SHIP-SHAPE VIEW

When I first saw this happy yellow structure in my shipping container atlas I didn't know what it was, but I was greatly satisfied. Then, when I read on to find out that it was a viewing platform from which to view real-life topographic contour lines, I was greatly stoked (sad as it may be)! This is a German installation so if you don't sprechen sie deutsch (or if you're so lazy you cant copy & paste the text into google translator) allow me to summarise: Hannover University has implemented a clever idea to make the inhabitants and every-day passers-by of the Architecture and Landscape Faculties' value their landscape that they may otherwise take for granted. By physically painting contours onto the terrain of their campus, the viewers eyes are drawn away from the grandiose buildings and pleasant gardens, toward the space as a whole. In addition to this optical diversion, the fact that topo lines are usually only seen on paper maps also stimulates a conceptual diversion; an analogous blur between the way things appear in the paper world of Landscape Planning and Architectural design and the way the designs actually turn out and affect the 'real' world.