Turn Your Office Into A Gym
We've always been passionate about modular and flexible furniture concepts that allow for multiple functions. Here we've got another great example that combines two apparently incompatible functions. Industrial designer Darryl Agawin came up with 'No, Sweat!', a piece of office furniture that completely converts into a gym set-up. The three-element workspace furniture set that can be easily changed when one's in desperate need of a work-out.
Win Tickets For Pop-Up City Live!
To celebrate our fifth birthday we’re hosting Pop-Up City Live, an experimental and colorful night for urban innovators at De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam on Tuesday May 21st in which we will bring Pop-Up City to life on stage. We're happy to give away three pairs of tickets to our readers!
Community Currencies And Bartering Models Take Root In Greek Cities
Last January we highlighted the emerging phenomenon of alternative and DIY currencies in cities across the globe. These currencies have been developed by people who wish to see their economy and society through a different scope — more humanitarian, more social. The financial crisis has boosted further development of new peer-to-peer-oriented economic systems in different parts of the world.
Seattle Plans To Build America’s First Edible Forest
A forest in the midst of a turbulent, roaring city; it sounds like something from an amazing dream, but in Seattle it soon will be quite real. With the self-sustaining Food Forest, Seattle is bringing urban agriculture to a higher level, by creating a place where anyone and everyone can go to harvest fruits and vegetables for free.
Indoor Street Food Stall Pops Up In London
Creative studio eks why zed designed the interior of this temporary bun shop in London. The lay-out of the 10 square meters shop is inspired by the Japanese 'izakaya' format, and shows that low-cost can make a big impact.
How Community Blogs Become A Tool For City-Making
City blogging is a great tool to share ideas around the world toward better urban futures, but it’s also a potent tool for hyper-local community development. In the Netherlands, many community blogs have popped up and we’re excited to be inviting the founders of three Amsterdam community blogs, Ilovenoord, BoloBoost, and Nice Nieuw West, on stage at Pop-Up City Live to discuss the importance and potential of local blogging efforts.
Takushi! Tokyo’s Lovely Taxi Lights
Tokyo is one of those cities with a very outspoken and recognizable style. This becomes even more clear when you take a look at remarkable lights on the roof of its taxis. The Japanese capital is filled with these colorful expressions that give identity to each of the cabs. Lifestyle and travel blog Been Seen refers to the Takushi signs as a "passing parade of neon art".
Pop-Up Hotel Room Folds Out Of A Suitcase
Travelling isn’t cheap. Even after you’ve paid for your flight, there is still the challenge of finding an affordable hotel. Trying to find the balance between cheap and comfortable is an art in itself, but Swiss-made portable hotel room Hotello might just make our search a lot easier.
Farming The City: Food As A Tool For Today’s Urbanisation
Seeing an opportunity to unite the wide-ranging efforts of urban farmers worldwide, CITIES Magazine and Trancity have published Farming the City: Food as a Tool for Today’s Urbanization. Farming the City’s mission is to link international activists and thinkers to increase their potential for positive impact on society, actively ‘joining the dots’ between independent initiatives around the world. Farming the City provides a platform for knowledge-sharing, motivation and inspiration for the diversity urban farmers worldwide.
MQTT Lets Objects Talk To Each Other
The world is slowly starting to speak a new language. It is not a language like the ones we know, but rather a way of understanding between everything and everyone in existence. With the rise of the Internet of Things, where practically everything has a built-in chip, it is important that all these devices are able to communicate clearly. As long as my smart thermostat cannot ‘talk’ with the automatic lock on my back door, there is still some ground to be covered. And that is exactly what MQTT is going to do.
Flexible Outdoor Urinal Doubles As A Composter
French design studio Faltazi has presented a highly flexible outdoor urinal that recycles the pee of festival visitors into usable compost. The so-called Uritonnoir is designed as an eco-friendly way for outdoor sanitation for those moments it's most needed.
Building Cities on Philanthropy
The City of Dublin has launched plans for a new central City Library at Parnell Square. This new 21st century cultural hotspot will help launch the northern part of Dublin’s downtown as a new cultural quarter. In times of financial crisis it's hard to find money for new public buildings, particularly in the cultural scene and in a city like Dublin. What’s interesting about this project, initiated by Dublin's City Architect Ali Grehan, is that it is financially made possible by a group of philanthropists. They will pay to make the plans and have committed to raise funding for the execution of the whole project. Peter Collins is Managing Director at Kennedy Wilson Europe. He represents the group of philanthropists that will pay for the massive building. We spoke to him about the library and asked him about philanthropy in urbanism.
Futuristic Trash Can Gives A Call When It’s Full
The so-called Big Belly is a high-tech solar-powered trash can that automatically compacts trash and recycables, and sends city cleaners a notification when it's full.
Dublin Adopts Urban Hacking as a City-Making Tool
During our two-week Blogger in Residency in Dublin earlier this month we discovered quite an innovative approach to urban planning and development that other cities around the globe could learn from. Several departments within the Irish capital's City Council have adopted urban hacking and interventionism tactics as serious tools to improve public spaces.
Modular Urban Rooftop Farm Uses Only Recycled Materials
On top of the roof of the Chocolate Factory in Dublin, a remarkable rooftop farm is being planted. Following the example of other great urban rooftop farms around the world, the Chocolate Factory farm is completely modular, made from only recycled materials, and is based on the concept of composting. This way, the small scale farm that looks out over the city of Dublin integrates an entire food system, from waste to food, on one roof.
