Have you seen the Mobiators roaming around Amsterdam? It’s likely you’ve encountered urban nomads before, but you probably quickly shrugged them off as punks, hippies, architecture students or circus performers just doing their thing.
In order to further improve bicycle culture and infrastructure, the urban authorities in Zürich teamed up with a team of designers to launch a true coffee drive-in for cyclists.
We’ve all been there. Our coffee maker, printer, or blender brakes, and it costs way less to buy a new one then to go through all the trouble of fixing it. Responding to this incredibly wasteful phenomenon and the volume of raw materials and energy needed to produce and transport new goods, Martine Postma, an environmental activist in the Netherlands created the world’s first Repair Cafe.
Spring is late in Amsterdam this year, but we can finally see some greenery around the city. Let’s go outside for some urban foraging! Plants growing on the sidewalks that are either an urban wildlife or belong to someone (be it public or individual) may come out to be a great source for your daily nutrients. Fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts or even snails are only some of the products that one can harvest and enjoy for free.
Everyone can turn their home into a little private restaurant with EatWith, a new web-based service that enables people to rent our their kitchen table to strangers. EatWith gives travelers the opportunity to eat with a local in their homes and experience local culinary traditions. As the founders explain, “being a guest in someone’s home is a great way to get an authentic local perspective in a different city or country”. And that’s what every modern traveler wants, right?
We’ve always been passionate about modular and flexible furniture concepts that allow for multiple functions. Here we’ve got another great example that combines two apparently incompatible functions. Industrial designer Darryl Agawin came up with ‘No, Sweat!’, a piece of office furniture that completely converts into a gym set-up. The three-element workspace furniture set that can be easily changed when one’s in desperate need of a work-out.
To celebrate our fifth birthday we’re hosting The Pop-Up City Live, an experimental and colorful night for urban innovators at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam on Tuesday May 21st in which we will bring The Pop-Up City to life on stage. We’re happy to give away three pairs of tickets to our readers!
Last January we highlighted the emerging phenomenon of alternative and DIY currencies in cities across the globe. These currencies have been developed by people who wish to see their economy and society through a different scope — more humanitarian, more social. The financial crisis has boosted further development of new peer-to-peer-oriented economic systems in different parts of the world.
A forest in the midst of a turbulent, roaring city; it sounds like something from an amazing dream, but in Seattle it soon will be quite real. With the self-sustaining Food Forest, Seattle is bringing urban agriculture to a higher level, by creating a place where anyone and everyone can go to harvest fruits and vegetables for free.
Creative studio eks why zed designed the interior of this temporary bun shop in London. The lay-out of the 10 square meters shop is inspired by the Japanese ‘izakaya’ format, and shows that low-cost can make a big impact.