In a mood for photographing I leave the exhibition of Toni Schneiders: Retrospective at the Kunstfoyer in the twilight for the tram and on my way home. Not two stations down the line a party of brightly lit shop displays around the Max–Joseph–Platz catch my attention and pull me out of the tram. They blind the squinted eye and the sensor.
some works of infrastructure happen to become social spaces of gathering like the Hackerbrücke and others become infamous places to run away from like the Paul-Heyse tunnel under the main train station in Munich.
Both works of infrastructure satisfy very well a practical need, and a comparison is from the very beginning unfair: We perceive bridges as beautiful works rather more often than we do about tunnels. But there are reasons why anyone would try to pass through this tunnel the swiftest the better: It is terribly noisy, dark, dirty, the tiled walls crumble, mucky water drops from the ceiling in several spots, way too narrow for bicyclists and pedestrians to use the sideways safely.
Yet, it is a landmark of Munich. Not one that you would like to show to any tourist, but one that tells a story. After all some stories are made of the words that aren’t said.
The U-Bahnhof in Westfriedhof is a feast of complementary colors. Orange and yellow large dome-shaped hanging lamps by Ingo Maurer, blue casts off the walls and ceiling and the branded blue of the Munich U-Bahn. The access stairway sets a desaturated contrast that marks the entrance and enhances the transition to the vibrant underground.
The station is part of a modern and well designed connection hub of bus, tram and U-Bahn in the Westend of Munich. At the speed that the city is growing year-by-year, these infrastructures are very much needed. Visiting this one, offers a glimpse of how a well organised traffic system may look like. And how pleasurable to the eye and the soul moving around in public transportation can be.
In the post-war years of Europe a wonder of mobility, later converted to a cult item, the Piaggio Vespa is one more exponent of the legacy of the outstanding Italian engineers of the 20th century.
Young folks enjoy the sunset on Sunday hanging around and about the foundry bridge structure of the Hackerbrücke in Munich. The arch bridge is one of the last remains of the 19th Century and went through a partial reconstruction after the WW2
Rain season in the Osaka region. Planes, airports, trains, hotels, air conditioning and damp weather, food supplies out of a convenient store on arrival at 10:30PM, more food supplies in the late hour of the day. Days pass dreamlike and nights end well before sunrise in a long wait for the breakfast hour.
Park beacons in Petuelpark look at passbyers like cateyes in the night and build a mysthycal atmosphere just above the uninterrupted traffic of the Mittlererring in Munich.
crossing glances with the reflexions on the displays at the shopping mile of Munich. The overcast sky bathed the streets with perfect diffused light.
Former office building of a transportation company before an urban development transformation will turn her into an embalmed memory of the industrial past.
The last days of a photographic feast of subdued hues of old off the old Rhenania building that soon will become a renovated hallmark of the new Werksviertel in Munich.
Street-art under the Donnersbergerbrücke in Munich. A spontaneous explosion of colour under a bridge where sad gray used to prevail.
