Nerd Graffiti: Twitter Street Art
Through Rebel Art I found out about street art expressions using Twitter as inspiration. This work (location unknown) was made by an artist called Questionmark. Nice one!
The Emergence Of Coworking
The classic model of industrial development is characterised by a time-spatial concentration of work. In the past centralisation of labour created not only a dividing line between work and non-working, but also a stronger segregation between urban and rural areas (urbanisation, ‘sleep cities’). Moreover, this model caused a huge intensification of commuter traffic. Albert Benschop, social scientist at the University of […]
The Flying Car, Part 2: History
The launch of the flying car is definitely a great development considering the flexible city, though it is not a new idea. For long, experiments have been executed with vehicles that could fly and drive. Already before the Second World War, back in the twenties and thirties, these vehicles were about to be introduced in […]
The Flying Car: Stop Building Roads!
Half a year ago I read an article about the Dutch police wanting to use flying cars for their work. Finally now it’s here: the personal flying car. Which will, when used on larger scale, change our whole perception on distance and time and, as a consequence, the urban form. Surely it will solve congestion […]
Designing New York's E-Waste Bin
We keep staying on the topic of garbage. New York is the first US city to unfold a municipal e-waste recycling programme. The kick-off is planned to be next year. New York-based Valiant Technology launched a competition called ‘Design The 4th Bin’, to invite creative people to come up with bright design ideas for the […]
Newspaper Rack Graveyard
During my New York visit a few weeks ago I fell in love with the newspaper racks you find everywhere along the streets. However, things are changing… “These photos of disused newspaper racks in a San Francisco storage yard — taken March 13, 2009 — are pretty much all you need to know about the […]
Browser House
This project by artist Rob Voerman in 2005 could almost considered a golden oldie, but it’s definitely worth showing. Voerman brought the digital to the physical in his painting on the front of a house in a neighbourhood in the Dutch town of Nijmegen.
Metabolist Masterpiece: Nakagin Capsule Tower
Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007) was a leading Japanese architect and one of the founders of the Metabolist Movement in 1959. The categories that the group in visioned for the future of cities around the world were “large scale, flexible and extensible structures that facilitate an organic growth process”. The people behind English collective Archigram also belonged […]
The Future Of Postal Administration, Part 2
On Thursday I wrote an article on innovation in the world of postal administration, explaining the fresh idea behind the initiative of Zumbox, which delivers paperless mail online, from street address to street address. But how about packages? It can be hell to wait for a package to arrive. Most of the times you end […]
The Work Of Olaf Breuning
I came across the portfolio website of Swiss-born New York-based artist Olaf Breuning, a guy who shows his talent in his pretty installations, sculptures and photos. He has done some great things in public space, like the Cloud project (see picture above). Or the Blue Brothers, in which he gave a grandstand a lively face, […]
Reclaimed Landscape Ruhr
The Ruhr Area, Germany’s largest industrial area, provides one of world’s best examples of a profound strategy in flexible landscaping and urbanism. Emscher Landschaftspark is a region-wide revitalising strategy combining ecological and economical goals, while using landscaping and heritage as main drivers to interest a broad public. The main issue of the whole project is […]
The Future Of Postal Administration
Innovation is slowly taking the old-fashioned postal services to a next level. Companies like Zumbox come up with new ideas for distributing mail, breaking the borders between paper and digital. Zumbox delivers paperless mail online, from street address to street address. What used to only be sent as paper mail can now be sent without […]
Mobile Garden Offices For Home Working
The OfficePOD is made for people who prefer to work at home and try to avoid boring colleague chats and after work traffic jams. The workplace measures two by two meters and is designed for employees who can work at home, but cannot find the rest in their own house. A workplace in the angle of the sleep chamber or to the kitchen table is not always ideal, certainly not if there are people cleaning around you, or children scream for attention.
Transparent House In West Amsterdam
Amsterdam-based artist Leonard van Munster created a very special add-on to his own house. He will use it as a studio space for his work. The unit, built on an original Jan Rietveld house, has mirror glass walls on the outside which give the whole an amazing appearance. The project brings the functional city into […]
Newbanking: Make More Money?
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. That's what the guys of SPAARbOD must have thought. In these times of financial disorder, there seems to be place for new ideas for earning money with money. Your savings are worth a lot of money since the financial crisis forces banks and other financial institutions to solve their solvability problems. The interest though, which is supposed to be the price of capital, remains to be low.
