That which is in plain sight but often goes unnoticed is the raw material of 98% Invisible , a popular podcast that was born in September of 2010 as a short radio segment broadcast by a local public station in the United States.
It is, as its own website explains, a broadcast “about all the thinking behind the things we don’t think about : the inadvertent architecture and design that shape our world. ”
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And, in the last decade, the project has not stopped grow and add successes: their more than 430 episodes now almost accumulate 549 millions of downloads by a loyal legion of fans around the world, with the newspaper Chicago Tribune describing it at the beginning of this 2021 What “ the best podcast ever in the 20 years of history of commercial podcasting . ”
The quality of production of the show has a lot to do with it. But the fascination awakened by things hidden in plain sight is also more than confirmed by the success of “The city 99% invisible ”, the book written by the program’s creator, Roman Mars, along with one of his main contributors, Kurt Kohlstedt.
Published last year on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the podcast, this “field guide to the hidden world of everyday design” did not take a week to enter the best-sellers list of The New York Times , who in his review of it celebrated his ability to make visible “the wonders and hidden “of modern cities.
And to better understand that world of” invisible solutions “that make cities more comfortable, attractive and safe, BBC Mundo asked Kohlstedt to choose his five favorite examples. Hopefully, they will help you to see your surroundings differently .
1. Hidden cisterns
The first of the examples selected by Kohlstedt is specific to the city where he was born 99% Invisible : San Francisco , where he moved for a brief period about five years ago.
“As I am a person who pays a lot of attention to his surroundings, I soon noticed some big circles of bricks in some streets of the city ”, he tells BBC Mundo.
“They were very large, the width of the street, so on the one hand they were quite remarkable. But, on the other hand, they are also quite easy to ignore in the midst of traffic and chaos, like many other things that are on the street ”, he relates.
A quick investigation allowed him to discover that what he was seeing were “cisterns circles”, which serve so that the city’s firefighters can quickly identify the gigantic underground cisterns that began to be installed throughout San Francisco after the great fire of 1906.
“The bricks basically mark the contour of the cistern, and in the center there is what looks like a manhole cover that is actually the cover of the cistern, the one that the firefighters can lift to access the water that is below the city, ”explains Kohlstedt.
In total, the 430 cisterns this backup system stores 11 millions gallons of water , guaranteeing the availability of the liquid in case of a new emergency.
“They are all over the city and although the only thing that gives them away they are those brick circles, they play a vital role in protecting the city from future fires ”, he highlights.
According to the producer of 99% Invisible , similar systems They exist in other cities , which have understood that it is not good to depend on a single centralized system, with the most obvious example being the water towers that can be seen in cities like New York.
“But I’ve never seen one that is marked the same way as San Francisco,” he says.
two. “Tactile” sidewalks
Kohlstedt’s second example is not included in the book, but was addressed in the program , and in a good example of how some “invisible solutions” are more noticeable when they are not working.
It is about the touch marks that in many cities of the world are seen at the end of sidewalks, as a way to prevent a street corner from being reached.
That change in sidewalk texture may go unnoticed by most of pedestrians, but it is extremely valuable for in seers , who can detect it with the tips of their canes (and also for those who camlight with their noses stuck in their cell phones ).
“And some of the more sophisticated versions can also tell you things like which way traffic is coming from,” says Kohlstedt of this kind of sidewalk braille language originally developed in Japan by Seiichi Miyake.
“It is a very small thing that nevertheless makes cities much more accessible “, highlights .
Kohlstedt, however, became more interested in the subject when one of the listeners of 99% Invisible -a constant source of program information- shared an example of a very bad tactile sidewalk employee.
“As I already explained, the markings can tell you where the curb is or in which direction the traffic is coming , so s if they are installed incorrectly they can be very, very dangerous “, he explains.
” And we found many examples, especially in China, of people who installed them incorrectly or used them for decorative ”, count.
