35 Examples Of Amazing Infrastructure Every Engineer Appreciates, As Shared In This Group
Some photos draw you in and don’t want to let you go, so you spend entire minutes (that feel like small eternities) sitting transfixed, with your eyes on the screen. That’s exactly the feeling we get when we look at the pics featured on this subreddit that’s entirely dedicated to showing off the beauty of infrastructure. After all, (and let’s be cheesy here for a moment) infrastructure doesn’t just connect us together physically—it also connects our hearts through the mutual adoration of aesthetics.
And while the internet watchdogs might censor the full name of this particular online community, what they can’t hide is the love that we feel for beautiful and artistic photos. We’ve collected some of the best photos from the ‘Infrastructure’ subreddit, the home to nearly 225k members, for you to enjoy. So scroll down, upvote your fave photos, and let us know if these images have seduced you away from your (and my) true love—cute cat pics.
According to anthropologist Margaret Mead, however, the first sign of civilization in a culture isn't something that we make (like fishhooks or clay pots); it's how we act towards others. Specifically, our compassion.
I had a chat about infrastructure challenges and problems with an expert from Sweden with a background in urban planning who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of her work. She told Bored Panda that these challenges depend on whether or not we're looking to build an entirely new settlement or expand the infrastructure of an existing city. What's more, the expert touched upon the fact that we should keep in mind the balance between service reach and health risk factors such as pollution, and how the focus on car-centric infrastructure in the United States and Canada can be seen as a failure. Read on for the full interview.
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A1 Highway Ecoduct, The Veluwe, Netherlands
Aqueduct Veluwemeer, Netherlands
Took me a moment to understand this one, I was looking for a drawbridge.
Holland, Michigan's Downtown Has Heated Streets And Sidewalks That Melt Snow And Ice. The System Utilizes Wastewater From A Nearby Power Plant Which Circulates Through 120 Miles Of Plastic Piping Underneath The Pavement. It Can Melt An Inch Of Snow An Hour Even At 20 Degrees Fahrenheit
That's so cool! Reminds me how in Prague there is a swimming pool built close to the national Czech TV. They built them in a similar time and connected those two. Now the water for the pool is being heated by the excessive heat that the TV studios produce and those studios are cooled down by the cold water from the swimming pool. It's genius.
According to the urban planning expert, the challenges that people face when building a new city include finding the right placement for the infrastructure, from large roads and power lines to power plants, water treatment plants, and more. The expert pointed out that it's all a balancing game where you have to place the infrastructure close enough to residential areas to increase the service reach, yet also keep it as far away as possible to reduce pollution, noise, and other factors that can cause health risks.
"The challenges associated with developing infrastructure for an existing city are similar yet even more complicated because an agreement is necessary with already-established residents. With all the aforementioned health factors, naturally, no one would be happy about hosting a facility nearby," the expert told Bored Panda.
"Technical problems, such as the quality of the soil and urban density of an area, are always challenging for laying pipes and cables required for services such as electricity, fiber optic internet, heating, sewerage, water, etc. Developing infrastructure often poses a challenge of balancing the installment and laying cost against the longevity and life cycle cost."
Skytrain Inside Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore
I've been here before, there are restaurants down below this and upstairs there are indoor playground for kids, the whole experience there is breathtaking!
Sart Canal Bridge, Belgium
A Cell Phone Tower Disguised As Cactus
The Swedish urban planning expert highlighted to Bored Panda a couple of examples of what badly-designed infrastructure looks like: freeways and stroads (no, no, that's not a typo! Stroads are roads that are too wide and fast to be safe for pedestrian safety and too narrow and slow for efficient car movement). "It’s a widely accepted fact that the late 20th-century approach to mobility, mostly realized in North America, roads being catered to cars and not people, has been a great failure," she said.
"It is completely detrimental to the vibrancy of city life, as wide and sidewalk-less freeways, and so-called stroads, make walking impossible as a means of travel from A to B around the urban area," she pointed out that this also negatively affects other modes of transportation like biking or using public transport. What's more, this leads to the overuse of private vehicles and increases safety risks.
An Archipelago In Norway
Ecoducts, Railway, Highway, Roads, Walkways... In Breda, The Netherlands
I just love the way nature and progress are combined great forward thinkers looking back to nature.
Shalu Leisure Landscape Trail, Taichung, Taiwan
This is a nice idea to turn the ugly underside of an elevated highway into something more tolerable.
