The main idea – straight from the genius of Alessandro Anselmi – was very simple: think the highway as tendons; add some muscles in between; and you have a functional, organic structure. The muscles were rendered with artificial hills.

There was not much left to do than finding the right shape for the hills, and this took us many weeks. Countless iterations were necessary between 3D modeling, 2D progressive sections, and physical models.

 

Meanwhile, we were in search of a fitting way to visually describe the project. This was quite bloody as well. I have to say that nobody of us had yet the final look in his mind. It was rather found by trial and error, and when we stumble upon this beige, soft light, we suddenly recognized that it was the one and only way this project should’ve looked. Now it’s very easy to compare the project to Leonardo’s drawings; back then, it was not. As far as I can recall, this fantastic reference to Leonardo was found by chance, or rather developed in our unconscious minds for some time before showing up.

 
Original publication, larger images at omology.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some months later we were tasked with furtherly defining the design. Some shape tweaks were made, some trees were planted, and a concrete grid pattern was laid, both for aesthetical and engineering purposes. Most important to me, we had to find a new look for the renderings: rather than describing a concept, we were now to lay this project in his place, in the Po valley, near Mestre. We choose this greenish, wet look, something that was good in our eyes to depict those greenish, wet places. It worked. The project won the competition.

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