Rethinking the Underpass
Dmitry Kuznetsov, Ilya Alnykin & Timothey Smelov
© Dmitry Kuznetsov, Ilya Alnykin & Timothey Smelov
© Dmitry Kuznetsov, Ilya Alnykin & Timothey Smelov
© Dmitry Kuznetsov, Ilya Alnykin & Timothey Smelov
In developed cities with complex transportation systems, thoroughfares often divide cities into separate segments. For people living in these "segments," the ability to get to another area becomes extremely important. The residents then actively use underpasses or overpasses.
They become the daily transit routes of every person living nearby, whether they are a pensioner, a schoolboy or a student. In general, it's hard to find a citizen who doesn't know what an underpass is. It is a long (or not so long) corridor decorated with cheap, often neutral gray in color, materials, illuminated by harsh artificial light. They are the same everywhere. Their design disposes you to leave quickly. The Fonvizinskaya underpass in Marfino district (Russia, Moscow) is one of the most common of them.
But in fact, these qualities only make the underpasses more convenient for the location of installations that aim to (add excitement to everyday's mundane life). Designing installations for contemplation in the transit space lays the foundation for the design of three paradoxical installations that will make us rethink the Fonvizinskaya underpass.
The spatial installation is a pair of niches separated from the transition by a Gesell mirror. It creates the illusion of a corridor going deep into the corridor.
Thanks to the appearance of the second crossing, the feeling of expanding space is created. One observes the transverse path and one feels more freedom.
The light installation is a vertical tunnel glazed from above, designed to saturate the space in question with natural light.
The three-part composition of the light installation involves a central "well", as well as two light shafts symmetrical in relation to the longitudinal axis of the corridor, with lenses to reinforce the paradoxical effect of daylight under the ground
The sound installation aims to create a different, paradoxical sense of sound vibrations in the crossing. Throughout the entire section, you will not hear the usual echo and noise of trains passing over the tunnel. Silence reigns here, b roken by the soft sound of the ambient from the speakers. They are located behind a wave-shaped surface of sheet metal, which disperses the echo.