Flying Gardens
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?
The NYC Tourist Lane
To improve the speed on the New York sidewalks and prevent pedestrian accidents Improv Everywhere came up with yet another urban prank. Slow tourists are seperated from the fast New Yorkers by a painted line in the middle of a sidewalk in busy Manhattan. Two supposts ask people to walk on the right lane. On the left tourists can do whatever tourists do, like standing still, walking slowly and changing direction out of a sudden. On the right lane busy New Yorkers can hurry up a bit.
The Perfect City Generator
Create your own own city online with the so-called Suicidator City Generator (SCG).
Pay & Sit: Privatized Benches In Public Space
As one of the students participating in an interface design program, Berlin-based artist Fabian Brunsing designed this rather remarkable privatized bench in public space. To sit on it comfortably, you have to insert a € 0,50 coin. After paying, the pins that prevent people from sitting on the bench will disappear automatically. After a couple […]
CityCAD Version 2.0 Released
Master plans, urban plans, and regional plans are most of the times extremely complex. Not only because a huge amount of actors is involved, but also because of a load of information which is usually not very well organized. CityCAD might be a solution here. CityCAD is a leading parametric modeling tool for conceptual city […]
The Inverse Security Camera
Wouldn’t it be nice to see the face of the security officer who is sitting in the urban space control room? That would be fair, right? While he, or probably she, is sitting in a protected area, we are being spied when walking in our natural habitat, unprotected. This concept by Linda Kanchev and Fabian […]
Polder Football
Everyone is invited to play football new style. Spanish artist Maider López (1976) will be transforming the Dutch polder landscape into a football field with natural obstacles. On September 4th, the typical Dutch landscape of meadows and ditches will be the setting for a rather absurd tournament. Teams of artists, football lovers or friends will […]
Urban Interventions
Reading Urban Interventions, a recently published book by the ever inspiring German publisher Gestalten is like re-experiencing last two years of Pop-Up City. The book showcases a whole lot of personal projects in public space executed all over the world. It deals with the space we live in and explores all kinds of interventions changing the significance of this public space. Many projects in the book are familiar to faithful readers of this blog, which isn't strange since the scope of the Urban Interventions book is in perfect line with the themes we like to write about.
Toyota's Urban Greenery Mission
Today I stumbled upon some of Toyota’s so-called ‘greenification’ mission. Initiating several projects such as the Roof Garden Corporation, the Japanese car brand aims to contribute to the improvement of the urban environment. The Roof Garden Corporation was established in December 2001 and focuses on achieving sustainable urban greenification by making buildings greener and developing […]
Detroit: $500 Home On The Ruins Of Fordism
Five people from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning transformed an abandoned house in Detroit into their own design lab. The students bought a 500 dollar house to rethink the concept of the one-family house and sub-urbanism while re-designing it. The ruins of capitalism that Detroit is transforming into has […]
Supertramp By Lehman B
‘Supertramp’ – a new alternative ‘future platform’ initiative by recently founded do-tank Lehman B – is officially embarking on its maiden voyage in and around London’s urban amazingness from Wednesday the 2nd of June. This first project by Lehman B will attempt to set out to explore the practicality of microsized living and urban downshifting […]
Mapping The Neighborhood Aura
How’s the aura of my neighborhood today? How are people around me feeling? Recently launched iPhone app Glow attempts to give an answer to these issues by mapping of feelings and sentiments in urban districts. Glow lets you easily share your feelings using a simple star-based rating system. Feelings are then geolocated and tagged to […]
3D Façade Projection In Amsterdam
Last Thursday, Samsung introduced a large-scale commercial 3D Outdoor projection at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, to promote their new 3D screen technology. The audience was able to view the addition of a new visual dimension on the facade of the historic building. On the adjacent square, visitors were able to try out the […]
Temporary Orange Crate Saloon
This construction made by architect Alexander Lefebre and artist Jetske Verhoeven popped up during the alternative art event Kunstvlaai in Amsterdam. It’s a small temporary movie theatre used to show a film by Jetske Verhoeven about abandoned places. The construction called Upon, refers to ‘once upon the time in the west’ and is inspired by […]
The Invasion Of The Giant Red Ant
Could a red ant be a purple cow? About 500 red ants enter theater De Lawei in Drachten, The Netherlands. The ants were painted on the road by artist Henk Hofstra and form part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary. Each ant is three meters in long and two meters wide. All ants come […]
