Walking on water

The most recent Christo and Jean-Claude project to have been executed is an impressive installation of floating corridors covered with orange cloth in Lake Iseo, Italy. The pair’s first project to be completed after Jean-Claude passed away in 2009, “The Floating Piers” was conceived in the 1970’s and comprises a total of 5.5 kilometres of walkways, 3 km of which float on the water by means of specially-designed polyethylene cubes.

The result is an undulating stretch of walkable platforms connecting the coastal village of Sulzano with the island of Monte Isola and the tiny islet of San Paolo, providing visitors with the opportunity to walk through the villages and across the water uninterruptedly. Unlike most other works by Christo and Jean-Claude, where the flowing and drooping shapes of the fabric conceal and alter the solid forms of architecture and nature, The Floating Piers are linear and strictly geometric in form, almost as if they’re imposing a rigid, mathematical principle on the water and the Alpine landscape.

The installation is open to everyone free of charge 24 hours a day (weather permitting), and will be dismantled after July 3rd. All materials used for the work will be industrially recycled. The Italians are simply everything, just imagine a project like this getting off the ground in Australia, yet alone approved with no safety rails!