Arthur Miranda

The Big Picture has posted an entire series of images all about trains. I love it!

Photo: Fabian Bimmer/Reuters

The post Freight train yard in Maschen, Germany appeared first on Doobybrain.com.

[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Experience the awe-inspiring power of a tornado, up-close and personal, without putting yourself in serious danger chasing a real one. The Mercedes-Benz museum in Stuttgart hosts the strongest artificially generated tornado in the world, with 144 jets spewing 28 tons of smoke in a 112-foot-high column. Why intentionally produce a tornado in a showroom full of over 150 luxury vehicles? The answer may surprise you.

The facility, designed by Dutch architecture firm UNStudio, is one of the most cutting-edge of its kind. Reminiscent of the Guggenheim, the Mercedes-Benz Museum is a steel structure based on a double-helix, featuring a massive central atrium viewable from the floors that spiral around it. All rooms are open, all walls are curved and each of the 1800 triangular window panes on the exterior walls is unique.

The 1500 exhibition areas contained within the space are connected without any fire zones – making them a bit of a hazard if a fire were ever to really break out. The solution? An artificial tornado created by injecting air into the interior courtyard of the museum from those 144 jets. The smoke is collected by the air currents and whisked outside.

Though it’s actually a safety measure, the tornado effect is so spectacular that it has become a bit of a tourist attraction, bringing even more people to check out the museum. See it in action above.

 

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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La série de l’artiste français Romain Jacquet-Lagreze « Horizon vertical » est un voyage photographique entre les bâtiments d’une ville sans cesse croissante. Utilisant la nature première de Hong Kong et ses horizons verticaux, le résultat qui a été réuni dans un livre, est à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Generative drawings by Eno Henze Title: Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 Folkert

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

Massive power outages give us rare glimpses of darkened cities, but in normal conditions, there is simply no way to see the starry skies above the typical urban metropolis – but one photographer has found a way to simulate them.

Thierry Cohen uses a multi-step process to create stunning visualizations (dubbed Darkened Cities) of would-be, could-be sights from New York to London, Shanghai to Sao Paulo … ones that the ordinary eye will rarely or never see naturally.

Cohen takes a series of shots of each of the cities themselves, and carefully removes illumination from the equation. Night sky photos from the same latitudes (adjusted for time and angle) are then layered into the background, creating a seamless illusion.

The results are at once mesmerizing, revealing the unseen potential for views of space right where we live, but also somewhat depressing – these are scenes that no one can actually ever see outside of deserts, at least unless disaster strikes.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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