Mostar’s Morbid Green Structure
Green roofs, green walls, vertical gardening, small plants in potholes on the road, or even herbal graffiti. I’ve got a strong believe in green cities. Trees, parks and green roofs not only protect us from extreme temperatures, they also collect stormwater in order to prevent flooding, and filter the air by absorbing particulates. However, green […]
Gentrification As A Strategy Game
Contemporary art and new media institute Mediamatic has invited us (Golfstromen) and 21 other Egyptian, Middle Eastern and Dutch artists and designers to explore the North of Amsterdam. We spent this summer mapping the borough’s visible and invisible locations, people and data flows, and research its history and future. Our collective work has resulted in […]
Guerrilla Petrol Station Cinema
Under the name of Cineroleum, a collective of young artists, designers and architects has transformed an abandoned petrol station on Clerkenwell Road in London into a temporary pop-up cinema. The film theater is hand-built and primarily constructed using donated and found materials. Cineroleum is a traditionally designed cinema — “an improvisation of the decadent interiors that greeted audiences during […]
The Exposed City: Mapping The Urban Invisibles
Mapping becomes increasingly popular. Not only among geographers, planners and urbanists, but also within circles of arts, media and culture. The word ‘data’ could easily be considered the most used word on urbanism blogs in 2009. The reason why this emphasis on information took a flight has probably much to do with new possibilities and […]
Run Mokum, Run!
In order to inspire more people to go running (and to sell more sportswear), Nike recently launched the urban campaign ‘Unleashed Run, Take Mokum’. Amsterdam-based advertising and design agency …,staat was asked to create a home for runners and a meeting-place for the campaign. It turned into a fantastic exclusive temporary shop in the Dutch […]
The City As A Marriage Market
Science is unmistakably moving forward. While in the olden days we geographers had to learn that people migrate to the city in order to find a job, eventually the economists - at least those at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam – found out that people do not move to the city as much for work as they do for finding a partner.
Indoor Cloud Generator
‘Cloudscapes’ is a collaboration between German climate engineering firm Transsolar and the architects of Tetsuo Kondo for the 12th International Venice Architecture Biennial. Their indoor installation consists of a surreal layer of artificial clouds in the Arsenale exhibition space and claims to explore the “poetic nature of clouds” above the heads of of the exhibition visitors. Cloudscapes produces […]
Hardware Everywhere
In many different ways the digital era seems to inspire some of us to transform our natural environment. The image of the hardware we stare at for eight hours a day has become so recognizable, that only the rythm of some concrete blocks on a green slope becomes familiar. This is an urban intervention by […]
Become A Part Of Pop-Up City
Pop-Up City is busy building a brand new website. Besides that, we’re extending the editorial board. We’re looking for clever, inspired and up-to-date editors that like to write about new ideas in cities. Since our amount of readers keeps growing, we’d like to develop into a multi-layered platform that covers a wider range of subjects. Pop-Up […]
CityCamp In Public Space
Recently the Dutch town of Castricum was been changed into a temporary open air campsite. Between August 19 and August 29, camping was made possible all over the place — in the public green, at parking lots, et cetera. Furthermore, the inhabitants of Castricum offered camping places in their gardens and facilities. Staying at the […]
Wireless Fireworks
In order to communicate with its surroundings, London-based interaction design agency Unit9 has attached an interactive public screen to its building which allows passers-by to fill it with drawings coming right from their smart phones. The so-called Wi-Fireworks project provides a free Wi-Fi connection. Once people are connected with the network through their phone, the installation […]
Zuidas Pleasure Landscape
The economic crisis has led to delays in further development of Amsterdam’s new business district and second city center, the Zuidas (South Axis). But what to do with the large amounts of unused land? With some help from artists from the nearby Sandberg Institute, local authorities turned an empty building site into both an urban agriculture […]
Amsterdam Dresses Up
We’d like to share some pictures of Liesbet Bussche’s graduation project at the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam. The Belgian jewelry designer has transformed objects that all belong to the regular inventory of Dutch public space into recognizable pieces of blown-up jewelry. The collection that decorates the streets in Amsterdam consists of a concrete ball […]
Wheel Chair Beach: Nice!
The city of Nice takes well care of the disabled. Here at the city’s central beach, I spotted this special section kept for visitors in wheel chairs. For them it must be a hell of a job to enjoy a regular beach. This special service contains wheel chair parking spots, shadow, a concrete ramp, a […]
Freiburg’s Tolerance Pillar
Since 2009 the city of Freiburg in South Germany has a tolerance zone. On the Augustinerplatz in the center of the city, a perplex pillar spreads colorful light and the message of tolerance. Interesting is the way this pillar is used. It looks to work as a sign for people to sit, drink, smoke and […]
