One of this summer’s biggest hits is undoubtedly ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’. Its narrative is built around an extended car chase, brought to life through physical stunts and visual effects work. We spoke with a few of the film’s visual effects supervisors about the gear used to shoot the film (from an Arri Alexa to an iPhone 6) and the impact it had on their work. Read more
Tag: Road
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Road Blocks: LEGO-Like Modular Roads & Paths Snap Into Place
[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]
New roads could be quickly and easily slotted into place, piece by piece, with a new Lego-like modular plastic system that makes the building process feel more like playtime. Prototypes of the PlasticRoad concept will soon be tested in a collaboration with the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, potentially replacing asphalt and tar with a strong, corrosion-resistant recycled aggregate made of plastic waste removed from the oceans.
According to manufacturer VolkerWessels, these modular components can withstand temperatures between -40 and 176 degrees Fahrenheit and other harsh weather conditions, and are ideal for roads built upon structurally unsound ground like sand. It’s unclear whether they would shift around on surfaces like that over time, however, or how cars would handle on their surfaces when it’s rainy, snowy or icy.
They’re hollow, so cables and utility pipelines can be installed under the surface, protected from the elements and easy to maintain. Quick installation means far briefer periods of disrupted traffic during construction, and the prefabricated panels can simply be transported to the sight and lowered into place. If they pass the tests, the PlasticRoad project could see its first real-life installation in Rotterdam within three years.
The concept is reminiscent of other asphalt alternatives that have been proposed over the years, like ‘smart highways’ covered with dynamic paint providing useful information to drivers (pictured above) and heated, LED-light-embedded solar roadways. The latter concept has been dismissed by many critics as unrealistic, considering the vast expense involved in manufacturing and maintaining them and the likelihood that they would draw power from the grid anytime it’s not sunny.
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GoGo & Multiplo: Modular Building Blocks for Kids & Adults
Two very similar designs with somewhat different audiences one emphasizing forts and mazes for kids, the other suggesting beds or chairs for adults.
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16 Abandoned Cars, Trucks, Buses, Tanks, Roads & Paths
We’ve all seen an abandoned car or truck, a deserted bus or road … but stop to admire them? Abandoned vehicles are more than just an eyesore; they can be …
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Magnetic Furniture: Modular Blocks Connect via Unseen Forces
Magnetized to stick together when you arrange them, these boxes take LEGO-style furniture construction to a new level by leaving exposed surfaces …
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[ By Steph in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]
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On the Road? Backup Without the Bulk-Up
I seldom review gadgets these days, but sometimes something is so useful that it's worth telling people about. Such is the case with the SD card-enabled Western Digital My Passport Wireless hard drive.
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Road A-Peel: Upside-Down Car Clings to Curling Street
[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]
An upside-down, cherry-red car clings improbably to a slice of a concrete parking lot as it curls up over itself in this gravity-defying installation by British artist Alex Chinneck. Hanging in mid-air with no visible supports, ‘Pick yourself up and pull yourself together’ is a collaboration with Vauxhall Motors located just outside London’s Southbank Centre.
About 50 feet of the parking lot surface appears to have been peeled right up, with the vehicle hanging from its uppermost curve within sight of one of the city’s most iconic landmarks, the London Eye. Hidden sections of steel designed by structural engineers hold the car in place.
“I see sculpture as the physical reinterpretation of the material world around us and so by introducing fictional narratives into familiar scenarios, I try to make everyday situations as extraordinary as they can be,” says Chinneck. “I choose to do this through illusions because I think there is something both optimistic and captivating about defying the realms of possibility.”
“With an effortlessly curling road I hoped to transcend the material nature of tarmac and stone, giving these typically inflexible materials an apparent fluidity. Vauxhall Motors allowed me a great amount of creative freedom and this collaboration offered my studio an exciting platform to explore new areas of engineering and fabrication.”
Top image by Richard Simms
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Can a Parking Garage be Sexy? Miami’s 1111 Lincoln Road
1111 Lincoln Road isn’t just a parking garage. It’s a destination in itself, serving as a desirable events space for weddings, photo shoots, concerts and more.
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Word on the Street: 14 Fun Urban Sidewalk & Road Ads
Advertisers take to the streets with ads that turn asphalt, manholes and sewer grates into surprisingly effective marketing platforms.
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Manifest Destiny! Parasite Cabin Clings to San Francisco Wall
A rustic 19th-century cabin by artist Mark Reigelman is an unlikely sight clinging to the Hotel des Arts in the middle of urban San Francisco.
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[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]
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Manfrotto launches Off Road camera gear
Manfrotto has introduced a new lineup of backpacks in its Off Road collection designed for outdoor photographers. The backpacks allow for both personal items and camera gear to be toted around, including the new walking sticks and tripods the company has also launched. Read more
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Prism Break: China’s Eye-Soothing Rainbow Road Tunnel
[ By Steve in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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.
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.
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.
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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Panoramic Rainbow: Circular Space Spans Color Spectrum
Rainbows on the horizon are impossible to approach, let alone pass through – they flicker and fade like phantoms, except in the case of this iconic …
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Tunnel House: (Sub)Urban Street Art Implosion Project
If you had a house that was going to be demolished, scrapped and completely replaced with something else – what would you do with it?
