Archinect - News

A self-taught designer builds a secret work studio on the underside of a bridge

2017-08-15T19:54:00-04:00

Abellanas’ secret cabin replicates the childhood experience of hiding under a table or in a closet – ‘The feeling kept hidden while still being able to hear and see what happens around us,’ he says. ‘Observing passing cars and trains with no one seeing me gives me great sense of peace.’

Fernando Abellanas, a self-taught designer from Valencia has created a pop-up studio into the underside of a traffic bridge. Its metal base is moved from one side of the bridge to the other by a hand crank along rails, where a shelf, chair, and desk have been bolted to the bridge’s concrete wall. Though a practical space, the tiny moveable workspace has whimsical origins—the secret urban refuge aims to replicate the childhood experience of hiding under a table or in a closet. "The feeling kept hidden while still being able to hear and see what happens around us," explains Abellanas. "Observing passing cars and trains with no one seeing me gives me great sense of peace."

Photography: Jose Manuel Pedrajas

The cabin’s exact location is a secret, and is part of a collection of spaces Abellanas is creating. ‘The project is an ephemeral intervention, [it will remain] until someone finds it and decides to steal the materials, or the authorities remove it,’ h...

Three pyramids in one: Mayan Kukulkan pyramid is an architectural "Russian nesting doll"

2016-11-17T13:08:00-05:00

Once, twice, three times a pyramid: thanks to non-invasive scanning, archaeologists have determined that "El Castilo," also known as the Kukulkan pyramid in Chichen Itza, has two other pyramids inside of it. As The Guardian explains:

"A 10-metre-tall pyramid was found within another 20-metre structure, which itself is enveloped by the 30-metre exterior visible at the Maya archeological complex known as Chichen Itza in Yucatán state. The smallest pyramid was built between the years 550 and 800, engineers and anthropologists said. The middle structure had already been discovered in the 1930s and dates back to the years 800-1000, while the largest one was finished between 1050 and 1300."

Pyramids in the news:

Exploring Los Angeles' forgotten stairways to the stars

2013-08-19T11:52:00-04:00

From the air, the hills of Silver Lake, peppered with bungalows, must look like a leafy game of Snakes and Ladders. Roads insinuate their way up and around the mountain slopes and connecting them all from the lowest to the highest are dozens of vertiginous stone staircases. These are the historic Los Angeles Stairs, hidden and unknown to most of the city's residents and visitors.