Spiderman In The Urban Jungle
The French artist Sébastien Preschoux has come up with a beautiful collection of spanned string projects in all sorts of dreamy spatial situations. We found out about his work on the Spanish blog Flores en el Atico that we couldn’t read as we don’t speak any Spanish. The way geometrical logics are combined with raw […]
The Dutch Strike First
As many of you may know, yesterday was a big day for football enthusiasts. Next year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa came somewhat closer as the official draw for the tournament took place in Cape Town. (Check out the entire schedule here.) The Dutch are in Group E, together with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon. […]
Upcycled Pop-Up Coffee Kiosk
For the best cappuccino at the Delft University of Technology you should pay a visit to the Sterk2 espresso bar located in the central hall of the architecture faculty. This indoor coffee kiosk is designed and built by 2012 Architects, a recycle architecture office from Rotterdam. The whole construction is made out of pieces of […]
The IKEA Infiltration
Yesterday, I discussed the emerging social unrest in Hamburg caused by the current neoliberal city-branding campaign and the ongoing policy focus on the creative class instead taking in mind real social problems, such as the growing spatial segregation. A large group of artists came up with a manifest to speak out about their concerns. They don't want to be a marketing instrument used to attract the 'international knowledge worker'. The German blog Urbanshit reports about a group of 130 artists, designers, architects, fashion designers and photographers from Hamburg who fall victim to the planned expulsion from their workspace in the Frappant building in the district of Altona, in which IKEA intends to open a store shortly. In a reaction, a group of 50 of them decided to colonize the IKEA store in Hamburg-Moorfleet and turn a part of it into their new workplace.
Hamburg’s Manifest Against The Creative Class
Richard Florida's ghost roams throughout Europe these days. We live in a world of global cities that are involved in an interurban competition to attract investors and the so-called international knowledge worker.
The Story Of Two Beamed Bunnies
A couple of months ago we showed an amazing commercial of US Cellular featuring an underwater experience in an American town. I’m not familiar with this company, so I don’t know if they offer great service and good prices, but anyway, I think their commercials are great. The way in which the city’s collective space […]
Will Dubai Join The List Of Fallen Cities?
The financial pyramid game that Dubai was, shows to have collapsed. When I started studying urban design ten years ago, I would never believe a city to be nothing more than an investment project. In the case of Dubai, city planning here has become speculation, not only as a private matter, but as a collective […]
What To Do With An Unfinished City In The Desert?
This is the first time that we react on the news of the day. But with the unexpected and rather predictable collapse of the Dubai bubble we have to. Suddenly we’ve to enlarge our field of interest as standard-bearers of temporary and flexible cities. As a consequence of Dubai’s fall, a both sad and interesting […]
The Pop-Up Lunch City
Improvement of public space is a hot topic these days. All kinds of idea makers seem to expand the function of the public realm by adding new objects, both legally and illegally, that serve fresh activities. Ali Pulver, the woman behind Pop-Up Lunch, must have been slightly frustrated about the lack of places to have […]
Installations By Architects
This year we’ve often been writing about all sorts of installations made by designers, by architects, by artists, or cross-discipline collectives, and even by ourselves. The installations we chose to write about were inspiring to us for several reasons. One of this reasons is beauty. Another reason is that some installations make you wonder about […]
Redesigning The Sky, Part 2
Talking about artificial rainbows effects, this picture here is really amazing. Its shot at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego, by Gary Johnson aka Madebackwards. The image shows an artificial rainbow produced under crazy circumstances: “as this FA/18 Super Hornet nears the sound barrier a huge compression wave forms as the moisture is forced […]
Redesigning The Sky
What can rainbows do for the city? The rainbow is absolutely one of nature’s most funny inventions. Its beauty is maybe too much for human understanding. As a symbol, the rainbow is over-used though. Its appearance has become a huge cliché as an icon of love, a colorful life, and a golden future. Flickr is […]
Flexible Living The Russian Way
Today we celebrate article number 300 on Pop-Up City. No champaign though at our office in Amsterdam, but a serious article about Russian pop-up culture. On this special day we found out about a topic on flexible cities at a Russian website dedicated to campers, caravans, et cetera. The topic must have a name, but […]
A Bulb Of Crystal Light In Amsterdam
Dutch artist Giny Vos recently finished her latest light project in Amsterdam. The work called ‘Crystal Palace’ is a magic bulb of light consisting of 256 thin aluminum tubes and 4,096 white light dots. Floating in the air under a dark passageway, this project looks to be a cloud of twinkling stars. In this sense […]
The Tragedy Of Megalomanic Holiday Dreams
In 2008 Klaus Stern launched the docu-film Henners Traum, about the making of the biggest tourism project in Europe. The movie tells the story of mayor Henner of the small town Nord-Hessen in central Germany, who has the dream to build Europe’s biggest mega resort. Schloss Beberbeck, as the resort is called, is going to […]