Anthropologist Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a thighbone that had healed after being broken. That's because it shows that somebody stayed together with the person who broke their femur and helped them recover. In Mead's opinion, civilization starts there because it shows the contrast between human beings and the rest of the animal kingdom which lives by the law of the jungle where it's survival of the fittest all the way through.
That's not to say that animals aren't compassionate toward each other (they are), but it takes around six weeks of rest for a femur to heal without modern medicine and that's a very long time to spend with a wounded member of the pack who can't feed itself, contribute to the group, or protect itself from predators.
Viaduc De Millau - France
A Partial View Of The 30km Long Houtribdijk Dam In The Netherlands. Again, Leave It To The Dutch!
A Village Settlement In Denmark
Just imagine someone asking where you live 'oh yeah I live in circle 3'
Yeah, hard to say exactly why, but something about it seems prison-like.
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I'd plant forests in the interstices instead of grass that needs mowing.
Maybe the grass is needed as cow food? At least where i live it would work this way...
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Waste of space. No trees. No forest. No services. Extremely ugly.
The idea behind these circles is to increase social interaction among those who rent the gardens. The Danish culture is by far more community oriented than the U.S..
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There is a very interesting historical basis for this design. Do an internet search using the phrase, "village settlement in denmark" for explanations. They are much better than I can summarize here.
I've noticed there are no street or lamp poles. Does this place ever get dark at night?
I'm not entirelly opossed to this idea, but I don't see any sidewalks, so walk through this village might be a little complicated.
Ugly and creepy. It looks like where the Stepford wives would live if they were poor.
The idea behind these circles is to increase social interaction among those who rent the gardens. The Danish culture is by far more community oriented than the U.S..
These could have been done better, I think. Shorten the sections where it’s narrow in the middle. Make the loop of road bigger and put a round park in the centre of each.
And hopefully all these neighbors get along well - would make a cool block party or rather circle party. Ball party? idk
Interesting concept but too close together for this country gal.
Wait, people park their cars in the middle circle? that's a long walk if you carry lot of groceries
this seems like a design intended to make you hate your neighbours, all they have to do is have some number of visitors and nobody else can park at their home.
Why would you get a bunch of visitors at your garden?
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But they live there 7 months a year which is more like their other house
Load More Replies... I wouldn't want to live here- what was the reason behind this arrangement of houses?
Human beings are not 'designed' to live in isolation. It is much healthier to live in small village-like communities. What would your objections be to living like this?
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Why not? I'm curious as to what your objections are.
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I think it could be dangerous parking in the circle - I am not so good backing out.
Would love to see community gardens, wildlife habitat and park spaces between the circles. less waste of space.
The water table is very close to grade. No a lot of overburden.
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Actually not a fan of this one but I could be completely missing the fun social implications.
Interesting. However every single one requires a long walk from car park to bring groceries into the house. On rainy days this would get tiresome. Also, I'm seeing garden sheds - yet no flowerbeds. Dog houses but no dogs, no kids or kid toys either. What if you don't believe in manicured green lawn (which requires lawnmower/watering/feeding/weeding)?
It needs trees and plants. To live in such a police would drive me bonkers! Not enough nature and flowering trees and plants. Is it just too cold?
I love ur egalitarianism expressed here in the design! And as a sucker for symmetry, this is cool…something I’ve actually pondered, design-wise, myselfto know whether it’d work—IT DOES! 👍
very cool looking! if you were in the sky it might look alienish
This is the sort of setup I want. And that land surrounding the circles can be gardens and crops, including irrigation and other water features.
This is what I've been talking about. Enough room for a garden to can veggies for winter.
Is everyone limited to one vehicle? Doesn't look like much parking is available.
I like my space. I prefer plots no smaller than 5 acres. 700 is preferable.
You cannot "live" there. https://www.awesomeinventions.com/brondby-garden-city/
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The first moshav (cooperative rather than communal agricultural village, i.e. kibbutz) in Israel, founded in 1921, was built in a circle like that, but a much bigger one. It did *not* have hedges between the land, the houses were closer to the center of the circle, which also held community services: school, kindergarten, grocery store, etc. The land stretching out behind each house was farmed by that farmer. "Nahalal is best known for its general layout, as designed by Richard Kauffmann: slightly oval round, similar to a spoke wheel with its public buildings at the "hub" and individual plots of agricultural land radiating from it like spokes with symmetrically placed roads creating eight equal sectors, an inner ring of residential buildings, and an outer ring road." - Wikipedia. They had to expand living areas outward in concentric circles, as children of the founders needed places to live, and some land was taken for roads, etc. 100 years later, it's still going strong.
