flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Decaying city: Exhibit demonstrates the fragility of the man-made world

Decaying city: Exhibit demonstrates the fragility of the man-made world

Theater set designer Johanna Mårtensson built a model cityscape out of bread only to watch it decay.


By BD+C Staff | April 26, 2013
Photos by Johanna Mrtensson http://johannamartensson.se/

The Architizer blog (via Fast Company) brings us a fascinating exhibit by theater set designer Johanna Mårtensson. To demonstrate the fragility of the man-made world, she constructed a city out of bread and then snapped a photo every day for six months to document the decay (warning: if you haven't eaten breakfast yet you may want to skip the last two photos).

For her efforts, Mårtensson recently won a Platinum A' Design Award. In her submission, she described her inspiration for the project:

"I was inspired by an article about how well the earth would do without us. Within 500 years all buildings would be half-fallen or fallen, perfect homes for animals and plants. The forrest would soon grow in cities. Buildings as well as pollutions would be taken care of by bacterias and micro-organisms. If a UFO came here in a couple of hundred thousand years, they would not see many signs of that gang of primates that once thought they were the lords of the planet."

Check out Mårtensson's decaying city:

Related Stories

| Jul 13, 2014

Punishing deadline can’t derail this prison health facility [2014 Building Team Awards]

A massive scope, tough schedule, and technical complexity fail to daunt the Building Team for a huge California correctional project.

| Jul 11, 2014

First look: Jeanne Gang reinterprets San Francisco Bay windows in new skyscraper scheme

Chicago architect Jeanne Gang has designed a 40-story residential building in San Francisco that is inspired by the city's omnipresent bay windows.

| Jul 11, 2014

$44.5 million Centennial Hall opens at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Centennial Hall houses the College of Education and Human Sciences and consolidates teacher education. It is the first new academic building on the UW-Eau Claire campus in more than 30 years.

| Jul 11, 2014

Are these LEGO-like blocks the future of construction?

Kite Bricks proposes a more efficient way of building with its newly developed Smart Bricks system.

| Jul 10, 2014

BioSkin 'vertical sprinkler' named top technical innovation in high-rise design

BioSkin, a system of water-filled ceramic pipes that cools the exterior surface of buildings and their surrounding micro-climates, has won the 2014 Tall Building Innovation Award from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

| Jul 10, 2014

Unique design of Toronto's townhome The Tree House

Plans for a new Toronto townhome brings cutting-edge design.

| Jul 10, 2014

Berkeley Lab opens 'world's most comprehensive building efficiency simulator'

  DOE’s new FLEXLAB is a first-of-its-kind simulator that lets users test energy-efficient building systems individually or as an integrated system, under real-world conditions.

| Jul 10, 2014

Steinberg SF Studio launches in San Francisco, plans to transform its own office space

Grant and Saheba left their previous architectural firms, AECOM and Handel respectively, because they saw the opportunity to bring their agile, provocative design aesthetic to clients in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Oakland.

| Jul 9, 2014

Dragon-inspired hotel conveys Vietnamese hospitality [2014 Building Team Awards]

An international Building Team unites to create Vietnam’s first JW Marriott luxury property.

| Jul 9, 2014

Harvard Business School to build large-scale conference center

Expected to open in 2018, the facility will combine the elements of a large-scale conference center, a performance space, and an intimate community forum. The new building will be designed by Boston-based William Rawn and Associates.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021