Behold, Hokusai’s famous wave print stretching across six buildings

A new development in Moscow is taking the concept of a wall mural to a whole new level. Etalon City is a nine-building mixed-use complex in a residential area of Moscow with some truly wild facades.

Splashed across six of the complex’s nine buildings is a reproduction of “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” Katsushika Hokusai’s famous 19th-century woodblock print that depicts a giant, frothy wave on its way to destroy anything in its path.

Etalon Group

The watery print stretches from facade to facade, like a wave rippling in crests. Its blue fills up the entirety of the high-rise buildings, save for the vertical pattern of the windows. All told, the mural reportedly covers some 645,834 square feet.

Etalon Group

Like other inventive facades, Etalon City takes an all or nothing approach to the idea of buildings as art. The wave is joined by three more buildings whose facades feature colorful cityscapes of New York, Barcelona, and Monaco. How the two fit together conceptually, we’re not sure, but we have to give them points for creativity.

Via: Spoon & Tamago