After lockdowns are lifted, these cities celebrate with redesigned sidewalks

Recently, a photo dubbed “Sidewalk Appreciation Society” and “Zebra Conservation Society” by Twitter netizens stood out in The Head of The River Race 2022 (HORR 2022), the most watched annual boat race in the UK.

In this event, some yacht clubs and award ceremony staff will customize their own suits. The men wearing what appears to be a “Sidewalk Identification Society” suit are actually from the 136-year-old Molesey Yacht Club.

Apparently, the “Sidewalk Appreciation Society” doesn’t seem to exist. However, in some places abroad, appreciating the sidewalks has become a post-unblocking celebration – everyone rushed to the deserted streets before the closure, walking, cheering and taking pictures on the redesigned sidewalks.

Malaysia reopened its borders blocked by the epidemic in April. The McDonald’s French fries sidewalk in downtown Kuala Lumpur was specially released at this time, and it suddenly became a popular local social network check-in hotspot.

According to Leo Burnett Malaysia, the advertising agency that designed the project, it took seven months from conception to government approval and construction.

This box of french fries, lying flat on the street, just points to the first restaurant McDonald’s opened in Malaysia in 1982, 40 years ago. The yellow fries scattered from the french fries box replaced the white zebra crossings on the street and became a new sight in the city.

Does the layout of the sidewalk look familiar? That’s right, the design of this sidewalk project references Shibuya, Tokyo.

It’s not the first time that McDonald’s French fries have turned into a sidewalk. Back in 2010, during Züri Fäscht, Switzerland’s largest public festival, McDonald’s painted a box of French fries onto the sidewalk.

In 2018, two boxes of McDonald’s French fries were also seen on the streets of Newport, with their heads facing each other.

There are many interesting and meaningful sidewalk designs, such as sidewalks, which are designed to make pedestrians happy and make the city more distinctive.

In the 71-year history behind it, there have also been many interesting moments. Next, let’s take a look at the sidewalks that have been deserted during the blockade period. How special was it?

A new city landscape that brings joy to people

How can art and design help in post-pandemic urban regeneration projects?

The 2021 London Festival’s signature project “ Bring London Together” has become an important part of the tourism campaign “Let’s Do London” launched by London Mayor Sadiq Khan ( Sadiq Khan).

Coordinate local designer Yinka Ilori to be the leader of this project. Yinka is very good at creating colorful works that make people look happy. The very artistic colorful basketball court in London’s Canary Wharf is one of his masterpieces.

This colorful design style, which looks very modern and futuristic, is actually derived from the Nigerian textile patterns that Yinka often saw during his childhood in Africa. Since 2011 , he began to use this style in the renovation of old furniture, and gradually extended to the design of more things, from small pillows, tableware, to laundry, coffee shop and even the entire pavilion building.

Yinka ‘s redesign of 18 footpaths for the London Festival is on Tottenham Court Road. This road is located in the center of London. In the “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, as the escape place Hermione thought of, it took Harry and Ron to arrive together.

However, Yinka ‘s Tottenham Court Road is more like a fairy tale world, with bright blues, oranges, pinks, purples and greens composed of rectangular works of art replacing the original black and white zebra crossing pavement.

In Piccadilly Art Takeover, an art project also in London, artist Vanessa Jackson designed 13 walkways and named them Up Town Dancing, hoping to bring joy to the city.

On the pavement, there is a reciprocal link between colour and form. I try to make it a little electronic and keep it alive, because I love dancing, and the experience of dancing can be energizing.

—Vanessa Jackson

The sidewalks designed by Yinka Ilori and Vanessa Jackson look a bit like an abstract painting, but they are all variants of the current zebra crossing, retaining easy-to-recognize lines, and adding more joyful colors to the otherwise boring pavement. Beautiful landscape.

Sidewalk designers and fans

Even though the Beatles are no longer as popular as they used to be, a photo of them is believed to have been seen by many people – on August 8, 1969, they stood on the zebra crossing in London and took 10 minutes of “Abby Road” (Abbey Road) album cover.

In 2007, the photo was also printed on a postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail.

