"Day by day we pass by vacant lots downtown ... Neighbourhoods that, although having a huge potential, have more and more unused spaces ... Sometimes, the tourists are the ones who open our eyes by mentioning or questioning whether this situation is normal. On other occasions, we pay attention to it for a moment only because the secondary problems that those spaces imply affect us directly. But in most of the cases, they are only a part of our way."
Habit Makes Us Blind is a series of colorful images by Spanish studio
Espai MGR that seeks to draw attention to the problem of wasted space in urban environments (specifically, in the city of Valencia) -- by building conceptual LEGO structures in them. [
via]
posted by bayani
on May 9, 2011 -
8 comments
Scaffoldage. If you like construction, with particular reference to terrifyingly lashed-together metal or bamboo rods reaching dizzyingly up into the sky, then you've come to the right thread.
posted by The Discredited Ape
on Apr 5, 2011 -
23 comments
Le Viaduc de Millau on the
A75 between Clermont-Ferrand and Béziers in France is the world's tallest and most technologically advanced bridge. At 2,460m long and 343m tall, its multi-stayed spans are suspepended from seven
pylons. It is not only an engineering marvel, but
a work of art. It took 14 years of preparation, but the bridge was built in only 3 years.
This film shows how it was built.
Here is a live view from the webcam. Previous Metafilter discussion in August 2004 before the bridge opened in January 2005
here.
posted by three blind mice
on Sep 1, 2005 -
13 comments
Cranespotting (Geocities) ... is the compulsion, upon seeing a long crane boom reaching skyward in the distance, to drive over and see what's holding it up.
The crane capital of the world is Germany, where Demag, Gottwald, Krupp, Liebherr and others make some cranes with eye-opening numbers: more than 60 feet long, with 10 axles, and able to lift 1,000 tons.
Now sometimes cranes
tip over, touch power lines and so on; and there's a website for that too.
posted by kurumi
on Jun 12, 2003 -
7 comments
Now
that's more like it.
Finally a design for rebuilding the WTC that captures the appropriate spirit. Far better than the
other designs I've seen. No doubt some will think it too much, though. What's your opinion?
posted by rushmc
on Jun 24, 2002 -
84 comments
Why is American architecture so bad? "American architecture is, as a rule, conventional, bland, and dull. This is true almost across the board: from public buildings sponsored by federal or state governments to commercial buildings; from privately sponsored civic institutions, such as museums and concert halls, to local community centers and religious sanctuaries; from public-housing projects to private housing."
posted by rushmc
on Dec 24, 2001 -
37 comments
