Electrical boxes beware – Evol is back to up to his old tricks, turning urban fixtures and unused walls into tiny cityscapes using a deceptively simple toolbox comprised of cardboard, stencils and spray paint.

From process to execution, this artist is both scrappy and calculating, employing quick-and-dirty materials that are easy to obtain and fast to install, but with a remarkable eye for detail, right down to windows, balconies, satellite dishes and flower pots.

Dotting the sidewalks of Berlin, perhaps aptly at the urban intersection of where communist East once met democratic West, the faux structures themselves are almost relentlessly monotonous from a distance. The facades are just drab and generic enough style-wise to look (perhaps ironically) incredibly lifelike and believable.

Up close, these sprayed-in-place or pasted-on building faces exhibit not only convincing architectural details but also anticipated (yet always-unpredictable) marks of weathering, which in turn reinforce their apparent realism.

Le Corbusier, who many blame for the preponderance of ugly mass-produced architecture born of mid-century urban renewal, called buildings “machines for living in.” For better or worse, Evol seems content to continue this tradition at a smaller scale, relentlessly building whole cities worth of micro-machine habitats.

Richly detailed and highly evocative, the miniature streetscapes created by artist Evol appear in the most unexpected places – using the most unexpected materials. Known for stenciling windows and other architectural details onto urban surfaces like power boxes, Evol also crafts entire city blocks from humble reclaimed cardboard and metal scraps.

Taking inspiration from the very cities in which he sources the discarded materials, Evol applies stencils and drawings of rooflines, smokestacks, chimneys, fire escapes and street lights. Spots of wear and tear on the cardboard appear to be part of the buildings themselves.

The smallest details, like satellite dishes, curtains, labels on dumpsters and utility cables, are rendered so faithfully that you’ll take a second look at each scene to confirm that you’re really looking at a piece of cardboard.

While most of the Berlin-based artist’s work is out in the streets of his home city and beyond, Evol does show his work – including this series – in galleries. ‘Repeat Offender’ appeared at New York City’s Jonathan Levine Gallery in April and May 2012.

“Clean surfaces don’t speak to me,” says Evol in a statement at the gallery, “so recording these marks is a process of remembering the charm of a place that will soon be painted over.”

Beneath one idyllic meadow field in rural Hamburg, Germany, a slumbering city hides. Its walls barely peek up above the surface of the soil; after dark, gentle light wafts up from the subterranean metropolis. Giant people as tall as any skyscraper walk about between the buildings, laughing and staring in awe at the quiet little city.

(images via: Unurth)

The city is an on-site art installation by EVOL, the Berlin-based artist best known for transforming rectangular urban objects into miniature buildings. This time, instead of using existing structures to construct imaginary residences and businesses, the artist cut into the landscape to create a fantasy land beneath the surface of the Earth.

The installation is quite small – only a few mini-city blocks worth of building facades – but the effect is large. Visitors to the MS.Dockville arts and music festival, where the installation will be featured, are able to walk among the “streets” and delight in the fantastical feeling of being giants in a tiny city.

In a way, it is easy to imagine a city like this actually existing one day. Our cities already feature numerous green roofs and rooftop gardens, after all. Building underground is already a proven way to take advantage of natural insulation, so cities like this may not remain firmly in the realm of fantasy forever.

For now, this subterranean housing development consists of stencils and paper: EVOL’s materials of choice. It is a temporary installation, so after the festival is over this strange little city will disappear forever, seemingly swallowed into the earth, never to be seen again.

Evol is a Berlin based artist who is his own kind of urban planner. Like Russian dolls, Evol’s creations are a city within the city; he specializes in stenciling intricate building details onto surprising surfaces. Three dimensional balconies, windows, and mini graffiti create a realistic building facade in the middle of the sidewalk. Here is some of his coolest work:

Stenciled Creations

(Images via picasaweb, printeresting)

Evol uses complicated stencils to quickly tag powerboxes and other worn urban surfaces with the details of a true skyscraper. While the police might not agree with this public art project, they no doubt enjoy the end result.

Art Gallery Shows

(Images via brooklynstreetart, artoutthere)

Evol has been recognized by several highly regarded art galleries, and has showcased his work in shows. While seeing his creations sitting on a hardwood floor might not hold the same effect as stumbling upon them in the middle of a neighborhood street, it’s still damn impressive.

Isolated Showcases

(Images via ceciliahalling, onemoremusicfan, kunstlercast, bestofremodeling, kunstlercast)

The extensiveness of Evol’s work is typically limited by the surfaces he finds available, so most of his mini skyscrapers stand alone, gracing random street corners.

An Entire Cityscape

(Images via doobybrain, printeresting)

In some cases, Evol is able to work his magic across a larger area, creating a mini metropolis hidden on the roof of a building, or in the back of a random industrial building. One can only imagine what people think when they stumble on these beautiful works of art.