Transportation
Photographing Urban 'Under-Spaces'
An artist finds hidden pockets of life beneath the expressways and bridges of cities in China, the Netherlands, and the U.K.
In 2011, photographer Gisela Erlacher visited Chongqing city in China and became fascinated with urban “under-spaces”—small, unlikely pockets of life wedged between or tucked away under towering megastructures like expressways and bridges. She’d seen these before. Near her home in Vienna, Austria, stood a tiny house, with its roof just a few feet under two mammoth highways.
“But the inhabitants stayed,” Erlacher told CityLab via email. “I was deeply touched by that.”