If you’ve ever walked around in a hilly city, you’ve probably done your share of avoiding uphill paths. Hills have a way of carving dividing lines into a city. In Pamplona, Spain, two neighbourhoods separated by elevation could be connected by this striking new outdoor lift.
The lift would replace what is now a precarious set of ramps and stairs, making it accessible to more pedestrians and cyclists alike. The design by AH Asociados comes out of a pedestrian mobility study commissioned by the city of Pamplona.
Its steel skin and structure deliberately echo an urban skyline. The lone lift is a skyscraper distilled to its very core — it’s safe to say there would be no skyscraper with no lift — a piece of city infrastructure rising out of a natural hill.
Outdoor lifts elsewhere have made it possible to easily ascend to the heights.
The architects Vaumm designed this outdoor lift in northern Spain, for example, so that neighbourhoods on the valley floor can expand up into the mountains during a population boom in the 1960s.
Or take this incredible 20-storey outdoor lift that takes visitors up to the fortified walls of Malta’s capital, Valletta.
And there’s the dizzying Hammetschwand Lift, Europe’s tallest outdoor lift at 850m. Located at Bürgenstock resort in Switzerland, it has stunning view of Lake Lucerne and the Alps.
Seen a stunning outdoor lift yourself? Tell us in the comments!
Pictures: Imagina2 visualisation studio, Aitor Ortiz, Sean Mallia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikimedia Commons
