Hasta La Ideas

This bridge across the moat of a historic Dutch fort leads visitors below the water’s surface without getting them wet.

Designed by architects RO&AD of the Netherlands and Belgium, the Sunken Bridge is an access route to the Fort de Roovere, which is part of a line of 17th century defence structures.

Unlike a conventional bridge, the structure is invisible from a distance and has little impact on surrounding views towards the fort.

Processed timber retaining walls that will resist decay separate the walkway from the surrounding still waters.

Another concealed walkway we’ve featured leads behind a mirror into a secret tunnel – readmore about that project here.

Here’s some more text from timber supplier Accoya:

The West Brabant Water Line is a 17th century Dutch defensive line of earthen forts and walls that linked and protected a number of cities and villages during attacks from France and Spain; inundation zones were flooded with water too deep for enemy advance on foot but shallow enough to rule out use of boats.

As part of a recent restoration project, RO&AD architects sought to build access to the line’s Fort de Roovere, the largest fortress surrounded by a moat, while still preserving the site’s aesthetic integrity and dramatic view.

The team’s solution was a “sunken” bridge that sits within the water and slope. Following the line of the fort slope and sitting almost flush with the soil and the water level, the Moses Bridge is practically invisible as visitors approach and boasts a trench-like aesthetic.

Built with Accsys Technologies’ Accoya wood sheet piling on either side with a hardwood deck and stairs in between, the Moses Bridge is not only visually striking and highly functional, but also durable and eco friendly.

Accoya wood undergoes a nontoxic proprietary modification process called acetylation that renders it an unrecognizable wood source, preventing fungal decay while increasing its dimensional stability.

Accoyawood is sourced from FSC- and PEFC-certified forests and is Cradle to Cradle Gold certified.

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UK-based illustrator Laura Barnard was getting bored with selling the usual digital prints, so she conceived of a new way of both motivating her creativity and skills while producing something for sale online. 30×30 is the just-released result. “There are 30 copies of each edition, and each one costs £30 shipped anywhere in the world. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.” The first edition is a series of painted wooden blocks.

“The blocks are individually painted/drawn on — I wanted them to all be unique so thought that was the most sensible way to do it. Although that’s a fairly hefty number of bricks to draw on (!) it’s a small enough run to still be able to do by hand. I may not entirely hand draw Issue Two depending on what it is, but there’s definitely some scope for some hand-finishing.

I’ve really enjoyed selling prints for the last couple of years, but I think illustration can be particularly exciting when it’s applied to objects or surfaces, so the shop will be based more around that from now on. Keeping it fresh is important too, so that’s why I’m only doing 30 of each. A fixed price of £30 keeps it interesting too — for me as much as anything!”

Laura is already looking forward to the next edition. “I’ve got a few ideas brewing for Issue Two — it won’t be blocks but will be something similarly quirky and, er, objecty and interesting. Part of the fun of this is seeing how it’ll evolve and the limited runs mean I can see what people are excited by and adjust accordingly.”

I’ve signed up!

Click for larger image!

For anyone who ever wanted to bask in the glory of Apple’s product line, the folks who brought you a visual compendium of notable haircuts in popular music and a titanic taxonomy of wrestler names, have now put out the Insanely Great History of Apple. Reaching back to the Apple IIe (1983) and ending with the iPhone 4S (2011), the 18×24″ print has icons of each model mapped across an appropriately retro-rainbow background. Take a trip down memory lane as you remember the introduction and eventual fadeout of the floppy disk, the first time you used slot-loading function or the wonderment of the first iMac. Get it now for only $20…but act fast, the promotion ends tomorrow at noon, Eastern Standard Time.

Pop Chart Lab uses 100 lb. archival recycled stock certified by The Forest Stewardship Council and this poster is pressed with vegetable-based inks in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

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London-based designer and artist Thomas Forsyth recently fabricated “ten bespoke brass nuts, each weighing in at just over half a kilo. Made using ancient metal-working techinques, with a 21st Century twist. Accompanied by a short film to show the entire process.”

The best six and a half minutes of your hump day:

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Finally! Here’s a “design story” video that is purely just that, and not a commercial, largely because there’s nothing to sell since the object being discussed is a design concept and not a production model. Here Nissan’s Francois Bancon and Taro Ueda discuss the actual design thinking, and only that, behind their unusual PIVO 3 EV concept.

I still have something to complain about with this video (surprise, surprise).

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