Abstract Shelter

The foreground of this image depicts the edge of a bus stop shelter along a major roadway in northern Hiroshima.

Behind is the entrance to the monorail system which runs elevated above the road on enormous concrete stilts, its logo comprising the sixteen orange discs visible in the background, nicely blurred against the grey metalwork.

This monorail, which could have been such a useful transport asset for the city, turned out to be something of a fiasco. It was built some fifteen years ago for the Asian Games which were held in Hiroshima, and the priority was to link the city’s major stadium in the north with the centre, but they ran out of money and it never got as far as the train station on the other side of the city, thus rendering it of limited use in its connectivity.

To make matters worse, during construction, one of the concrete supports toppled over and killed a number of motorists in their cars below. All for the temporary prestige gained for the city during two weeks or so of second-rate sports competitions – what a waste…

“Abstract Shelter” : Hiroshima, Japan, 17th October