A Mighty City Constructed On A Series Of Variably-Sized Hilly Islands Linked By Bridges

[Image: A Mighty City Constructed On A Series Of Variably-Sized Hilly Islands Linked By Bridges by Leah Beeferman].

Brooklyn-based artist Leah Beeferman, whose map of the Gowanus Canal appeared here in 2005 and who collaborated with BLDGBLOG on the Helicopter Archipelago, has a new project out, this time published in the full-color pages of this month’s Blueprint.
Called A Mighty City Constructed On A Series Of Variably-Sized Hilly Islands Linked By Bridges, the project is a kind of cartographic guide, or urban emblem, for a utopian city. It supplies working definitions of key terrain (a Bridge, a Hill, a Tunnel, an Island) and describes specifically numbered structures.
“A bridge,” for instance, according to Leah’s definition, “is a structure built to connect two previously distinct areas or coasts. In most cases, it creates a route of passage that would otherwise be impossible or difficult. Bridges are often named after what they cross.”

[Image: Excerpt from A Mighty City by Leah Beeferman].

All of Leah’s projects being worth paying close attention to, we then see that one of those bridges has actually been constructed “from a collection of the longest and tallest buildings in the world” – their spans and fragments stitched together to form a brand new structure.
There is also a bridge “made out of a building,” and a bridge “made from a collection of small hills.”
Further afield – and into the atmosphere – we find a strange hovering enginery above the skyline: “Flying machines for higher-up views of the city,” we read, “provide an excellent view of the islands.”
There are even “propeller-powered balconies, for long-term viewing of the surrounding landscape – from the comfort of home!”
Leah’s Mighty City is apparently just one installment in Blueprint‘s ongoing look at imaginary cities or paper utopias, as it were; keep your eyes peeled for the rest – but don’t forget to visit Leah Beeferman’s website for more cool projects, including her amazing Step-by-Step Process of Building a Landscape of Freshly Fallen Hills into an Industrious Winged City.