They wouldn't, because no one would drive with two cars to their garden. https://www.awesomeinventions.com/brondby-garden-city/
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so is the area outside the housing circles crop land or grazing land or something?
It's not housing. https://www.awesomeinventions.com/brondby-garden-city/
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Very nice and a great improvement on many modern designs. I do think they could have made it a bit more interesting as it is rather plain and boring
If you zoom in you can find Edward Scissorhands trimming the topiaries at the Boggs house.
Maybe my sense of scale is off, but it looks like a long walk to one's house, since the houses have to be in the larger part of their "slice."
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The ‘Infrastructure’ subreddit, founded way back in 2011, is exclusively dedicated to (yup, you guessed it) pictures of infrastructure. From paved roads and other public transit to agriculture, freight, waste management, and water systems. And far more!
You’ve got bridges and tunnels! Sewers and electrical grids! Telecommunications and all the other physical interconnected systems that improve our lives.
Infrastructure encompasses all the marvels of human ingenuity and engineering that make living life far easier and all the things that we really don’t want to do without. Infrastructure is what keeps us worrying about first-world problems instead of how we’ll get water today when the local spring is ten miles away and goes through a pitch-black forest full of hungry wolves.
Northern Lights From The Top Of The Mackinac Bridge
The Storseisundet Bridge In Norway
Subsea Undergroundabout, Faroe Islands
The more you think about it, the more the term ‘infrastructure’ seems to touch. So while we’ve got hard infrastructure that we can touch and physically use like roads, we’ve also got soft infrastructure that isn’t as tangible but is still vital to the health and welfare of any local community.
Some examples of soft infrastructure can include our network of institutions that are responsible for our economy, public health, social order, and cultural standards. From law enforcement and emergency services to educational programs and even… parks and recreational facilities! These might be far harder to take a photo of, but they’re still essential to civilization. After all, roads and streets mean nothing if you don’t have people working to help each other in whatever way they can best apply their particular set of skills.
Dudhasagar Falls (Sea Of Milk), Goa, India
The Delta Works In The Netherlands, Consisting Of 13 Parts, Together Form The Largest Storm Surge Barrier In The World And Was Declared One Of The Seven Wonders Of The Modern World By The American Society Of Civil Engineers
The nice thing is that, instead of building solid dykes, they uses sluices and storm surge barriers that can open, to preserve the natural habitat.
Saint Petersburg Metro, Russia
Another Scale Of Infrastructure, These Salmon Stairs In Sweden
Electric Elevated Railway (Suspension Railway) , Wuppertal, Germany
Cykelslangen (The Bicycle Snake), Copenhagen, Denmark
Highway Interchange Near Tokyo
Project Engineers Demonstrating The Cantilever Principles Of The Forth Bridge In Scotland, 1887
Three Undergound Metro Lines Crossing Eachother At The Place De L'opéra In Paris
It also has a very peculiar odor because it runs on tires, if I'm not wrong
Brutalist Flats In Camden, London
Gordon Dam In Tasmania, Australia
The bottom part of the pic makes it look like a rollercoaster goes down it!
Botanical Garden In Madrid Atocha Train Statino
It's the disused Atocha terminal, not the 90s modern one that's in use. This is all shops and bars.
Roundabout And Bicycle Bridge In The Netherlands
Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol
Bhumibol Bridge, Bangkok, Thailand
Solar Power Plants In The United States Photographed By Bernhard Lang
When traveled through the countryside of Chile, we came to a valley that seemed to be filled with a large reflective lake. But I quickly noticed that the lake bent upwards at the edges... and it wasn't a lake, it was a massive solar farm! One so big it seemed to fill the entire mountain valley. The US has some catching up to do.
The Beipanjiang Bridge, Spanning The Nizhu River In China At A Height Of 565 Metres
Pont De Normandie, France
My Developing Country Of Georgia Has Been Renewing Its 20th Century Rust Oven Fleet, With An Armada Of Brand New Electric Buses. Pedestrian Life Just Got Easier
The Tuned Mass Damper Of Taipei 101 Skyscraper. A Tuned Mass Damper Is A Device Mounted In Structures To Reduce The Amplitude Of Mechanical Vibrations. Their Application Can Prevent Discomfort, Damage, Or Outright Structural Failure
Rather ingenious, though really a very simple concept - it's a heavy weight at the base of the tower, which suspended by ropes attached to the upper part of the building. If the tower sways to one side, the weight will still point straight downwards and basically pull the top of the building back up.
