A time of year that triggers reflection, often on the ephemeral nature of things. As deciduous trees respond to the night frosts and the sun sits lower in the sky, leaves turn brown and fall to the ground. This can also be a time to celebrate a spontaneity that can come from short-lived design.
The plan here is to avoid the temptation to get darkly reflective on the short-lived nature of the built form, but to look at items in the landscape that are designed NOT to last, but maybe to give cover to the construction of things that will last or to celebrate an event. Sometimes these designs are for an ephemeral experience, but most often they are in order to add to one that in days past would have been dull-thudding boredom and a trigger for an exotic variety of graffiti. Graffiti comes in many forms and will be the subject of its own post. There is graffiti that is many centuries old, so it is not all eligible for this blog post!
The two photos showing construction boarding were taken in Helsinki and Madrid. In Helsinki the construction perimeter surrounding the new Music Hall was stamped with designs that were echoing the elements of the modern city, such as mobile phones and screaming babies, lawn mowers and bicycles. All sound generators, so a subliminal message of sound went along the distraction from the cranes and steel work on the site. In Madrid airport the construction barriers within the new Terminal 4 had various emblems on them, again with subliminal and up front messages about the future use of the areas behind the screens. The designs interact with the highly polished floors to create patterns for the eye and cease to be about just a wall up to block people out of an area, giving something back in exchange.
