Amsterdam Rewards Safe Car Drivers With Money For The Neighborhood
Spotted in Spaarndammerstraat in Amsterdam: A speedometer that indicates your speed and additionally gives you a money counter. What's the deal? Each car that passes and stays below the speed limit of 30 kilometers per hour raises €0,03 for the neighborhood.
Nike Launches On-Demand Laser Beam Street Football Pitch
Over the last years, Nike's campaigns have proven that the sportswear brand seems to take its role in the urban environment seriously. About a month ago Nike launched another neat concept in Madrid: an on-demand laser beam installation that turns any public space into a street football pitch.
Stray Dogs Asking Pedestrians For Some Love
Thousands of stray dogs roam the streets of Santiago, Chile everyday while nobody even notices it. Two college students with a clear love for dogs decided to change this with a simple, yet creative urban intervention.
Get To Know Your Neighbors Online With Nextdoor
When was the last time you baked a cake for your neighbors? And why did you not borrow that lawn-mower from your neighbor when you needed one? Neighborhoods have become alarmingly anonymous. Nextdoor is in the process of changing this with a private social network specially catering to neighborhoods.
Interactive Window Installation Helps Advertise Retail Space
It can be a hell of a challenge for retail space owners to find tentants these days as many cities around the world are facing rising numbers of shop vacancies due to struggling economies and changing shopping habits. Interaction designer Niklas Roy came up with a brilliant attention-grabbing installation to help advertise an empty shop space in Sherbrooke, Canada.
Is Amsterdam Turning Into A Museum?
Recently I came across reviews of two apps: the ‘Amsterdam 1850-1940’ app, which contains information and imagery of over 3500 buildings in Amsterdam built in the heyday of Amsterdam history, and the app called ‘History2go’, which literally claims to “change historical city centers into open-air museums”. Reading the articles and taking a look at the apps in question lead me to rethink the so-called ‘museumification’ of the city of Amsterdam.
White Rabbit Makes Washing Laundry Fun Again
Most people would not mention washing laundry on their list of favorite pastime activities let alone going to the laundromat. It is time-consuming, boring and inconveniently necessary. Luckily, launderettes all over the world have paid attention to this phenomenon and have started to transform laundry washing into a less dreadful, more cheerful and uplifting task city dwellers even look forward to.
Turning Public Benches Into An Arena Of Good Reads
People in Amsterdam may have lately noticed a red metal clip attached to a few public benches. Tucked into the clip one may then find a book, a magazine or a mere flower that is to take, to read and to share. What's behind it? Clearly, these public benches have been transformed into a Ruilbank (Dutch for 'Barter Bench'), a project by Pivot Creative.
In Tokyo, Women’s Thighs Are The New Billboards
Forget about tattoos — the next cool thing to have is an advertisement painted on your thighs. Tokyo-based PR consultant Hidenori Atsumi launched the idea to rent out the space on women's thighs. According to The Guardian 3,000 Japanese women have already signed up for the service.
Japanese City Installs Smartphone Stands For ‘Kodak Moments’
Recently, the Japanese city of Fujisawa installed camera stands for mobile phones at scenic spots that are popular to share with friends at home. Created by Sunpole, the stand has a slot to place any type of smartphone in. The stand can be rotated 360 degrees and is positioned at just the right height and distance to include everyone in the frame to allow for a perfect 'Kodak moment'.
Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism
We share our passion for vending machines with at least one other person on this globe: New York-based graphic designer Christopher D. Salyers. Back in 2010 he wrote a book about extraordinary vending machines around the world. Vending Machines: Coined Consumerism showcases a wide range of vending machines that offer crazy products, vending machines on the most idiot locations and vending machines that dispense their products in very strange ways.
Independent Zines Kiosk Pops Up In The New York Subway
Metro stations are good places for retail, as thousands of commuters pass by every day. Ordinary news stands, food courts and clothing shops often fill the spaces deep down in these metropolitan transfer hubs. However, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (where else?) it's a little different — an independent zines kiosk has taken over a news stand at the Metropolitan Avenue station for one month.
Pair Of Sneakers Double As Mobile Habitat
Tools and structures for mobile, flexible and nomadic urban living are an important raison d'être for this blog — we've already featured loads and loads of them. This Walking Shelter, however, is something I haven't seen before.
Candy Bar Explains It Once Again: Bucharest Is Not Budapest!
Did you know that Bucharest is not Budapest? Although there are plenty of differences between the capital of Romania and the capital of neighboring country Hungary, it seems to be hard to not confuse the two cities. That's why the Romanian candy bar brand ROM came up with a campaign to make clear once and for all that Bucharest is something different than Budapest.
Pop-Up Library Serves The Needs Of Book Worms On The Beach
French architect Matali Crasset came up with this pop-up beach library. The simple structure, that consists of tarpaulin draped over a steel frame, offers beach-goers a collection of over 350 books that are selected by Crasset herself.
