Krumbach, a tiny, 1000-person village in Austria, has some of the most avant-garde bus stops in the world. In exchange for a week-long holiday in the village, seven architects designed bus stops that are alternately whimsical, weird and dazzling.
Last year, the village’s culture council convinced Austrian architect Dietmar Steiner to curate the bus stops. He picked seven architectural firms from as far away as Chile and Japan, and construction on all seven stops was recently completed.
You definitely won’t find any of these designs in cities, where bus shelters installed by the dozen have to be, above all, practical. Out in the Austrian countryside, architects had the freedom to build the small pavilion of their dreams. They might not keep you out of the rain, but perhaps some whimsy could brighten your day. [BUS:STOP via ArchDaily]
Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Ensamble Studio
Sou Fujimoto
Amateur Architecture Studio (Wang Shu)
Alexander Brodsky
Smiljan Radic
Architecten de Vylder Vinck Taillieu
Pictures: Yuri Palmin, Adolf Bereuter