Delight.THE NOTORIOUSLY MESSY JAPANESE STREETSCAPE street·scape n. 1. An artistic representation of a street. 2. Surroundings composed of streets: the urban streetscape. IS TRANSFORMED BY THIS WITTY URBAN DESIGN PROJECT. The Japanese urban landscape is typically an irredeemably messy visual potage of utility poles A utility pole, telegraph pole, telephone pole, power pole, or telegraph post is a post or pole upon which telecommunication network equipment is situated. and wires. This mess is nationally ubiquitous, procreated without any wider awareness of its impact on the public realm. Any tourist photograph of a famous temple or landscape usually includes the odd 30ft telegraph pole and spaghetti tangle of wires. The reasons for this are practical; in seismically active Japan, earthquake-damaged cables are easier to repair if not buried underground. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the city of Tokamachi in Niigata prefecture, however, architects Fujiki Studio show that utility blight blight, general term for any sudden and severe plant disease or for the agent that causes it. The term is now applied chiefly to diseases caused by bacteria (e.g., bean blights and fire blight of fruit trees), viruses (e.g., soybean bud blight), fungi (e.g. can be beautiful in an urban improvement project carried out under the auspices of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial tri·en·ni·al adj. 1. Occurring every third year. 2. Lasting three years. n. 1. A third anniversary. 2. A ceremony or celebration occurring every three years. . Fujiki Studio's solution is simply to clad the offending poles and street lights in specially-designed wraps of brightly coloured fabric. Tokamachi has a tradition of making intensely coloured silk fabrics for kimonos, so the project playfully acknowledges the city's manufacturing and cultural history. Fabric from the Finnish Marimekko range was selected, designed by Maija Isola Maija Isola (1927—2001) was a Finnish designer of printed textiles. After studying painting at the Helsinki Central School of Industrial Arts, Isola became principal designer for the textile firm Printex and produced designs for their fashion subsidiary Marimekko. . Wrapped around lampposts and telegraph poles, the familiar Unikko pattern of gaudy abstract flowers cheers and enlivens the streetscape. An intricate support structure of stainless-steel wires, bamboo poles and fishing nets provides anchorage for the fabric cladding The plastic or glass sheath that is fused to and surrounds the core of an optical fiber. The cladding's mirror-like coating keeps the light waves reflected inside the core. The cladding is covered with a protective outer jacket. See fiber optics glossary. . Instead of being drab eyesores, the poles are fleetingly transformed into objects of strange and compelling beauty. |
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