Door-To-Door Design
Stortplaats van Dromen (Dump of Dreams) is a design and construction company based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Founded in 2006, they design, build and develop interiors, furniture, and living areas and organize projects and workshops in and around public space. When possible they work with recycled materials used in combination with natural stuff. One of […]
Swing In The City
Swing sets have been a popular playground activity for children for ages. When growing up, opportunities to enjoy this simple pleasure in public spaces are fewer. I am still refraining myself from using swings in parks because our serious societies and over-complicated urban environments do not expect me as an adult to use them. Anyway, since safety is so important, swing seats available in public spaces are now over-engineered to fit children only. Lately, I've been searching for interesting projects that explore the impact and the power of this simple playset in urban spaces.
A Piece Of Nature At The Airport
With the idea of trying to ease this strife, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport just opened their brand new Airport Park, a park-themed area for travelers to relax, work, eat or simply hang around, enjoying some fresh-air before departure. Once beyond passport control, passengers will now be able to spend their time at the airport in a […]
A Portable Emergency Toilet From Japan
Last week Bit Rebels wrote an interesting piece about the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan. Although media attention in general has smoothly faded away and also focuses mainly on reports on radio-activity in Fukushima, Japan still has some major rebuilding issues to deal with. Electricity and tapwater are still not available at many places […]
A Bicycle Rider's Laser Party
British student Emily Brooke has invented a laser projector that should help bicycle riders to tour more safely in cities. BLAZE is a battery-powered device that can be attached to the handle-bars of a bicycle. It projects a figure of a bicycle in green light two meters in front of your bike. The idea is that […]
Robot Flâneur: The Urban Screensaver
Robot Flâneur is a new website made by London-based writer and programmer James Bridle, which claims to be an explorer for Google Street View. It allows you to virtually stroll the streets of nine different world cities, ranging from Tokyo to Berlin.
A Dream Castle In An Old Factory
Every time I visit Berlin, I feel like being part of something alive and in motion. The city is so fascinating that you can never get enough. Nevertheless, every time I face the same problem: where am I going to stay? A friends’ couch or cheap, anonymous hostels are usually my choice but, thanks to Silke […]
Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today?
What did you buy today? Do you remember things you bought last week? What about their price? What was your emotional connection to buying these items? Desire? Necessity? Joy? Guilt? Consumerist societies make us buy everyday, think we need to buy and forget about the meaning or the story of our purchases. Depressing? Then let […]
"Swapping Is Contagious"
“Leave your wallet at home!” This could be the slogan for the bartering and swapping markets that have flooded several cities in Europe over the past few years. Moving beyond the traditional market idea, swapping markets are advocates of an ‘exchange — without-money’ process which has recently gained popularity in the light of global economic […]
The Urban Fruit Tree
If you’d think of a tree that grows urban fruits instead of cherries, apples or pears, how would it look? This is what California-based sculptor Jean Wells must have thought when she came up with the idea for the Urban Fruit Tree. This beautiful 16 by 11′ foot tree, which was located in front of the […]
Walk, Pause, Fast Forward, Play
Walking the Edit is an iPhone application using surrounding geolocalised information to create a movie while you are walking. “It’s great that videos, pictures and other data can be geolocalized thus creating an ‘augmented space’. But we are left to wonder… how can we turn this abundance of information into a story? Can we build […]
Safety First
Some month ago in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, a group of students and citizens, exercised their right to have safe bike lanes and, in front of the inertia of local authorities, decided to solve the problem themselves. Equipped with colors and stencil masks, they realized a 2.5 kilometers long bike lane on Santa Margherita […]
Twitter's Private Members Club
The World’s Most Exclusive Website is a private members club for Twitter users to hang out. The idea is simple but brilliant. You can only get in when you belong to the selected group of people with an officially verified Twitter account. Verified accounts are used by the Twitter crew to establish authenticity for accounts who […]
A Dreamscape Of Bamboo And Bridges
During a lecture we did at Moscow’s Strelka Institute two weeks ago, I got to speak with landscape architect Adriaan Geuze who leads the world-famous Dutch landscape design office West 8. Offscreen he showed some of his latest park designs. We would like to highlight one of the amazing parks that West 8 has created and […]
Bike-O-Sauna
Pop-up saunas are hot, not only in steamy eucalyptus water damp itself, but on this blog as well. One month ago we reported about a folding felt sauna that Studio Elmo Vermijs is currently finishing. Now we stumbled upon more hot sauna stuff by the Prague-based architects of H3T. They designed a couple of movable […]
