Melbourne Southern Star

The Ferris wheel has got to be up there on the list of useless things in the world just asking to be re-imagined into something better. Things don't have to be useful to exist, but the Ferris wheel isn't even fun. One can suppose it's value comes from the provision of a unique city skyline... whoops, I think not! I suppose it's become a sort of symbol for major cities around the world, with names that bring out the inherent wishes and hopes of the people living in the city. The Singapore Flyer, the Melbourne Southern Star, the London Eye: for an increasingly paranoid city of pedophiles and junkies.

That said, they are structures that stir the imagination. Carriages that suspend you in the air and go about in a circular motion, without the intention to achieve anything. Perhaps it's elliptical structure is used to break the monotony of modernist steel blocks that rule the skyline of most modern cities. Being something different, it calls out at people to imagine it in ever more different ways.

Behold, the Melbourne Southern Star, re-imagined...

we came up with the following reuse strategy; a greek windmill inspired sci-fi future with a ‘wind driven, solar sail energy collecting wheel, as a hub for a new fleet of flying steam powered trams’ to alleviate congestion in a newly greened Melbourne. Click on the images to view the full scale versions.

 Via BuroNorth.