Park « 360Photography

RSS

Posts Tagged ‘Park’

Dismaland: Banksy’s Disappointing Dystopian Bemusement Park

22 Aug

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

dismaland 1

Excited ticket holders rush past sullen-faced guards in mouse ears to gain access to Banksy’s Dismaland, a dilapidated, depressing ‘bemusement park’ that’s far from the happiest place on earth. Contained within a derelict seaside swimming complex, the attraction takes everything you love about Disneyland and subverts it into a dystopian vision where nothing works quite like it should, and whatever can go wrong probably will.

dismaland 3

dismaland 2

Visitors pass through a faux security screening complete with cardboard x-ray machines before submitting to a real search, with guards ironically checking for spray paint to make sure no vandals compromise the strange scene Banksy has curated. Inside, they’re greeted by a structure resembling a post-apocalyptic Cinderella’s castle, a giant pinwheel tangled with plastic and the grim reaper as the sole rider at a bumper car attraction.

dismaland 6

dismaland 9

dismaland 10

A photo backdrop labeled ‘selfie hole’ tells you what it’s for and makes a statement on the person using it at the same time. Step past the ‘No Entry’ gate in the fairytale castle and you’ll be treated to CCTV-like footage of Cinderella and her prince on screens before coming upon the wreckage of her overturned carriage, paparazzi flashbulbs going off in a frenzy deliberately echoing the death of Princess Diana. Everything is designed to be a colossal let-down.

dismaland 5

dismaland 4

dismaland 8

Abandoned for nearly a century, the 2.5-acre site has just the right grimy atmosphere for Banksy’s display, which includes almost none of his own work. The artists who collaborated on the project and have works featured inside include Jenny Holzer, Damien Hirst and Jimmy Cauty. The park will be open every day through September 27th, with performances by Run the Jewels, Pussy Riot, Massive Attack and others scheduled each Friday. Tickets are £3 on the Dismaland website.

Photos by Christopher Jobson at This is Colossal

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

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Skate Park To Go: Duo Designs Mobile Modular Setup

20 Aug

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 4.55.27 PM

Skateboarding isn’t classified as a real sport in the Netherlands, but one duo decided to take the resulting lack of decent official skate parks into their own hands with a guerrilla solution. Now, legally or not, virtually any public space can become a skate park thanks to a series of modular DIY components by Martijn Hartwig and Dario Goldbach.

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 4.55.09 PM

The JIRAJIRA project is the duo’s final work as graphic design graduates at Willem de Kooning Academy, and consists of nine hand-painted ramps, quarter pipes and benches that can be loaded onto rolling platforms and transported to any location within Rotterdam. Dutch artists Leon Karen and Vincent Blok were commissioned to decorate each element, turning the collective park into a sort of portable gallery.

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 5.00.45 PM

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 5.01.06 PM

Keeping the whole setup mobile is ideal, since the cops are likely to come along and tell you to get lost. The modular parts are designed to work in conjunction with objects typically found in parks and city squares, like trash cans and benches. Since skaters are going to make use of any surfaces they can find anyway, possibly including some of the city’s temptingly curvy war monuments, it’s a decent compromise with the authorities.

skate park 3 skate park 2

Rotterdam’s only skate park, a metallic monstrosity known as the Westblaak, closed down after being deemed unsafe. In a profile on the city’s scene, skateboarding magazine Kingpin says that since nearly the entire city was destroyed during World War II, most of the streets are smooth and there’s plenty of eminently skateable new construction. “The only downside would be that The Netherlands is pretty much flat, so not too many stairs and or rails,” they note, so clearly the JIRAJIRA project is filling an underserved niche.

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

InstaMeets: A National Park Meetup For Photogs

15 Jul

You know that feel when you’re left behind in a tour group because you’re too busy snapping photos? All the time. You’re not alone (this time) and a resourceful Park Ranger noticed your dilemma.

Ranger Tim created InstaMeets, in Glacier National Park, as a solution. It’s a meetup for photographers to go on photo walks, safely and slowly, together. They’re a great way to connect with and learn from other photo enthusiasts.

Hopefully this brilliant idea is picked up by other National Parks. In the meantime, if you’re headed toward Glacier, check out when the next InstaMeet is here.