Today’s #GoogleDoodle celebrates Japanese inventor Seiichi Miyake, whose desire to help a friend led to the creation of Tenji blocks, improving how people with low vision navigate public spaces → https://t.co/M9zAbohb1E pic.twitter.com/6holP0ZZ01 – Google (@Google) March 20, 2019
These types of problems, however, also give some visibility to invisible solutions .
“Good urban design often goes unnoticed, but when it is done badly it becomes more evident , because it doesn’t work the way it should, “says Kohldstedt.
” And in the case of these tactile sidewalks, they become more visible when they are where they shouldn’t. Because when they are in the corner where they should be, nobody notices them ”, he says.
3. Official graffiti
More than invisible, for many they are incomprehensible, since we have all ever seen those colored markings that suddenly appear on the streets and sidewalks , often near some excavation by the aguadora, the electricity company or another provider of essential services.
These multi-colored graffiti, however, often survive excavation for a time, so many are unaware that they serve to indicate the location of underground pipes and cables used by those services.
“It is one of my favorite examples of those things that one does not notice until one begins to notice them and can stop doing it,” he tells BBC Mundo Kohlstedt.
” It is a relative innovation recently, which began to become popular a few years ago 50 years, and was designed to tell utility employees and other construction workers what exactly is under the street “, he explains.
” Colors tell you something, notation tells you something. It is a tremendously information-rich system, and although it is a language for specialists, everyone can learn to read it ”, he adds.
For example, in the US -where the system became popular after 1976 a worker will cause a gigantic explosion when accidentally drilling an oil pipe that ran under a Los Angeles street – red marks electrical cables, orange is for gas or other combustible materials and blue designates potable water pipes.
The language, however, varies by country and by city, so in the United Kingdom the cables of telecommunication services are marked in green, the color that in the United States is used. Use to designate drains and sewer channels, among other differences.
The important thing, however, is that those simple marks made with a little paint significantly reduce the possibility of costly mistakes , thus making our cities safer – as well as adding a bit of color to them.
4. Accident-proof poles
Probably my favorite example of all those selected by Kohlstedt, and even of all the contents in the book, where he opens the chapter titled “planned failure.”
As explained there, the posts that support road signs , traffic lights or the cables of essential services must be strong enough to withstand winds, storms, tsunamis and earthquakes.
“But, very occasionally, those same poles must be able to do something crucial but fundamentally in contradiction to their daily function: they must be able to break easily in the event of impact ”, explain Mars and Kohlstedt.
In fact, the ideal is that if they are hit by a moving car the posts will break in a way that reduces damage and saves lives , for example doing it at a height that allows the lower part to pass under the vehicle while the upper part to fly over it.
And the amazing thing is that thanks to designs such as the so-called “sliding bases” -connector plates that join together at ground level what are actually two different posts- some do.
“They are designed to reduce damage to vehicles, reduce damage to pedestrians, passengers and drivers,” explains Kohlstedt .
“And they are integrated into the city in a way that one can go through it for years and never imagine what their function is. Unless, of course, one collides with one ”, he tells BBC Mundo.
5. Smart speed bumps
Kohlstedt’s latest selection is a particular version of a device found on city streets. around the world: the speed bumps known in many parts of Latin America as “lying policemen.”
This version, however, resembles them more like large cushions placed side by side , as it includes a space for the passage of ambulances .
“It is one of my favorite examples because it is very easy to see and understand. And the concept is both brilliant and straightforward, ”says Kohlstedt.
“ Basically ambulances and emergency vehicles have a wider axle than normal cars, ”he explains.
“So it is possible to create speed bumps that a normal car has to treat as such but that an ambulance can cross without having to slow down,” he tells BBC Mundo.
It is, as Kohlstedt points out, an example of an ingenious modification of an existing technology.
“And it’s one of those things that once one understands why they were made like this, begins to notice everywhere “, he highlights. 
This logic is also the one that explains the great success of 99% Invisible in its different versions.
The initiative has spent years helping to discover that wonderful hidden world that we have at our fingertips in a tremendous way useful and enjoyable.
And it can also serve as inspiration for those interested in making cities more comfortable, safe and attractive spaces.
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