Fly-overs done differently

When I look at many of the larger east-Asian cities, I am perplexed by infrastructure. Fly-overs are obiquous, swirling and curling through the city, and twisting and turning above it, just occupying whatever space it's able to take within the city - whether it's on the ground, or in the sky above.


In many ways, the new walkways in Telok Blangah Hill Park reminds me a lot of those infrastructural fly-overs. The walkways are respectfully woven throughout the park above the level of the trees, reaching a height up to 40 metres above the forrest floor, creating a spectacular way for the visitors to observe the stunning natural beauty of the area.



However, what I cannot quite put my finger on is the formal language of the bridges. Some are excessively curvy and flowy, others have a demure high-tech appearance, it's really a mix of things. But on the other hand, it also really offers a broad range of experiences. For instance, the narrow bridge is actually so narrow that one has to walk single file, with views not blurred by crowds standing on the edge of the bridge, while other areas offer luscious viewing platforms.
All in all, the new system of bridges and walkways offers a completely new perspective on the park.

National tourist route Trollstigen

A "tourist route" in a place where the experience of the landscape is the most crucial ingredient of the tourist attraction is a bit awkward, most of the times. That's because the inherent ideologies behind the two aspects don't match. "Nature" implicitly means "roaming free in the wilderness", whereas a "tourist route" means "being guided along a fixed path".

The logical conclusion is that a good tourist route is one along which one is guided through nature, but gives you the feeling that the nature is guiding you, not the route. The route should be adding to the landscape. And the landscape shouldn't be dominated by the visual/sensory effect of the route, of course.



And that's precisely what RRF (Reiuld Ramstad Architekter) did for their project of the Trollstigen national tourist route in Norway. The route is adapted to the atmosphere and the temper of the nature it follows. The architecture can be read as a series of clear and precise transitions between natural landscape and planned places. The two meet, interact, but never fully mingle. And nature plays the most dominant role.

The Trollstigen national tourist route is currently under construction, and will be finished in 2010.

Peak to Peak

The ski-resort of Whistler-Blackcomb in Canada consists of two mountains: Mount Whistler and Mount Blackcomb. Both used to be clearly separated from eachother: the only way from one mountain to another was always through the valley: you'd have to go down the mountain, and take the lifts to go up to the other one.

Until recently, that is. Because a new cable gondola has been opened on december 12th, connecting the two mountains. Instead of having to go down the mountain and up the other, a 11 minute ride in a gondola bridges the gap between the two mountainsides. This new lift is called the "peak 2 peak", which is basically what the lift is all about.

What makes this project all the more fascinating, are the sheer dimensions of the peak2peak connection. The entire distance between the two peaks is 4.40 kilometres, of which more than 3 kilometres is an unsupported span between the towers on the mountainside. The rope, on which the gondolas hang, is a maximum of 436m above ground (over Fitzsimmons Creek). I know there was an accident recently with a lift on Mount Whistler, but still: I would love to go there right now and travel this thing back and forth...

The piezo bridge

This is the Sakura bridge, in Tokyo. It's part of the Shuto expressway, which is running straight through the city. As everybody who lives near a busy road knows: loads of traffic creates a lot of noise, a lot of dirt and... a lot of vibrations. All of these things can be considered a nuisance. But in Tokyo the decided to turn things around, and use one of these nuisances for to create a beneficial situation. They made use of Piezo electricity. The principle is that certain materials (i.e. specific ceramics and chrystals) produce an electrical current when mechanical pressure is applied. And the vibrations of the traffic do just that: they produce a continuously changing mechanical pressure. This leads to electricity that is being produced. This way, the bridge supplies the energy that is needed for the illumination of the bridge.

I'm well aware that this is just taking the ineffectiveness of the combustion engine and create something worthwile with excess energy, but still it is a fascinating idea to begin with.

The biggest parasite in the world

Looking at skyscrapers and dense urban areas makes one wonder: how could these become more sustainable in the future? It isn't that much about all the new skyscrapers that are being built - since "green" has become to mean "big bucks" all new skyscrapers are green in one way or another - but the existing urban structures. For the evolo skyscraper competition, Daewon Park has taken exactly this as his starting point, with another idealistic concept in the back of his mind: "a way to reunite the isolated city blocks and insert a multi-layer network of public space, green space and nodes for the city."

He designed a series of prefabricated, stackable modules, that can attach to existing structures. Thus, the new structure adds extra qualities: it could be either green space for gardening, wind turbines for renewable energy, or any kind of other green or sociable programme.

Sure, it's not the most realistic proposal in the world, and it is quite unlikely to ever be built, but that's not the point in an open idea competition. The point is that the concept is a refreshing look at the problems and difficulties of inner-city life in very dense areas. Just imagine that you could clip a parasite to your building to gain such an extra quality of life. Wouldn't that be great?

I found this project on treehugger.com.

Linked Hybrid

Many works of modern architecture in China's big cities seem to be solitary, free standing objects, that don't react on their urban surroundings all that much. Instead of adding to this culture of isolated islands, Steven Holl came up with these linked towers in Bejing, in a project that isaptly called "Linked Hybrid". In this project, it is attempted to create a more coherent social space. Not only is the program injected with functions that inhabitants of the complex could use for their daily life (such as hairdressers, laundromats and the likes), but the eight towers (which are considered as a "city within a city" are also linked at the 21st floor,by a spatial ring of skybridges. In these skybridges there's a lot of cafés and other services to create a second public plaza level. The routing at this level is not just one of quick and straight connections, but slight ramps, jumps, corners and cuts in the routes make for an interesting suspense of movement and place: the perspective of the building changes with every move.

There's a lot of criticism possible about the project (it creates a isolated capsule for the inhabitants, the relation to the public ground floor is one of negation etcetera), but what I really like about this project is that it looks exactly like a student project that would regularly be dismissed at the final crit with the words "nah, in reality this would never even be considered to be built." But Steven Holl and the developer Modern Group made it happen.

Booster Station - Group A

The process involved in this building, the so-called booster station in the southern part of Amsterdam (the Netherland) is really down to earth. Basically, it's an utter technical utility building for draining sewage - consisting of a set of pipes and pumps. Most of the times, such buildings are not considered as a source for creative design. It seems illogical to make a brave statement of aesthetic principles out of such a structure. But why? such an object is highly visible in the city-landscape - that should be reason enough to invest a bit more into such a project... On the other hand: who wants to invest a bunch of euros to make the sewer system look sexy?

Luckily, in the city of Amsterdam, Waternet decided to spice up the look of this one specific booster station at the Spaklerweg. And they hired the architects of Group A to design this building. Or better yet: this object in public space. It looks very high-tech, like something straight out of a sci-fi movie, making a attractive and intriguing object.

the photo is from flickr, by the way.