Tag Archive | Germany
February 14, 2013  

Unlikely Seats in Hamburg

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture" series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture” series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Der Spiegel via Architizer

Architect Oliver Show decided to turn some of Hamburg, Germany’s least comfortable spaces into squishy seats, lounges and sofas. Mr. Show wrapped common pieces of urban infrastructure like bridge trusses, hand rails and bike racks with bright yellow plastic drainage pipes turning once angular and unlikely elements into comfortable, low-cost, weather resistant places to sit.

Providing pedestrians an opportunity to sit increases their comfort and desire to linger in a place but I wonder how comfortable these seats are for longer than a few minutes. Would these seats only serve strong and able-bodied users? Is it difficult to climb on top of them and must you balance there? Do the pipes sway back and forth? How tightly together they pipes are bound so users (especially children) don’t fall in the spaces in between?

I look forward to testing them out myself one day!

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture" series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Der Spiegel via Architizer

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture” series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Der Spiegel via Architizer

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture" series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Der Spiegel via Architizer

Oliver Show’s “Street Furniture” series wraps yellow drainage pipes around public infrastructure in Hamburg, Germany. Photo by Der Spiegel via Architizer

October 4, 2012  

Das Lego Bridge

Lego bridge in Wuppertal, Germany by Megx. Photo by Lukas Power and Rolf Dellenbusch via This is Colossal

Lego bridge in Wuppertal, Germany by Megx. Photo by Lukas Power and Rolf Dellenbusch via This is Colossal

Street artist Megx has transformed the underside of a bridge in Wuppertal, Germany to look like a bridge made of legos.

The bridge is painted as an optical illusion (the surfaces are flat) and transforms a blank space in to a space of delight and wonder.

April 19, 2012  

German Garbagemen Turn a Giant Lens on Their City

Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz sets up a photo with a pinhole camera fashioned out of a garbage dumpster. Photo by Mirko Derpmann

Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz sets up a photo with a pinhole camera fashioned out of a garbage dumpster. Photo by Mirko Derpmann

One group of amateur photographers (and professional garbage men) in Hamburg, Germany wanted to showcase their perspective of the city every day and so the men amazingly created old-fashioned pinhole cameras out of large rolling trash dumpsters.
 
Photographer Hans-Dieter Braatz says: “It is the oldest and simplest camera design in the world…”. “To turn a garbage can into a camera, you only have a tiny hole drilled purely forward and hang a large sheet of photo paper inside the back. Is finished, the huge, rolling pinhole camera”.
The Hamburg fun fair photographed by a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Bernd Leguttky, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann

The Hamburg fun fair photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Bernd Leguttky, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann

The images, which sometimes take one hour to obtain full exposure, are now referred to as The Trashcan Project and each showcase the men’s special lens on their city each day. More of the group’s beautiful black and white images can be seen and enjoyed on the group’s Flickr page. 
The Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg, Germany, photographed by a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann

The Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg, Germany, photographed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann

The Fleetschloss in Hamburg, Germany, photgraphed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann via Treehugger

The Fleetschloss in Hamburg, Germany, photgraphed with a trash dumpster pinhole camera. Photo by Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann via Treehugger