Portuguese studio LIKEarchitects has created Tripod, an art installation designed as a tribute of two architecture elements, each of them imbued in the identity of the city of Porto: the stair and the balcony. Designed as a new a public space to establish a new kind of urban intimacy, Tripod is an unusual platform ready to be appropriated by the city, in search of new contextual relationships with its territory and its people. While promoting a simultaneously intimate and exposed space, that allows visitants to observe the city while being observed by the other citizens, Tripod is an urban enhancer to cause the unexpected.
Consisting on a small public balcony enclosed in an equilateral triangle, that rests on three narrow spiral staircases which give it access, Tripod is somehow familiar, while being completely unknown as a city equipment, inciting a variety of activities. While many these take place naturally by the spontaneous appropriation of passers-by, a performing arts group stimulated Tripod’s routines, presenting intimate performances, music concerts and unusual dinners to citizens and tourists.
Tripod was first shown in Porto’s Largo dos São Domingos in March and will be displayed again in Largo da Rua Chã from 6 to 21 June 2015.
all images © José Campos Photography