Trabi Roof Tents And East German Holiday Culture
Die Wende and the German reunification twenty years ago inspired us to look back and find out about pop-up culture in the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). One of the most significant aspects of the East German memory is, without any doubt, the Trabant. Less famous is the tent that could be constructed on top […]
Clouds Of Data In The London Sky
It's called a "celebration of technology" by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Recently an impressive international team of architects, artists and engineers presented their plan for The Cloud, a massive, highly sustainable, sculptural structure meant to display images and data high in the sky above London. The Cloud was shortlisted in a competition set-up by mayor Boris Johnson, who intends to build a remarkable attraction in the future Olympic Park. The jury still has to decide which submission will be commissioned, but the team behind The Cloud (including writer Umberto Eco and architects from the MIT), couldn't resist leaking some details. The design draws on the dreamy inflatable structures made by Argentina-born and German-based architect Tomas Saraceno.
A New Generation Of Separation Walls
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall collapsed. In memory of this historical event, we’d like to write some about the most insane and pointless invention in the history of architecture: The Wall. Walls are made to separate. In houses, for example, walls are partly meant to separate warm and cold air. Another function is the […]
On Cage Homes
In August, Alexandra wrote about her interpretation of Jennifer Toth’s ‘The Mole People’ – a fascinating book about communities of outcasts living beneath the busy streets of New York City. Toth profoundly describes the struggles of the urban poor for scarce space in a globalizing city, which forces some of them to leave the aboveground […]
The Phantom City
Humans are curious, and they love their curiosity being triggered. In regard to this, the New York-based Museum of the Phantom City does a very good job by using personal digital devices to transform the city into a living museum.
Activism Doubt
Activism Doubt is a vibrant new book by Dutch Artists Harmen de Hoop and Jonas Staal. The book, published by Onomatopee, is the result of a collaboration between the two in the period 2007-2009.
Seduced By The Wind
Speaking about the Erotic City, we can’t let this amazing example of playful city art pass by. A fuzzy piece of tarpaulin blowing in the wind has inspired Bryan Snyder to reconstruct our minds. Most funny is the idea that the artist at some point must have seen the analogy between a blowing summer dress […]
On Moscow's Public Toilets
In most cities it’s a hell of a job to find a decent toilet in public space. Although iPhone apps are available to help you finding one and point you into the right direction, toilets are never close, especially not when you need one. Many Western cities consider public sanitary primarily as a public responsibility, […]
The Dutch Landscape As A Supermarket
Architecture office Van Bergen Kolpa and the researchers of Alterra propose to redesign the Dutch landscape as a supermarket. For ages the Dutch polder landscape has been used to produce food for the cities. First for the cities that surrounded the green lands, later for the whole globalizing world. The Dutch landscape transformed into a […]
Insects As Marketing Instruments
The world of marketing is one big competition of brands fighting to get their portion of consumer attention. Communication gurus like Seth Godin have elaborated the one very important rule of the game: make your message remarkable, otherwise it will pass like a ship in the night. In their struggle for a big idea, advertising […]
New York City In 2259
In an era in which the disciplines of architecture and urban design are injected with technology, we see new innovative software for urban design and modelling being launched. In the past we wrote about various new digital initiatives that enhance the urban planning profession, such as the so-called ‘city information modelling’ application CityCAD, and LimeWire […]
Opening Supply Chains
Sourcemap is an open source project about where things come from. As you know, plenty of products consist of many, many different components coming from all kinds of places around the world. The image, for instance, shows the trace route of an ordinary laptop. Sourcemap is organized around ‘objects’ made up of ‘parts’, and aims […]
Dutch Design In Waiting Rooms
I’d like to provide you with some pictures of waiting rooms at Dutch railway stations. Since I’m travelling a lot by train through the Dutch Metropolis, I’ve developed my own waiting habits. After periods in which smoking, sudokus, cellphone games, Foursquare and feeding my Twitter account with pictures were favorite activities for wasting time, I […]
DIY Nomadic Living
A few days ago I got remembered of Ken Isaacs’ classic book ‘How To Build Your Own Living Structures’ (which you can find in our online library) when I came across the website of Jeff and Arlene, a married couple who decided to build a tiny, sustainable house. On wheels. They started a blog to […]
Seeper's Subreality Refreshes Architecture
We have seen a couple of extremely nice urban projections and facade movies yet, but now we found a project which is absolutely amazing. ‘Battle of Branchage’ by the London-based designers of Seeper is one of “…the most exciting urban manifestations I’ve seen”, says Urbanshit, and I totally agree. Seeper created this installation for the […]
