Designing On-Site With Archi-Maton
Forget about artist impressions. Architecture student Sahar Fikouhi from The Bartlett has developed a prototype of a tool which enables architects and urbanists to sketch and design architectural structures on-site. Entitled Archi-Maton, the service induces Augmented Reality technology to explore and visualize designs in physical space in real time. The idea is to use AR […]
Minimal Painting In Public Space
Each person encounters between 3,000 and 6,000 commercial messages each day. Compared to art, that is a lot. I takes a real exhibition junk to even come close. That is perhaps why so many artists try to change this negative art/ad balance in public spaces. We have seen great examples. Dutch designer Justus Bruns tries […]
The Open House: A Model For A Future Suburbia
I watched Inside Job by Charles Ferguson a few days ago. This compelling documentary does not only expose the economic crisis shocking truths but reminds us about the impact on ‘ordinary’ people in the US and abroad. America is plagued by unemployment rises and record foreclosures with the suburbs particularly hit. The Open House, a project […]
Pandora Boxes In The City
Berlin is a great place for street art as we’ve reported before. The German artist Sweza, however, takes graffiti to a new level. About the Audio Box project, Sweza writes: “In the year 2009, this little carillon got installed at the Admirasbruecke in Berlin Kreuzberg, unfortunately the audio box got stolen after three days.” This short […]
From Hacking To Trust: An Interview With Scott Burnham
A few weeks ago, during our experience in Milan, I had the chance to talk with Scott Burnham in the context of an open conversation on design organized by the Design Academy Eindhoven. The theme of the meeting was Trust, the title of the latest research project run by Premsela and Archis, which you can […]
Make Cities Like Pop Songs
The Dutch have a tradition with barrel organs in the city. But what happens if you put the city into a barrel organ? Dutch artist Akko Goldenbeld of the Eindhoven Design Academy exhibited his ‘Stadsmuziek’ installation at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. A physical model of the city of Eindhoven is rolled onto a […]
A Pop-Up Restaurant On Top Of European Landmarks
The Cube is an ode to top gastronomy. Literally. This pop-up restaurant commissioned by the Swedish Appliance Manufacturer Electrolux is scheduled to stay on top of a series of European landmarks. From the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana in Rome to a mountain cliff in Switzerland, foodies in search for unique experiences will be able to […]
Caveat For Smart Cities
Last month, three leading thinkers on smart cities (and regular ones too) expressed concerns about issues of digital inclusion and citizen-technology dynamics. Saskia Sassen wrote about the need to ‘urbanise the technology,’ Anthony Townsend discussed the absence of the urban poor from smart city visions and Adam Greenfield asserted the need to have rights over 'public objects'.
Giftee: Twitter-Powered Gifts
Giving a friend a real-time physical present via social media looks to be a future fantasy. But since this year it is possible in Japan. The Japanese start-up Giftee makes it possible to send a real-time and a real-world gift using Twitter. Giftee is an online service enabling users to send small ‘thank you’ gifts […]
There's A Garden In My Closet
Last month’s Design Week in Milan was filled with such a huge number of nice events, that it was practically impossible to see everything. Among the things I unfortunately missed was this really nice exhibition that was presenting small gardens mixing plants with old furniture. The designers Peter Bottazzi and Denise Bonapace realized the project […]
The World's Biggest Parasol
The Spanish city of Sevilla has a new eye-catcher: a giant parasol. The four level high sculpture gives shadow to the entirely redeveloped Plaza de la Encarnacion during hot Summer days. At the same time it’s a true ‘purple cow’, along with the new version of the square. The giant shed provides a roof for bars, […]
Mokum: A Guide To Amsterdam
We spent the last months working on an alternative travel guide to Amsterdam, along with our friends of Partizan Publik, Archis, Theo Deutinger Architects, the Amsterdam 4/5 May Committee, and some 30 other contributors who joined us for a cold and windy workshop weekend in January. On Thursday night we proudly launched Mokum: A Guide […]
Mystical Resort In Wadi Rum
Florida-based office Oppenheim Architecture + Design has released the artist impressions of its proposals for 47 desert lodges at a resort in Wadi Rum, Jordan. The resort has a completely different atmosphere compared to the resorts we know from the Mediterranean and Caribbean coasts: no rude interventions such as skyscraping hotels and obscene tourist strips will […]
Decorate The Potholes
“When they don’t do it, we must do it.” That is what Juliana Santacruz Herrera must have thought when she started repairing the potholes in the streets of Paris with colorful strips of yarn. Randomly placed in cracks and breaks, her designs result in a colorful addition to the urban lay-out. It’s always good to […]
Top 5 Apps For Exploring The City
The majority of location-based smartphone apps is obviously aimed at uncovering the city and its dynamics. Many of these services enable a first-time visitor to walk around like a local. Google Maps, Foursquare, Augmented Reality apps like Layar — they're all very handy and useful, but they're all there to let you not be guided by coincidence or intuition. And that can be a pity sometimes. However, there is a segment of location-aware apps that brings different urban dimensions to the front, and enhance the urban experience with psychogeography-powered layers, freaky story-lines and augmented realities to what you already see and hear — all focused on inducing the unexpected. Here we present a top 5 of (free) apps that enable you to explore the city in totally new and refreshing ways. If we've missed something that should have been included in this list, you're welcome to make suggestions!