This is also a picture that the public likes to imitate the most in the history of popular music.

The world’s first zebra crossing walkway also appeared in the UK.

Back in 1934, the Belisha beacon, with its black and white poles and amber circular lights, was first introduced as a sidewalk sign. However, as traffic increased year by year, the visibility of the Belissa Lighthouse diminished, and pedestrians and drivers began to ignore its presence.

At the time, the Department of Transportation made several unsuccessful attempts to improve the effectiveness of the Belissa Lighthouse.

It wasn’t until 1948 that British MP James Callaghan visited the Transport Research Laboratory. George Charlesworth, who was the first director of the lab at the time, led a team that was working on the design of sidewalks.

The final result of George Charlesworth’s team is similar to the black and white stripes on the Belissa Lighthouse, but the stripes are painted on the road.

Callahan thought the new sidewalk was designed like a zebra, hence the nickname “Zebra Crossing”. And George Charlesworth also got the laudatory title of “Dr. Zebra”. In 1951, the first real zebra crossing was born in the town of Slough.

But even the 71-year-old zebra crossing is not without controversy.

Some scholars have pointed out that a zebra crossing that looks horizontal and vertical, when viewed from the perspective of the driver, will converge into a forward arrow due to the principle of perspective; for pedestrians, there will be an illusion of obstacles, like walking on a chain bridge or stepping on a boulder. River, easily distracted.

But can this illusion caused by the visual angle also be used to create a more eye-catching sidewalk? 3D zebra crossing sidewalks came into being.

The idea for the 3D walkway came from India, where Shakuntala Pandya and her daughter Saumya Pandya Thakkar teamed up to redesign the traditional zebra crossing in the city of Ahmedabad.

The Icelandic town of Ísafjörður brought the idea to Europe in 2017, creating a 3D walkway that looks more three-dimensional and more realistic. Since then, 3D sidewalks have become popular in Europe and are seen as a solution to traffic accidents.

The biggest fan of 3D sidewalks has to be Denmark. Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city, announced on September 14 last year that it would put the construction of 3D sidewalks on the agenda, from a partial pilot to a full-scale promotion, and the entire process will continue until May 2024.

The artistic connotation unearthed by the sidewalk

After many years of birth, the sidewalk represented by zebra crossing has also become a symbol of significance – crossing, connecting.

From this point, Russian artist Gregory Orekhov moved the ordinary black and white zebra crossing to the Moscow River to make a large-scale art installation.

This is indeed a zebra crossing for pedestrians to cross. The white zebra crossing that seems to float on the river is actually white paint brushed on a transparent polycarbonate sheet.

The walkway straddles the river, with vast plains and endless mountains on either side. The artist describes himself standing on this sidewalk as “standing at the intersection between the quiet and misty natural world and the impending catastrophe”. He hopes that through this work, he will remind everyone to pay more attention to the protection of nature and heritage.

The symbolism of the sidewalk involves choices, turns of fortune, and a predetermined path that establishes life. Above it, time and space are intertwined. This installation is not an expression of personal thoughts, but more importantly, what it represents is something that each of us encounters every day.

—Gregory Orekhov

In “Mary and Max ” (2009), one of the top 250 Douban movies, the metaphor behind the sidewalk was also quoted and wrote a touching letter, showing that the two friends were finally reunited.

Dr. Bernard Hough also said that everyone’s life is a long sidewalk, some well-paved and others, like me, with cracks, banana peels, and cigarette butts, your sidewalk and mine Much like, but not as many cracks as mine.

Hopefully one day our sidewalks will meet and we can all have a can of condensed milk together. You are my best friend and my only friend.

——Marx

The sidewalk is very “everyday” and can be seen everywhere in our lives, but because of its “everyday”, it carries too many memories and stories from our growth experience, and its design and innovation are the same.

Under the epidemic, the sidewalks may become deserted, and the traffic flow is not as good as in the past, but we need to believe that one day, as said in the movie “Mary and Marx”, the sidewalks between relatives and friends will meet. You can eat, drink, and talk about life together.

This article is reprinted from: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1483005
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