Photo by NPS

Photojojo

Comments Off

Posted in Equipment

Subterranean Solar: $100K Raised for Daylit Underground Park

25 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

low line warehouse section

With two weeks left to go in its crowdfunding campaign, the Lowline has already raised over $ 100,000 from over 1,000 backers, promising to turn an old trolley station in Manhattan into the Earth’s first underground park. Inspired in part by the High Line, an NYC park reusing old elevated rail infrastructure, this project aims to add space to one of the most crowded cities on the planet.

low line money shot

The design by Raad Studio is supported by a custom lighting technology being developed specifically for this project, specifically: a “remote skylight” combinating solar harvesting and fiber optics to pipe daylight directly down into the subterranean spaces and paths of the park below.

low line green trees

low line underground design

This system will pipe sunlight from the surface via mirrors and tubes, building on existing designs to route natural light to subsurface labs. As shown below, some tech prototypes have already been tested in an above-ground warehouse but there is still a good deal of research, testing and other work to be done.

low line test warehouse

low line canopy design

Built over a century ago but abandoned for over 50 years, this 40,000-square-foot Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal is in remarkably good shape despite years of neglect. Located in the Lower East Side, the project aims to bring a green retreat to a part of New York City sorely lacking in public landscapes.

low line tech image

In this phase, the funding will further support technological development as well as public exhibitions to raise further interest for the project: “Partnering with the solar device maker SunPortal, we are shipping cutting edge equipment via ocean freighter from South Korea to New York City, and will begin installation over the summer. These devices will track the sun throughout the sky every minute of every day, optimizing the amount of natural sunlight we can capture. These will be connected to a tube-based distribution system and 40-foot-wide canopy inside the warehouse, to help reflect natural sunlight into the Lowline Lab. Once this natural sunlight is filtered into the space, we can test for the quality of the light, taking specific note of spectrum, distribution and intensity.”

low line prototype idea

This campaign will also provide funds for exploring types of plant life possible in underground spaces: “Our design inspiration is Mannahatta– a verdant vision of the city before modern civilization– and we expect to feature edible plants, and a science fiction palette of greenery forming stalactites, stalagmites, and whimsical passageways. Again, because we are testing in the fall and winter– the two toughest times to grow plants– we will gain valuable insight into which species will perform best throughout the year.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Grimm Abandonment: Derelict Australian Fairy Tale Park for Sale

24 Jun

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned park castle

Inspired by classical fairy tales, this deserted theme park recently opened its doors to an urban explorer and photographer, giving outsiders a glimpse into the current state of the place as well as its potential to be reborn in the hands of the right buyer. Traveling to the site from Tasmania, Urbexography has done a remarkable job at documenting this strangely magical place.

abandoned castle in context

abandoned fairy tale setting

abandoned welcome sign

From the Fantasy Glades website: “In the 1960’s a family of ‘Little People’ George and Rosemary Whitaker, along with their children James and Lynette, and Rosemary’s parents, Aub and Lin Gribble, set out on a journey from Sydney to Port Macquarie in NSW Australia with a dream to create their very own children’s Fairy Tale Theme Park.” It was closed 35 years later in 2002 and has remained so since.

abandoned theme park shoe

abandoned australia brothers grimm

deserted fairy tale park

The main attractions were based on the works of the Brothers Grimm, aided by the experience of the park’s founders in theatrical stage and set design work around such themes. Located in a patch of natural bushland at Parklands Close in Port Macquarie, the location features Snow White’s cottage, bedrooms of the Seven Dwarves and other features of similarly famous fairy tales and fables.

abandoned park building

abandoned chapel interior

abandoned park graffiti tag

Whether the magic is gone forever or can be maintained and rebuilt is ultimately a question of economics – the current owners would love nothing more than to sell the place to someone who has an interest in bringing it back to life.

abandoned stairs seating

abandoned moat draw breidge

abandoned park fairy castle

In the words of the photographer: “Fantasy Glades was an absolutely magical, special place for many people including myself as a child and also my children when they were little. It has been visited and enjoyed by numerous families from all around the world since 1968 when it first opened. Fantasy Glades is a hidden piece of paradise in one of Australia’s best locations.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Ramping Up: World’s First Multi-Story Skateboard Park in UK

25 May

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

multi story skate park

Designed to provide 1,000 square meters of recreational space across four floors, this multistory structure bends and curves to accommodate bowls and ramps for skaters who can move vertically between differently-shaped levels.

multistory skateboard rec center

multistory building exterior

The proposal by British firm Guy Hollaway Architects is to be constructed in Kent as part of a larger project to recreate the area and bring in new and diverse activities. The structure’s semi-transparent skin will allow views in from the surrounding sidewalks and streets.

multistory building section

multistory concrete glass skatepark

Climbing walls and boxing rings are interspersed through the floors and aimed at a variety of ages and experience levels and activity types. The ceilings of each floor are informed by activities above, making for a rich series of building sections.

multistory ramps climbing

multistory skateboarding design

While the design is still in development, it is both impressive but features a series of missed opportunities as well, including the chance to at more vertical integration through multistory tubes, ramps or pipes. In its current iteration, skaters use side ramps to traverse floors but more sectional complexity could add new elements that truly take full advantage of the height of the building.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Abandoned Highway to Seoul Sky Garden: New Elevated Park