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Reactive Light Sculpture Illuminates a Tunnel + Your Mind
Tunnels are typically scary places. The darkness is enough to give anyone the willies – and then there are the spooky, disorienting echoes. An example of …
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[ By Steve in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]
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Post-Olympic Abandonment: Sochi Already on the Road to Ruin
[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]
The Olympics have a long history of leaving a mixed legacy in their wake but the story of Sochi is particularly strange – it was never completely finished in the first place, and is already nearly abandoned less than a year after it hosted the Winter Games of 2014.
Already located in a remote area of Russia (albeit near the country’s largest resort area), it is perhaps no surprise that this Olympic Village would not be sustainable after serving as a venue. Russian photographer Alexander Belenkiy recently visited to document the deserted architecture of the area.
His photos show what you might expect – empty streets, sidewalks, buildings and parking structures, many showing signs of degradation and disuse. Anyone who tuned into the media attention during and in the run-up to the games knows that the facilities were also in many cases shoddily constructed or incomplete to begin with.
Stylistically, the architecture is a strange mix of contemporary and chistorical with elements of rural-town traditionalism, resort-village detailing and decorative columns, colors and facades spanning and mixing various movements and periods. Without upkeep, though, these eclectic remixes may not be long for this world.
TThis was Russia’s first time hosting the Winter Olympic Games, but it had to start largely from scratch: “The site of a training centre for aspiring Olympic athletes, in 2008, the city had no world-class level athletic facilities fit for international competition. To get the city ready for the Olympics, the Russian government committed a $ 12 billion investment package. According to some estimates, the investments necessary to bring the location up to Olympic standards may have exceeded that of any previous Olympic games. By January 2014 the construction costs had been reported to exceed the $ 50 billion mark, making it the most expensive Olympic Games in history.”
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Then & Now: 8 Key Historical Olympic Villages & Venues
A look back on critical Olympics venues and villages, historical Olympic architecture from around the world from games gone by in locations of historical …
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Gold Metal Architecture: Olympic Stadiums, 1896 – 2012
From 1896 to 2012, here are some attentio-grabbing standout structures of the Olympic Games including stadiums, velodromes, aquatics centers, towers and more.
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MegaFaces: Massive Display Enables 3D Selfies at Sochi
Giant faces measuring 25 feet in height emerge in three dimensions from an ‘architectural Mount Rushmore’ at the entrance of Sochi’s Olympic …
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[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]
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Hit the Road! Must Have Photo Accessories
On a cross country road trip, selfies just won’t cut it. Is that the Lincoln Memorial or Lady Liberty behind you?
So, we’ve packed our shop with camccessories to take on your next trip: a comfy strap, our favorite tripod ever and a bright ring light.
Three Essentials for Travel Photography
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Read the rest of Hit the Road! Must Have Photo Accessories (124 words)
© Britta for Photojojo, 2014. |
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And in the end… Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ cover photo was shot 45 years ago today
The photograph on the sleeve of ‘Abbey Road’ by The Beatles is among the most famous images in popular music, and it was taken 45 years ago today. The debate about whether Abbey Road was The Beatles final album continues but for a whole generation of fans, the image of John, Paul, George and Ringo walking across the street outside Abbey Road studios in London signified the end of an era. Click through to see how fans are marking the anniversary.
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Need a Lift? Road Elevator Boosts Cyclists up Hills
[ By Steph in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]
If there’s a particularly daunting hill on your cycling or stroller-pushing route, you may have already thought to yourself, “I wish there were some kind of magical contraption that could haul me to the top.” Like… a bicycle escalator, or something. Well, that thing actually exists: it’s called the Trampe CycloCable. This motorized aid was built into the street in Tronheim, Norway to give a little help to anyone trying to get up an 18% grade hill on wheels.
The prototype was built in 1993, and the Trampe has pushed over 200,000 cyclists up the hill since then. The design was upgraded in 2013 to meet new safety regulations, and a new industrialized version will be introduced to the international market.
Using it is pretty simple: you position your bicycle 10 centimeters away from and parallel to the lift rail, with your left pedal in a lower position. While standing astride your bike, put your left foot on the left bike pedal, and your right foot in the start slot of the lift. Push the green ‘start’ button and it’ll gently haul you up the hill.
People riding scooters or pushing strollers use the lift, as well. It moves about five feet per second and can extend up to 1,640 feet. Maybe we won’t see these installed on every hill in town anytime soon, but for the steepest of the steep, it would probably be a pretty welcome addition.
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Phenomenal People Movers: 3 Odd Urban Transport Methods
There are plenty of ways to move around an urban environment, but how about taking the world’s only assisted bike lift or the world’s longest outdoor escalator?
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Bike Campers: 12 Mini Mobile Homes for Nomadic Cyclists
Who says you can’t camp in luxury when taking a bicycle tour? These 12 bike trailers
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Vertical Garage: Hide Cars Below or Lift Your Ride to the Sky
There are all kinds of houses designed to showcase your prized luxury vehicle or custom cruiser, but few can boast so blatant a mechanism to quite literally …
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[ By Steph in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]
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