Note: this post originally had 152 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
I think I'd like to move to the Netherlands, they seem so innovative but include nature in a lot of their construction. I am really amazed by it all!
Came here to say that! I just love how they think.
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So many beautiful examples of architecture around the globe!
There's also this one, from my hometown near São Paulo, in Brazil. It's called Arco da Inovação (Innovation Archway) and it's the only arched and curved suspension bridge in the country.
You can see more about it here: https://estudio.folha.uol.com.br/arcodainovacao/2020/04/1988696-desafio-de-engenharia-e-novo-cartao-postal.shtml 1588014079...6d30b4.jpg 
Northern European countries - ahead of the curve. BUT kudos to examples of superb design in other countries too
The pouring of the foundation of the Space Needle in Seattle, Wa circa 1962. Notice how many cement trucks are there. Space-Need...b5a245.jpg 
I have recurring nightmares about being forced to drive over unreasonably terrifying bridges. Thank you BP for providing some more nightmare selection. I have to go vomit now.
Jakarta's clover bridge is something too! https://images.app.goo.gl/FD2MNbuVUYD3S5jKA
The railway station of Luik/Liege in Belgium is also worth mentioning. Maybe not particularly for its engineering, but definitely for its architecture.https://upload.wikim...18_11-36-01.jpg
I enjoyed all of these but I've come to the conclusion that most bridge designers would really rather be building roller coasters.
It's not such a grand architectural wonder like so many are here, but I feel I should give a shout-out to Greenville, SC. The city was built where it was to capture the energy of the Reedy River. The downtown now, however, is built around the Falls of the Reedy, where there is a pedestrian/bicycle viaduct that is a curving suspension bridge over the ravine below the falls, which have now been returned to their natural form. A beautiful urban park, relying on smaller scale versions of engineering masterworks.
I live in the Caribbean...basically no amazing infrastructure. I always question my life when I see these posts...I'm missing so much.
Do you mean big? Size doesn't make a better or worse engineering or architecture. It's a matter of thinking in a lot of complex things, including natural impact, for example.
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All the examples of infrastructural works in the USA are from long ago; no single big recent project. That marks that the country is coming more and more behind other countries.
Being from long ago, they do have extra value, just saying.
Load More Replies... I think I'd like to move to the Netherlands, they seem so innovative but include nature in a lot of their construction. I am really amazed by it all!
Came here to say that! I just love how they think.
Load More Replies... So many beautiful examples of architecture around the globe!
There's also this one, from my hometown near São Paulo, in Brazil. It's called Arco da Inovação (Innovation Archway) and it's the only arched and curved suspension bridge in the country.
You can see more about it here: https://estudio.folha.uol.com.br/arcodainovacao/2020/04/1988696-desafio-de-engenharia-e-novo-cartao-postal.shtml 1588014079...6d30b4.jpg
Northern European countries - ahead of the curve. BUT kudos to examples of superb design in other countries too
The pouring of the foundation of the Space Needle in Seattle, Wa circa 1962. Notice how many cement trucks are there. Space-Need...b5a245.jpg
I have recurring nightmares about being forced to drive over unreasonably terrifying bridges. Thank you BP for providing some more nightmare selection. I have to go vomit now.
Jakarta's clover bridge is something too! https://images.app.goo.gl/FD2MNbuVUYD3S5jKA
The railway station of Luik/Liege in Belgium is also worth mentioning. Maybe not particularly for its engineering, but definitely for its architecture.https://upload.wikim...18_11-36-01.jpg
I enjoyed all of these but I've come to the conclusion that most bridge designers would really rather be building roller coasters.
It's not such a grand architectural wonder like so many are here, but I feel I should give a shout-out to Greenville, SC. The city was built where it was to capture the energy of the Reedy River. The downtown now, however, is built around the Falls of the Reedy, where there is a pedestrian/bicycle viaduct that is a curving suspension bridge over the ravine below the falls, which have now been returned to their natural form. A beautiful urban park, relying on smaller scale versions of engineering masterworks.
I live in the Caribbean...basically no amazing infrastructure. I always question my life when I see these posts...I'm missing so much.
Do you mean big? Size doesn't make a better or worse engineering or architecture. It's a matter of thinking in a lot of complex things, including natural impact, for example.
Load More Replies... All the examples of infrastructural works in the USA are from long ago; no single big recent project. That marks that the country is coming more and more behind other countries.
Being from long ago, they do have extra value, just saying.
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