Backyard Farming In San Francisco
Modern farming is increasingly becoming an urban lifestyle. All over the world residents of metropolitan areas seem to feel the need to reconnect with food and food production. In San Francisco this idea has led to a social network around the topic of gardening.
Nike Flagship Store Recycles 15,000 Sneakers
Nothing new about a flagship store. Which brand doesn't have one at the moment? Indeed, the flagship stores form an interesting retail concept in the context of pop-up city development, but this doesn't make writing about every single new store interesting. However, this Nike flagship store in Shoreditch (London) seems to be very special and worth visiting. In the first place because of the interior design by the Wilson brothers which looks very good. Second, the shoe store shows a collection of flexible and sustainable lifestyle concepts.
A Great Tool For Boring Cities: Dial4Light
Dial4Light is a pay-per-light system using a mobile phone. Some German cities, for example Lemgo, Dörentrup, Kalletal and Rahden, have already implemented this system. And believe it or not, inhabitants are positive. In the little village Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz (population: 900), one phone call turns on all the street lights at the same time.
Get It For Free!
On Wooster Collective I found out about an exhibition on the work of Graffiti Research Lab artist Evan Roth in Vienna. A prominent strain of Roth’s work explores the intersection of digital technology and modern graffiti. The opening coincides with the release of Roth’s new self published book called ‘AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE: Selected works […]
Pastiche And The Soft City
A city consists of a hard side and a soft side. The hard side tells us something about the physical structure of a city. Too less people realise that what really counts is our image-forming by the soft city, the 'feeling': what good things happen there? Does it feel like I have to be there? A nice piece of data visualisation software called Pastiche shows us the strength of associations and experiences people have with a city.
The Devaluation Of Space
A growing development concerning space is the devaluation of the concept by digital ways taking over space functions. The following iPhone app simply shows how easy it could be to get what you want, without entering a store and even getting a product for the best price.
The Pop-Down City
The 'Pop-Down Project' is a funny urban movement from France that brings pop-up blocking to real-life advertising and other annoying elements you find on the street. Through a blog, people can obtain those little red 'Close' boxes, designed to look just like the click-out boxes in the corner of pop-up windows. On their blog you can find some nice pictures of the click-out buttons in public space.
Citysense: Where Is Everybody?!
A new smartphone application developed by Sense Networks tells you where to find the most crowded spots at a specific moment. Nice for deciding where to go out, or maybe where not to. Citysense is an innovative mobile application for real-time nightlife discovery and social navigation, answering the question: "Where is everybody going right now?"
The Building Of The Largest Mass Grave Ever
How do we handle death in the early 21st century? An ambitious team lead by Ingo Niermann is making plans for the building of a giant mass grave for mankind: a 578 meters high (!) pyramid in Eastern Germany with space for body rests of 100 million people.
Nottingham’s Blind Spots
Yesterday I realised how many articles on this blog apparently deal with the topic of urban guerrilla movements. This is another interesting one that makes people aware of privacy infringement due to the massive amount of CCTV cameras on the streets of England.
Art Market Amsterdam
On Sunday March 1, a new pop-up art market will take place in the Wijdesteeg parking garage in Amsterdam. Here you will find young leading artists selling their products, fresh handmade food, design, fashion DJs, you name it.
New York: Subway Art Gallery
New York's Museum of Modern Art running art project Atlantic Pacific is a nice gift to the city's subway travellers. For more than a month, MoMA takes over Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street subway station, filling it with replicas of over 50 artworks in the MoMA collection. A true pop-up gallery!
Guerrilla Bicycle Lanes
Living in bike city Amsterdam I can hardly imagine how it is to fight for bicycle lanes in your city. In Toronto a group called the Urban Repair Squad doesn't want to wait for the bureaucrats to take action on creating bike lanes and started making their own. "In a way they are carrying out an official function" says Giovanna Borasi of the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The Urban Repair Squad makes use of stencil spraying and stickers to make the city more bike-friendly.
The Green Cloud
I came across an online article about a pricewinning Finnish environmental art project called 'Nuage Vert'. Nuage Vert makes use of laser technology to transform clouds of Helsinki's Salmisaari power plant into beautiful green structures. Aim of this project is to illustrate the current levels of electricity consumption by the people living in the surrounding Ruoholahti district and to make them aware of their spendure.
N55’s Walking House
Copenhagen-based design platform N55 recently created a sustainable house which can walk. Awesome! The designers state their modular dwelling system enables people to "live a peaceful nomadic live, moving slowly through the landscape or cityscape with minimal impact on the environment." The walking houses can move their six legs by collecting energy "from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills." Each unit is designed for a maximum of four persons to live in, but can easily be scaled up. I'm impressed. Watch the cutie walk!
