Houses can be isolating in both positive and negative senses of the word, but what happens when you break down – or bridge – the gap created by yards and fences between two otherwise-ordinary homes?
An installation project, staged in suburban Vancouver by Reece Terris, explores the impact both on residents and passers by of erecting a stunningly steep semi-circular arch temporarily connecting the decks of two adjacent houses.
“Spanning thirty-seven-feet across and reaching four stories in height” the project used an “engineering technique based on a 12th century Chinese painting …. Access to the bridge was offered twenty-four hours a day to visitors during a six-week period until the bridge was dismantled.” The result drew people in off the street and gave them a new perspective of the surrounding residential landscape – it also pushes the limits of building codes, which implicitly dictate what we traditionally can and cannot do to, on or above our property.
