buildings as flows and process
Posted: October 5th, 2008 | 2 Comments »Each time I go to north america, I am struck by how infrastructures are more apparent than in continental europe (= home). Pipes, tubes, sprinklers look simply more present to me, perhaps because they’re made more visible through colorful signage.
See for example this gas tubes in Montreal:
Or these nice tubes on a wall:
This lovely yellow tube to refuel indoor heating systems is also stunning:
A favorite in MTL is the “siamoises”, these dual sprinklers which often comes with this intriguing signs (way up because it needs to be visible when there is snow):
Another favorite is certainly this kind of huge tape in san diego:
Why do I blog this? simply this helps to frame and understand the large technical systems of our urban environments. What I find interesting here in this made-visible process is the fact that it reflects how buildings are “process” with flows coming in and flows coming out.
wow! i didn’t know about all those pipes. it is really interesting – i wonder to which degree it feels weird for north americans when they come to europe and realise there’s no pipe visible…
It is interesting to see invisible structures becoming visible – a good source of inspiration for design in general as well demonstrating the hackability of a system…
[...] This morning i’ve read a very nice post by Nicolas (Pasta & Vinegar); titled buildings as flows and process, it shows a couple of pipes in the streets of North America which are depicting the infrastructure [...]