buildings as flows and process

Each time I go to north america, I am struck by how infrastructures are more apparent than in continental europe (= home). Pipes, tubes, sprinklers look simply more present to me, perhaps because they’re made more visible through colorful signage.

See for example this gas tubes in Montreal:
Gaz

Or these nice tubes on a wall:
IMG_2771

This lovely yellow tube to refuel indoor heating systems is also stunning:
diesel flow

A favorite in MTL is the “siamoises”, these dual sprinklers which often comes with this intriguing signs (way up because it needs to be visible when there is snow):
IMG_2778

Another favorite is certainly this kind of huge tape in san diego:
colored stuff in san diego

Why do I blog this? simply this helps to frame and understand the large technical systems of our urban environments. What I find interesting here in this made-visible process is the fact that it reflects how buildings are “process” with flows coming in and flows coming out.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Urban. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “buildings as flows and process”

  1. jrgd Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    wow! i didn’t know about all those pipes. it is really interesting - i wonder to which degree it feels weird for north americans when they come to europe and realise there’s no pipe visible…
    It is interesting to see invisible structures becoming visible - a good source of inspiration for design in general as well demonstrating the hackability of a system…

  2. The hackable invisible structures Says:
    October 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am

    […] This morning i’ve read a very nice post by Nicolas (Pasta & Vinegar); titled buildings as flows and process, it shows a couple of pipes in the streets of North America which are depicting the infrastructure […]

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