17 July 2018

CityLab: Photographing Urban 'Under-Spaces' (MAR 17, 2016)

In 2011, photographer Gisela Erlacher visited Chongqing city in China and became fascinated with urban “under-spaces”—small, unlikely pockets of life wedged between or tucked away under towering megastructures like expressways and bridges. She’d seen these before. Near her home in Vienna, Austria, stood a tiny house, with its roof just a few feet under two mammoth highways. [...]

While taking the photos for her book, Erlacher noticed some regional trends. In Chongquing, for example, these hidden spaces contained benches, parks, and tea houses where older folks could relax. In Europe, on the other hand, younger people typically occupied playgrounds and skate parks located in the shadows of colossal infrastructure.

But if there’s was one big lesson that Erlacher believes applies across the board, it’s that rapid, functionality-driven urbanization over the past couple of decades didn’t occur uniformly. “Now we (and future generations) need to come to terms with the consequences,” she says.

No comments:

Post a Comment