Highway interchanges have evolved from important infrastructures that help distribute traffic to unique landmarks that define cities. As multiple road networks embrace and form distinctive sculptures, these road intersections range from singular bridge connections and roundabouts to numerous, layered and multi-layered interchanges. They twist, turn, loop, and wrap around sparse land, vegetation, or existing structures in a bid to transfer travelers from one roadway to another. However, they also create a moment of enclosure, forming partially bounded areas and a sense of space. These spaces could be viewed as liminal and transitional, with no fixed typology able to be hosted. But that blurring character calls for ideas of urban intervention to disrupt the notion of what these spaces can be. They can be readapted from car-dominant sculptures into more human-friendly places and re-integrated as extended schemes of the city's architecture.
When considering the possibilities for spaces within highways, it's important to think beyond fixed and finite use cases. Such spaces can include events that take place within the shelter of multilayered bridges and the open spaces of turning radius. To amplify the potential of these imposing highway infrastructures, urban interventions that provoke and draw city residents to interact with them can be implemented.
Some examples of such interventions include creative public parks, spaces with interactive art structures, shelters for other forms of transportation, markets, bookstores, and event spaces. There have been various projects that have explored these spaces and similar liminal enclosures, some of which are listed below:
Torino Stratosferica Transforms Abandoned Tramway into Vibrant Urban Park
The project revitalizes the 800-meter-long strip in the center of Corso Gabetti and Ponte Regina Margherita in Turin, which had been abandoned. It uses elements such as container structures, wooden benches, and a yellow color scheme to invite people to utilize the green space within the highway. Projects such as the Burnside Skatepark in Portland and Lynch Family Skatepark in Boston are design projects executed within the underside of bridges and point to creative explorations that can activate these highway enclosures.
Green Square/ Urban Interventions + Vallo Sadovský Architects
This urban intervention explores the potential of the underside of highway interchanges as shelters and bus terminals. It features a 1,000m² curvilinear green road paint that visibly transforms the atmosphere under the highway. The intervention aims to highlight the dysfunctional environment of the underside space. Other projects, such as Chicano Park in San Diego, The Underline in Miami, Underpass Art Park in Washington DC, Underground Ink Block in Boston, and Sabine Promenade in Houston, are spatial examples of explorations that utilize the underside of highway interchanges as spaces for interactive art sculptures and various event interventions.
As car dependency increases in the global south and more highway interchanges are built to complement them, it presents opportunities to rethink the subsidiary spaces created by these interchanges. In most African cities, they provide shelter and a platform for informal architecture. This includes informal retail, prayer spaces, restaurants, and other forms of public auxiliary spaces. Incorporating planning for informal architecture within the enclosure of highway interchanges can offer new perspectives on how these structures are designed.
Warwick Triangle, Durban, South Africa
The artistic intervention by Faith47 on the Warwick Triangle highway interchange celebrates informal retail as a means to amplify space. Mural portraits of traders in the area are painted on the underside of the highway to pay tribute to the everyday street trader. This intervention attracts traders and customers who resonate with it, who then utilize the space for various purposes, such as markets and bus terminals. In the words of the artist:
Art in public spaces creates a visual gap to breathe; nothing is being sold or advertised. There is only communication from the artist to the passer-by, allowing the viewer to find his or her own meaning within the works. This kind of intervention is necessary, as so much of our public space and city architecture is alienating to the individual.
We would also like to hear from our readers: In what novel ways do you think spatial design can transform the enclosures of highway interchanges?