16 May

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

seoul skygarden 1

Deemed unsafe and left to rot, a stretch of highway in a prime location beside a train station in Seoul, South Korea will soon get a new life as an elevated park. Built in the ’70s, the structure provided access to and from a local market that served as a crucial point of trade in the region for decades, but vehicles were banned after failed inspections in 2006. For years it has sat unused while pedestrians are forced to take a long route around it to get to the station.

seoul skygarden 2

seoul skygarden 3

It was supposed to be demolished, but officials consulted residents and experts to see if there was another option. Pedestrian walkways can be hard to come by in any city, and the dozens of elevated parks that are popping up around the world prove that reclaiming and rehabilitating abandoned infrastructure can be an economic boon as they bring new green space to urban settings and create new connections between neighborhoods.

seoul skygarden 4

Dutch architecture firm MVRDV won a contest to design the park, filling it with massive circular plant pots filled with 254 different species of flowers, shrubs and trees to create a “living dictionary of the natural heritage of Korea.” A greenhouse will grow new plants to populate the pots, and pedestrians can stop at a number of cafes, street markets, flower shops and other vendors.

seoul skygarden 5

Once completed, the 55-foot-high structure will cut the walk around the railway station from 25 minutes to 11, and is expected to generate 1.83 times its cost in economic benefits.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

The Void: World’s First Virtual Reality Theme Park Coming Soon

14 May

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

The Void 1

“Why play a game when you can live it?” ask the creators of The Void, the world’s first virtual reality theme park slated to open in Utah in summer 2016. Gamers will soon be able to immerse themselves in 4D environments, with all sorts of eye-popping effects layered onto real spaces. Imagine: first-person shooters meet paintball or laser tag – this is the future of gaming.

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 1.07.31 PM

The flagship Pleasant Grove location will feature sixteen 60-by-60-foot rooms with different themes for different experiences, and they even plan to change these virtual stages every three months so repeat players never get bored.

Want to find out what it feels like to wander around in the jungle during the Jurassic age, or explore a truly terrifying haunted house? Zoom around skyscrapers in a flying car? The Void basically enables you to star in your own action movie, alone or with a group of friends, in a VR experience that far surpasses anything you could do with a headset on your couch.

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 1.06.30 PM

Each stage not only has custom architecture and sculptures to make it feel more real – you’ll also feel blasts of air and shifts in temperature, take in scents and strap yourself into motion simulators for activities like flying. Individual rooms hold up to 10 gamers at a time who can work as a team or play against each other. The Void has created a virtual reality headset of its own design, called Rapture HMD.

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 1.07.04 PM

Screen Shot 2015-05-13 at 1.06.49 PM

You won’t necessarily have to fly to Utah to experience it, either – they’re planning on opening other locations around the world.

[ By Steph in Gaming & Computing & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

The Dryline: BIG Plan Fights NYC Floods with Waterfront Park

24 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

dryline manhattan park view

A huge infrastructure project designed to prevent future Hurricane Sandy-style devastation, the Dryline is a perfectly-named solution for a city already sporting a successful High Line and an underground Low Line currently under construction. In the wake of that devastating super-storm, over 300,000 homes were left damaged or destroyed and nearly 20 billion dollars of destruction was caused in total – the first section of the Dryline is slated to cost a few hundred million, which in contrast does not seem like so much money.

berm

coastline

Developed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the scheme continuous to evolve with each iteration. This latest video illustrates many of the mechanisms of action through easy-to-understand sketches and diagrams. It also features interviews with New Yorkers about their vision for a greener southern tip for Manhattan.

active

Designed to be deployed incrementally, the grand plan involves many discrete steps, each intended to shore up the lower portion of the city – the place that takes the brunt of incoming tides. The individual interventions vary, from berms that double as parks to sliding barriers that move into position during unusually high tides. Ultimately, “the Dryline imagines a landscaped buffer stretching all the way from West 57th Street, looping down to the Battery and back up to East 42nd Street, bestowing Manhattan with a protective green cushion.”

community active space

community bike space

At the same time, the design follows classic principles of urban landscape pioneers like Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, taking this environmental challenge as an opportunity to create more park and civic space. Per The Guardian, “With a sprinkling of fairy-dust, the shoreline becomes furnished with undulating berms and protective planting, flip-down baffles and defensive kiosks, promenades and bike paths, bringing pedestrian life worthy of Lisbon or Barcelona to the gritty banks of Manhattan.”

dryline berm section

dryline green space fall

BIG is a firm known for thinking large and this project is no exception. Then again, lessons learned from the other ambitious urban projects (like NYC’s High Line) can be applied here: built it piece by piece to reduce one-time costs and provide room for adjustment, and take citizen input into account. In the end, anyone who has walked the south edge of Manhattan knows it is a disjointed and, in many places, unwelcoming space – there is a huge opportunity for a new kind of part to provide connectivity and green space from this disparate set of urban landscapes.

