Local, Authentic, Sustainable: The Style Of The New Artisan Economy
By Ted Pouls
The so-called New Artisan Economy has become hotter than hot in our cities. This trend is especially visible in the form of new, small-scale companies focusing on local craftsmanship. Consumers are more and more demanding for local products that are produced in a sustainable way, with care for the environment. Keywords in the New Artisan Economy are local, authentic and sustainable, whether we’re talking chocolate, jeans or bicycles.
Read more →Hong Kong As A 2D Game
By Ted Pouls
Remember playing Super Mario Bros on the first Nintendo? Stockholm-based photographer Christian Åslund shot a series of photos in Hong Kong depicting the city as a 2D game.
Read more →Abandoned Church Transforms Into A Color Explosion
By Ted Pouls
In Southwest D.C., just a few blocks from Capitol Hill, an abandoned church was transformed into an art installation. Atlanta-based artist Alex ‘Hense’ Brewer painted the former Friendship Baptist Church in a palette of many different colors. With this project, the artist aims to revitalize an abandoned building and provide something positive to the local community.
Read more →This Laundromat Looks Like A Nightclub
By Ted Pouls
In Barcelona, Spain a new eco-friendly laundromat opened last summer. Nothing new you would say, except for the fact that this laundromat looks like a nightclub.
Read more →Sitegeist: A Social Dashboard For The Neighborhood
By Ted Pouls
The Sunlight Foundation released a smartphone (iOS/Android) app that enables users to retrieve information and data about the surrounding neighborhood. The Sitegeist app, as it is called, gets its information from various open sources such as Yelp reviews, Foursquare check-ins, US Census Bureau data and weather information. All this information is being visualized into attractive graphs. With these graphs, users can find out things like average age, climate or median income in a certain area.
Read more →Portabee Breaks Open The Market For Mass Consumer 3D Printers
By Ted Pouls
The Portabee is one of the first 3D printers that will be affordable to a wider public. Where you have to pay several thousands of euros for regular 3D printers, the Portabee is priced at $500 (about €375). This kind of pricing makes 3D printers a lot more affordable and appealing to the general public instead of remaining nerdy hardware — something that you could call a little break-through.
Read more →Going Public: Public Architecture, Urbanism And Interventions
By Ted Pouls
Going Public: Public Architecture, Urbanism and Interventions provides another selection of creative forms of architecture in public spaces. Published by Gestalten, the book focuses on six themes that vary from green spaces to architecture of intermediate status.
Read more →‘Living Pavements’ To Greenify Public Spaces
By Ted Pouls
Dutch designer Bennie Meek designed a form of pavement that would improve rain water drainage in urban areas, such as the city of Eindhoven. Meek’s design was part of the Design Academy Eindhoven 2012 graduation show. The philosophy behind the Living Pavement is re-thinking about how nature should be present in an urban area.
Read more →NEXT Architects Design Landmark-Ish Bridge For Amsterdam Suburb
By Ted Pouls
In the usually very peaceful and provincial town of Purmerend, a suburb of Amsterdam, a very oddly shaped bridge has popped up. Designed by Amsterdam-based NEXT Architects, the extraordinary structure connects the new neighborhood Weidevenne with the old town center.
Read more →Belgian Brewery Provides Night Buses In The City Of Ghent
By Ted Pouls
We’re always on the look for marketing-driven forms of urbanism. From this perspective, an interesting public-private partnership has been started in the Belgian city of Ghent. The municipal government decided to collaborate with De Koninck beer brewery to maintain the public tranport service at night. The company that provided public transport in Ghent, De Lijn, had to cancel the night services due to budget cuts. De Lijn buses will still run at night but the municipal government and De Koninck will cover most of the costs.
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