The IBM Data Baby, Or: When Data Rules The World
Within Pop-Up City circles, one could consider me the critical reviewer, grumbling in the background, pointing at the more ethical dimension of some of the things posted here (see my article on the suburbs of New York). Equally so in this case. Whereas the main writers of this blog usually emphasize the ‘interesting’, ‘futuristic’ or […]
Tokyo’s Underground Dreamers
Metropolitan life can be close to a real survival. The daily struggle people in metropolitan areas around world have to undergo is one of the main themes in the work of photographer Michael Wolf. In February, we already paid attention to Wolf's intriguing publications about housing circumstances in Hong Kong — 'Hong Kong Inside' and 'Hong Kong Outside', published by Berlin-based Peperoni Books). Now Urbanophil and Urbanshit report that Wolf has landed in Tokyo and made a great series of Tokyo's subway photographs, fascinated by the underground sleepers. Yes, work life in Japan is exhausting. In a country where true labor ethic means 'being at the office as early as possible in the morning', it's no wonder that commuters fall asleep in subways, squeezed against the train doors.
The Digital Kiosk
More and more people are using tablet computers and e-readers to read books, magazines and newspapers. So, what will the kiosk of the future look like? To which extent will newspaper racks change? A possible answer was given by Cynergy’s Todd Clare at the SXSW Festival. This future newspaper stand enables people to purchase favorite […]
3D Printers To The People!
3D printing becomes increasingly relevant, and we love to observe how it’s developing these days. During the weekend I saw an article of Make Magazine passing by about Cubely, an idealistic ‘Open Hardware’ project that aims to make 3D printing easy, accessible and inexpensive using completely open hardware designs and free open source software. Following […]
Excluding Fences For Community Reclaim
The site for the London 2012 Olympic Games has been surrounded by almost 18 kilometers of blue plywood security fence since construction began in 2006. Since then, the fence has been interpreted as a political symbol of forced regeneration and forthcoming gentrification. Local communities feel excluded from the process of what will happen in the period […]
Burn Motherf*cker, Burn
‘Fire with Fire’ is an installation by Isabelle Hayeur, a Montreal-based artist working in the fields of landscape design and architecture. The installation, which is located on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, is a video projection of 15 minutes playing in a continuous loop. It is an attempt to recall a troubled period of Vancouver’s […]
Architectural Ice Cream On Wheels
Yesterday NOTCOT talked about the Coolhaus Ice Cream Truck that dropped by during the Architizer launch party at the A+D Museum in Los Angeles. The truck is a converted postal van with chrome rims, a pink top, and a fold-down bar and tableto. The Coolhaus truck is happily driven by architects, designers, developers, artists, bakers, […]
Don't Waste Spaces, Light Them!
Wasted Spaces is a London-based non-profit art organization that transforms vacant shop fronts and unused properties into exciting art experiences. This attracts new audiences and gives them the opportunity to view, discuss and interact with art at street level. The principles of the team are Michael Sharp, Remo Carbone and Frederieke Janssen. They set up […]
The Big Take-Over
Fresh and colorful stuff from adbusting land! Thanks to Rudolf from Urbanshit I stumbled upon the interesting creations of French street artist Ox.
Why Not Print Buildings?
During our explorations in fresh developments in architecture we already found plenty of nifty projects, ideas and concepts that have the potential to totally reframe the production of the physical environment. Think of the facade printer, an invention that enables graphic designers to become architects. Or the rise of sustainable plastic as a structural building […]
Rowan Gorilla VII About To Enter Amsterdam
As a new icon for Amsterdam, Rietveld Landscape proposes JackUpCity. JackUpCity is a plan to reconnect Amsterdam with its harbor area. Since decades most of the Amsterdam people do not even know that their city has a harbor, while it’s one of the biggest in Europe. There’s no real emotional connection between Amsterdam and its […]
Portraits From Above
Some weeks ago Joop wrote two reviews about the books ‘Hong Kong Inside’ and ‘Hong Kong Outside’ — two stunning photographic documents about people living in Hong Kong’s huge skyscraper neighborhoods. Both books provide surprising insight in the lifes of the city dwellers in their small, totally packed apartments. An earlier article on this blog, […]
BlockChalk: Forget About The Neighborhood
BlockChalk is a new locative media tool made by former Delicious people Stephen Hood and Dave Baggeroer. BlockChalk is available for different smartphones and meant, according to its makers, to be “the voice of your neighborhood”. BlockChalk essentially enables us to correspond with strangers that are close-by. The GPS-based app enables users to leave notes, […]
Take A Look Into The Wohnzimmer Bar
Over the last years we visited a lot of so called ‘Wohnzimmer’ bars. The Wohnzimmer (‘living room’) bar is a unique typology in bars which gained popularity over the last decade, especially throughout East Berlin. The phenomenon grew and became also popular in the rest of Berlin, Hamburg, and, sporadically even abroad in London, Rotterdam […]
Rethinking Mobile Interfaces
Some days ago I came across an article on PSFK featuring Little World, a fresh user interface concept for mobile phones which was developed by Kevin Cannon and Tobias Toft for the occasion of a Nokia industry course at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID). Little World aims to turn digital interaction with people feel more like real-life interaction.
