early hours of the morning when eerie mists and dim lights grant the subjects a surrealistic atmosphere. There is a dreaminess and dreariness to his work that manages to make the objects captured seem both ordinary and otherworldly. Prints of many of the pieces featured in the book can be purchased as well.

world war castle tower

world war winter imagery

world war water barrier

Unlike even the most pragmatic warehouse of the time, “there was nothing speculative or arbitrary about the bulwarks of their sometimes bizarre and often ungainly forms: they were purely functional. While far from being graceful or classically proportioned, there is something visually appealing about the alien (and sometimes sinister) forms of those bunkers. Novelty does not quite describe this appeal: more surprise perhaps – a surprise that courts the sublime.”

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Ruins Of War: 15 Places Abandoned Due to Military Turmoil

Wars show through the physical devastation they leave behind. In many cases the effects can be seen decades later.
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Empty Spaces: Photo Book Documents Eerie Urban Ruins

Crumbling cathedrals, decaying theaters and half-destroyed camping cabins: urban explorer Johnny Joo has seen it all, and he doesn’t just document these …
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Documenting Decay: Urban Atrophy’s Breathtaking New Book

The creator of the website Urban Atrophy has published an incredible picture book complete with the histories of the buildings he explores and documents.
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Concrete Retreat: 100 Sq Ft Home in WWII Dutch Defense Bunker

06 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

bunker house underground design

Sleek and multi-functional custom wood, glass and steel elements are set against a little-modified industrial concrete and metal backdrop in this stunning subterranean conversion project, turning a dilapidated war bunker into a cozy contemporary vacation dwelling.

bunker house entry door

bunker house glass metal

bunker bunk beds view

With strategic insertions, additions and slight modifications by B-ILD (photography by Tim Van de Velde), efficiency was paramount in the transformation of this tight space into a retreat that easily sleeps four (or more if need be).

bunker house living sleeping

bunker house bunk beds

bunker dining room

bunker house floor plan

Bunked beds allow sitting during the day and help stack sleepers vertically at night, all with sliding drawer space below, while stools double as coffee tables, night stands or steps as needed – no piece of furniture has only one use.

bunker house concrete wood

bunker house exterior deck

Board-formed concrete and rusted metal add texture and character to the interior, a defunct coastal defense outpost, contrasting on the outside with a floating wooden exterior deck space for relaxing and entertaining.

bunker house door detail

bunker house minimal kitchen

bunker kitchen

A bare-bones kitchen along the entry hall features basic plumbing and cooking accessories, all tucked up against the wall with the bare minimum necessities included for simple meals and cleaning.

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Fossilized Retreat: Log Cabin Remnants Recast in Concrete

Using the existing logs from a previous cabin structure as formwork, this retreat manages to retain the scale and textures of its predecessor in a …
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Suburb-Terranean: 70s Bunker Home Simulates Day & Night

It is a dream home like any other of its era, with brick walls, sliding doors, stock windows and shingle roofs as well as a lawn, garden, trees and pool. The …
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Hunker in the Bunker: 15 Cool Converted Concrete Shelters

A symbol of war and fear, disused bunkers are transformed into modern buildings with positive uses. These 15 recycled bomb shelters are now homes, hotels & …
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Reconstructed Destruction: Flyover of Bombed WWII Warsaw

17 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

poland 3d model city

It took 1 year, over 1000 photographs and extensive archival research to construct The City of Ruins, a digital stereoscopic reconstruction of Warsaw, Poland in its most devastated state. With over 60,000 3D-modeled structures (detailing what remained), this incredible undertaking brings home the scale of destruction with stunning visual details and remarkable historical accuracy.

As illustrated in the trailer above and images below, over 85% of the buildings in the city were ultimately destroyed between urban combat and systematic leveling. Its creators note that this is the first rigorous large-scale attempt to rebuild a war-ravaged city in digital form.

poland aerial reconstruction images

The Polish Resistance staged the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, which, lacking promised Soviet support, fell hard to German forces over brutal two month period. Thus Warsaw, previously a of nearly 1,000,000 people, was reduced to a habitat for less than 1,00o.

poland 3d reconstruction examples

The extent of its demolition is hard to picture, hence the creation of this model and flyover video for the Warsaw Rising museum. Without anti-aircraft capabilities or the ability to receive sufficient aid and support from the West, defenders in the city fought but ultimately fell or retreated through the sewer system.

warsaw detailed reconstruction photo

Hundreds of thousands of fighters and civilians alike perished in the conflict. The destruction of structures and infrastructure was documented piecemeal, the scraps of which were assembled formed the basis for this disturbingly realistic model and film. More on the remaking of the ruins below.

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Reconstructed Destruction Flyover Of Bombed Wwii Warsaw

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Resurrecting a WWII optic with scraps and a 3D printer

07 May

bcamcrop3.jpg

Falling into the interesting photo experiments category, Patrick Letourneau adapted a Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm F2.5 lens, a surplus lens originally used during World War II in bomber-mounted cameras, to use with his Panasonic GH2. A Thorium-oxide coating was used on the Aero Ektar’s rear element to improve its refraction index, a fact that adds a sense of intrigue to the unique project. Click through for more details, and pictures. 

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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