dryline coastal glass sections

nyc manhattan dry line

green park plan

“The Dryline consists of multiple but linked design opportunities; each on different scales of time, size and investment; each local neighborhood tailoring its own set of programs, functions, and opportunities. Small, relatively simple projects maintain the resiliency investment momentum post-Sandy, while setting in motion the longer-term solutions that will be necessary in the future.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

WebUrbanist

Comments Off

Posted in Creativity

Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

11 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

underground bmx bike park

Boasting 5 miles of trails, ramps and obstacles, this cavernous subterranean space sits 100 feet underground and totals 320,000 square feet. The wide-open footprint and copious mounds of dirt, able to be endlessly reformed into new types of terrain, lend themselves to this particularly fitting form of adaptive reuse.

underground converted limestone mine copy

Located in Louisville, Kentucky, and open as of yesterday, the Mega Underground Bike Park gains a number of advantages from being far below the surface, including a relatively consistent temperature and protection from wind, rain and other weather (without the typical costs of constructing a building to house these activities).

underground bike park ramps

Originally a limestone mine, there were plans to create a highs-security business park in the space – while there are a few businesses actually occupying other parts of the underground complex of caves, the big idea fell through, replaced by a plan to create zip lines, challenge courses and now the biggest interior bike park on the planet.

Currently the space offers 45 trails with differing degrees of of difficulty as well as clever additions like cargo containers turned into ramps and overpasses. Most of the materials needed, though, were already in place – it was mainly a matter of lighting, accessing and shaping the space.

underground dirt ramp caves

From their website: “Are you ready to experience a one of a kind Underground Bike Park? Over 320,000 square feet including over 45 trails, Jump Lines, Pump Tracks, Dual Slalom, BMX, Cross Country and Single Track all in a former limestone cavern 100 feet sub-surface. Enjoy the comfort of our 60 degree temperature year round. Come experience what the buzz is all about. You simply won’t believe what you see.”

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Park’

Dismaland: Banksy’s Disappointing Dystopian Bemusement Park

Skate Park To Go: Duo Designs Mobile Modular Setup

InstaMeets: A National Park Meetup For Photogs

Subterranean Solar: $100K Raised for Daylit Underground Park

Grimm Abandonment: Derelict Australian Fairy Tale Park for Sale

Ramping Up: World’s First Multi-Story Skateboard Park in UK

Abandoned Highway to Seoul Sky Garden: New Elevated Park

The Void: World’s First Virtual Reality Theme Park Coming Soon

The Dryline: BIG Plan Fights NYC Floods with Waterfront Park

Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

Pages

Archives

Categories

Posts Tagged ‘Park’

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

The Ultimate Banksy Art & Graffiti Image Gallery

Fake Banksy: 40 Forgeries Sold in 1 Hour on Streets of NYC

Priceless: Banksy Shop in NYC Sells Art to Clueless Public

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Under London: Disused Tunnel Now a Subterranean Skate Park

Sensational Skate Park & Urban Climbing Wall in Spain

Flip for This: 12 Crazy and Creative Skate Ramps & Parks

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Urban Reuse Goes Underground: Subterranean Community Park

Lowline for NYC: World’s First Underground Park in Manhattan

Under London: Disused Tunnel Now a Subterranean Skate Park

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Yellow Brick Ode: The Mainly Abandoned Land Of Oz Theme Park

Post-Olympic Abandonment: Sochi Already on the Road to Ruin

Abandoned Mine is Now World’s Largest Indoor BMX Bike Park

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

3-Story Floating School in Nigeria Rides on Recycled Barrels

Sky Park: Design Idea Floats City Block Over Penn Station

Speedy Prefab: How a 9-Story Apartment Was Built in 5 Days

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Capital Idea: Bridge to Elevated Park for Washington D.C.

Leisure in the Sky: 13 Elevated Railway + Rooftop Parks

Urban Reuse Goes Underground: Subterranean Community Park

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

CastAR 3D: See the Future of Work & Play in Augmented Reality

Virtually Reality: Real Futuristic Tools for Virtual Worlds

Get Your Virtual Wings: Oculus Rift Machine Simulates Flight

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Turning Tides: 10-Mile Park to Protect NYC from Flooding

Lowline for NYC: World’s First Underground Park in Manhattan

Urban Nest: New Round Amphitheater Section for High Line

Want More? Click for Great Related Content on WebUrbanist:

Tons of Art: Christo Unveils World’s Largest Indoor Sculpture

The Desertron: World’s Largest Super Collider Lies Abandoned

Lowline for NYC: World’s First Underground Park in Manhattan