NEXT Architects’ Elastic Perspective is an Impossible Mobius Strip Staircase Near Rotterdam

<a href="http://www.nextarchitects.com/" target="_blank">NEXT Architects</a> has created yet another <a href="http://inhabitat.com/next-architects-mobius-strip-pedestrian-bridge-wins-meixi-lake-district-competition/" target="_blank">crazy walkway</a> to delight visitors and offer spectacular views. This time it's a staircase and walkway in Carnisselande, The Netherlands on a hilltop overlooking nearby Rotterdam. The Elastic Perspective is an art installation built from rusty Corten steel and inspired by the Möbius strip. But here's the rub: the walkway is just an illusion and you can't actually walk all the way around it, because upside-down becomes right-side up.

The Elastic Perspective is more art installation than useful staircase.

Located on a grassy hill in <a href="http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnisselande" target="_blank">Carnisselande</a>, a Rotterdam suburb, the walkway is built from rusty steel in lazy loop that drapes the slope.

From the high point, visitors have an even better view of the nearby city.

"Based on the principal of the Möbius strip, the continuous route of the stair is a delusion - upside becomes underside becomes upside," explained <a href="http://inhabitat.com/tag/next-architects">NEXT Architects</a>. "The suggestion of a continuous route is therefore, in the end, an impossibility."

To access the walkway, visitors merely step on at any low point from the grass and walk around.

The only problem is they can't complete the circle as the walkway is only an illusion of a loop.

The <a href="http://inhabitat.com/next-architects-mobius-strip-pedestrian-bridge-wins-meixi-lake-district-competition/">Möbius strip-inspired</a> walkway turns upside down, so unless you're endowed with suction cup shoes or Spiderman-like abilities, you can't follow it as the path loops around.

Site plan of the Elastic Perspective on the grassy knoll.

This forces the visitor to walk back the way they came and attempt to go the other way.

Interactive and thought provoking, the Elastic Perspective is more a mind trip than an actual journey.