Small cabins in the middle of nowhere gain popularity. Not only to semi-permanently live in, or as a part of a decentralized hotel, but also as event spaces. The Japanese architecture firm Hidemi Nishida Studio has created this so-called Fragile Shelter, a temporary construction in the Sapporo Art Forest in Hokkaido, Japan. Hidemi Nishida Studio is specialized in feather-light constructions with plastic as a main construction material. Great examples are this Fragile Shelter but also their piece of inflatable architecture called Occupied.

Cologne-based publisher Taschen is known for its picture-rich books that focus on art, design and architecture. In 2011 it launched Temporary Architecture Now!, a publication that sets itself apart from the other architecture books in Taschen’s collection.

This is neither a huge wasp nest, nor a colony of grizzly bears hanging around in the Dutch suburbs. This is a man’s home. Boomwonen is a project by the Dutch artist Roel de Boer in which he explores what ‘home’ really means in a contemporary social context. Originating from an island (Texel), the big city feels stifling to him and leads to an increasing desire to live a more physical lifestyle, closer to nature. At the same time the social and cultural diversity of the city attracts him. The ideal place to live, assumes De Boer, would be a place combining these both characteristics. And since we cannot all afford a huge farm on Times Square, we have to come up with other ideas. By creating little places to rest (sleeping and sitting) in the middle of the city, the artist hopes to find his ideal way to live.

Why do we build solid houses of bricks and concrete to lock ourselves up, while there is so much more to see in the world? According to Bitrebels we spend so much time of our lives sitting in the same boring room, while it actually becomes possible to experience the world a little more nomadic.

This fascinating outdoor pavilion was created by the designers of Overtreders W, an office based in Zaandam (a suburb of Amsterdam). Entitled ‘Het dak dat opgaat in rook’, or ‘The Roof That Goes Up In Smoke’, their piece of landscape art can house up to 40 picnicking people.

You may know the Berlin-based inflatable architecture gurus of Raumlabor since we have covered several of their projects in the past, such as the traveling bubble Spacebuster, or the Hovercraft, a translucent membrane wrapped around a modernist building. They are back with a new project. Under the name of Soft Solution, the Raumlabor people have realized a new installation for the 4th European Month of Photography in Berlin.

Staying in the winning mood, I’d like to mention this great vending machine I came across yesterday night at Amsterdam’s Central Station.

An overwhelming history of sky design does not exist. Ancient Romans and Greeks never had the technical possibilities to really redesign the big space around us. As modern society we have been designing more or less anything over the past few decades, and now we take it to the next level: the impossible. How to design the sky? Some great and inspiring initiatives that aim to create a new experience of the ‘boring’ sky take place last years. Are we collectively sick of the blue sky decorated with natural, white clouds? Do we prefer the everlasting rainbow, northern light forever, artificial green clouds or pixel swarms as displays?