AustraliaMap18–19, 22–25, 27–30 June, 1, 4–5, 10–11, 14–15 July, 2014 Where else can you buy crocodile, kangaroo or emu jerky? Only here.  The most common type of bar stool in the country:  Australia is the world’s leader in terms of tactile paving quantity. There are bumpy tiles for the blind at the top and bottom of every stairway. Even if it consists of exactly one step.  Many elevators have doors with a traffic light. The doorway lights up green when the doors are open, and then red when they begin to close.  A payphone booth.  Payphone half-booths.  Sydney Airport has a completely automated baggage check-in system. You walk up, print your baggage tag and then place your bag on the conveyor belt—all without the involvement of any airport staff.  PerthMap
A pleasant city.  Australian cities allow mixing it up, so architects don’t hold themselves back here.  A seedy alley.  An adult movie theater.  A bus shelter.  Street signs.  The Perth trash can is one of the best in the world. Pretty, practical and capacious.  No one cleans up the leaves in the parks here, which is exactly how things should be. (Leaf cleanup in other countries is a silly and harmful practice, although profitable for those who do it.)  The fire hydrants are painted white on the bottom and red on top.  A drinking fountain.  Circular benches create cozy seating on the one hand and protect trees on the other.  BrisbaneMapSome parts of the city are pleasant.  Others are inhospitable and deserted.  There’s a modest cluster of Victorian buildings downtown.  But since preserving the city’s historical appearance is not on the agenda, everyone does whatever they want.  Want a crazy and incredibly beautiful facade with lines and butterflies? Go ahead.  When you have the freedom to do whatever you want, making something normal becomes boring. So let’s make a normal elephant sculpture and install it ass-backwards. So much cooler, right?  A Brisbane resident.  A bus shelter.  A pedestrian light.  A parking meter.  Street signs (indicating the range of building numbers nearby—a must in Australia).  A street guardrail. How to make something beautiful for next to nothing: weld on the vertical bars at different angles to create an interesting pattern.  Brisbane trash cans are magnificent. Each one is covered by a large metal sheet (for weather protection and aesthetic purposes), which is mounted at such an angle that you can’t see it from the sidewalk.  A city bike-share station.  The city has several spots where bikers could potentially speed up too much to be able to stop in time. These spots have “slow” written on the pavement.  The letters are distorted so that the word looks normal and is easy to read from the biker’s vantage point.  All the parking pockets and crosswalks are offset by islands with lawns or trees on them.  SydneyMap
The sidewalks have been expanded downtown. It’s hard to tell at first glance, but the light stripe in the middle of the sidewalk is the former curb.  A beautiful old post box.  A police station sign.  An amazing payphone design, reminiscent of something from 1970s New York.  The sky in Sydney is always beautiful in the evening.  |
