06-08-2012

Street Art for urban redevelopment by Megx.de

abstract

An ordinary bridge, with a rather unattractive underpass, like so many in our cities today: in the German city of Wuppertal, artist Martin Heuwold, a.k.a. Megx, created a bridge decorated with what appear to be Lego blocks, adding a note of colour and freshness to the neighbourhood.

With the Wuppertalbewegung association, which supports the city government in initiatives for the town, particularly projects which bring immediate sustainable benefits for citizens, artist Martin Heuwold a.k.a. Megx came up with a new look for an old bridge.

The bridge is part of the “Nordtrasse”, the abandoned northern section of the Wuppertal railway, which the association has been re-appropriating and transforming into a cycling and pedestrian path since 2006.

Heuwold’s wife Ninon Becker came up with the idea for the project in this 250 square metre area, which is much appreciated by the makers of Lego, who are documenting work on it. The couple’s daughters generously donated their Lego bricks to build a model of it.

The street artist’s vast portfolio includes several projects questioning how we perceive our surroundings and how we can intervene to redevelop them without major expense or infrastructure projects, especially difficult cases such as bridges, public transport nodes or vacant shop fronts.

Design: Martin Heuwold a.k.a. Megx, http://www.megx.de
con http://www.wuppertalbewegung-ev.de
Location: Wuppertal, Germany
Year: 2012
Photo credits: Rolf Dellenbusch, Lukas Sprenger, Martin Heuwold

GALLERY