Rotterdam's Floating Rooftop
In a tour with my students through the city of Rotterdam, we passed this amazing rooftop floating in the Rotte (the river that Rotterdam gave its name). This classic Dutch one-family house rooftop shows to be a piece of Waterworld-like architecture that Kevin Costner would be proud of. In fact, the work sets a gruesome […]
The Origin Of Our Food
UK-based designer James Reynolds recently came up with a brilliant idea to make consumers aware of the origin of their supermarket food by letting them directly know where it comes from. His Far Foods project emphasises the impact that our daily purchases have on the environment and gives insight people’s foodprint. Purpose of Reynolds is […]
Heading For A Landscape Of Experiences
“The Japanese always seem to lead the list with weird and wacky ideas” is stated on the Optical illusions weblog. In addition, I would like to say that they are good as well in creating exciting spatial concepts. This one is a great example. This fake swimming pool (1999) was created by the Argentinian artist […]
San Francisco's Street Park Plan
Recently heard about a plan by the San Francisco Parks Trust that aims to reclaim so-called ‘unaccepted streets’ as public parks. The programme’s goal is to get citizens involved in the creation of new green in unused parts of public space by transforming these spots into “community-managed open spaces”. Interested people are encouraged to apply […]
The Playstation Bus Stop Experience
Waiting for the bus is boring. That’s what Sony brought to the idea to sponsor bus stops and make them more enjoyable with their Playstation 2 ad campaign. This bus station in Malaysia features boards with bubble wrap with recognisable Playstation signs on it. Passengers can spend their time by popping the bubbles. We all […]
Falling In Love With A City
On October 16 the movie ‘New York, I Love You’ will hit theatres in the United States. The movie is about the love for a city, and, in this particular case, the love for the city of New York. We all know what it’s like to fall in love with a city. It’s all about […]
Naturmobil: The Horse Reinvented
Recently I stumbed upon an Iranian green transportation project called the Naturmobil. Described as “the most amazing vehicle so far made in the current millennium”, Naturmobile is a vehicle designed to run with the help of nature, specifically with the natural force of… the horse. Naturmobil is the only vehicle that can run without the (indirect) […]
The Erotic City: Taking Love To Another Level
As kick-off of the upcoming art event Liefde in de Stad, organised by concert hall Paradiso this month in Amsterdam, we’d like to introduce an installation that was part of the event back in 2006. ‘Liefde in de stad’ means something simple like ‘love in the city’. Because we are very interested in the erotic […]
Exploring Copenhagen’s Radiant Future
Could you influence the future of your city by creating a constructive website with your ideas pinned on a Google map? This is what the guys behind Radiant Copenhagen must have asked themselves. If so, that would be a demonstration of how user-generated or open source planning could work.
REM Island: Recycling Pirate Architecture
The city of Amsterdam is about to take a former pirate broadcasting platform to the shores of its to-be-built Spaarndammerhout neighbourhood. This so-called REM Island was built in 1964 in Ireland and was located six miles off the Dutch coast. It used to operate as a media station for the commercial Radio and TV Noordzee […]
Landscape Jewelry
Combine digital geography, 3D printing and jewelry, and you will get close to the fresh idea of Earth Brooch Silver. Earth Brooch Silver offers eclectic custom pieces of jewelry people have to design theirselves by selecting a geographic location somewhere in the world on a Google map. The place’s distinctive landscape will be turned into […]
Can New Media Save The Environment?
Last week we entered our new office located in a villa that is part of the formal Shell laboratory in Amsterdam. As we wanted to have a better view at the surrounding park we decided to take away a fence, without really realising we were demolishing a part of neo-imperial history. As somebody told me, […]
Sub/City People
The following is inspired by the book ‘The Mole People’. For the ignorant amongst you; The Mole People is a book by Jennifer Toth that came out in 1993 and shocked its readers by suggesting that up to five thousand people were living in the subways of New York, even down to seven stories below […]
One Minute Glimpses Of True City Life
If you’re curious what happens when a regular family in Addis Abeba wakes up, or how people are night clubbing in Hong Kong between four and five in the night, then you might like the City One Minutes website. It features movies from all around the world, selected by city and by time, which means […]
Google Street View Photography
Google Street View makes it possible to walk on streets in cities you’ve never been to. Look around, watch locals and interesting architecture, feel the vibe. Internet artist Jon Rafman got inspired by the lots of interesting images that were taken by the three laser range scanners of the Street View car and decided to […]
