London "Mound" 1

[1503-44]

Basically I just needed some relief from the endless dog chasing tail syndrome of Miami threads.

Can we get a skate board ramp installed?

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/london-mound-marble-arch/index.html

 

[LittleInch]

The heap as it will probably be known is a bit of a victim of graphic designing. Someone went a bit mad with the design drawings.

This is what they envisaged vs what they've got....

essentially a bit of excess of hope vs what any fool could tell them was going to happen if you try to create "lush undergrowth" on a temporary soil mound in the middle of summer.

It wouldn't look like the artists impression if you left it for 10 years.

At one point they wanted to cover marble arch itself until they were told it would hugely damage a protected structure.

also it's basically in the middle of a large roundabout / traffic system.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[RedSnake]

Or a ski slope?

And all because they had to build a waste-to-energy plant CopenHill, in Copenhagen.

Including the highest climbing wall in the world.

They should have hired some Danish architects that might have been better. ;-)

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[1503-44]

One of the few times I could say a Starbucks or a BigMac would have been better. Is there room at the top?

 

[SnTMan]

I'm kind if surprised they could do it for *only* $2.8 million.

I'd have expected them to blow thru that developing logos and brochures and buying lunches and dayplanners for the team

The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[dik]

Not good for a ski slope, then...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[JStephen]

Is this something you have to pay to visit?
It looks like something you'd just walk up and down the inside and be done.
But sounds like they were selling tickets to it?

 

[1503-44]

Maybe it's hollow like Gibraltar. Can one go inside? Surely it is not just a big heap of solid dirt.

Speaking of which, baboons on the top would be quite the attraction. I could see £75.00 for that.


We used to go to Al Balard restaurant on Edgware and Seymore. That was pretty good Arabic food there. See ... 4* on Trip Advisor

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g186338-d4132612-Reviews-Al_Balad-London_England.html

Need a pixel count on that third photo up there. Looks like the missing parapet stuck in the side of the mound.

 

[RedSnake]

Nope it's a part of a building.
It gets one point for the birches, just because it makes it feel a bit like home. ;-)

/A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[AusG]

Given it's roughly angle-of-repose already it probably won't trouble this thread by falling down any further. Stick to building pyramids and you can't get into trouble I guess.

I recommend The google reviews. Some of the comments are priceless. "the kind of excitement you only get from climbing a mound."

 

[1503-44]

Pyramids. Yes, it is simulating one of those Stonehenge-pyramid-Viking mound things. Explains why RedSnake likes it. It will make a nice platform for a November bonfire.

 

[AusG]

A tumulus, barrow, or earth-mounded dolmen are the words you are looking for. Yes. I'm sure there were a few in the London area in prehistory. Many others in Europe, all outperforming their design specs.

 

[RedSnake]

Not any birches though.

/A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[Spartan5]

I’m not sure this is an engineering disaster. But since we’re looking for relief, I wish they modeled it after the ancient Cerne Abbas Giant. Go big, or go home, right?

 

[1503-44]

Correct. Not disasters (yet anyway). Just a diversion from an otherwise painfully repetive discussion cycle that I can no longer bare to look at.

That's quite the giant!

We have pyramids-mounds here in the Canaries too. These are strange, because they seem to be morphing from classic Egyptian style into Aztec/Mayan architecture. (Consistant with some theories of early contact between the two.)

TENERIF

MAYAN

Sorry RedSnake, no birch trees, but I do think they are asteticly pleasing in their location.

Is the mound oriented more towards the solstice, or to #10?

 

[LittleInch]

It's a scaffold structure clad with boards, then layers of earth and matting and a few trees in their own containers.

And yes, they want to charge you for the privilege!

but tourists in the West End will pay for anything. The locals won't bother.



Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[RedSnake]

The photos are from Newgrange on Ireland only time it's light inside is on the vernal equinox when the sun comes up over the horizon.

Here is a bit of a catastrophe.. with birches. ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yixoq_0u8fQ

/A

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[1503-44]

Birch bark canoes have a long history in North America. A favoured means of transport of the Eastern Indian tribes.

https://www.native-art-in-canada.com/ojibwatransportation.html

If birch trees are 50% water, how do they avoid explosive freezing during the harsh winters?

 

[RedSnake]

Not sure, I think they use glycol. ;-)

I think they contain less water in the winter and as the maple tree they have very sweet sap, I think that works as antifreeze too.

/A





“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.“
Albert Einstein

 

[1503-44]

AHHH. The other 50%.