Crowdsourced Urbanism In Helsinki: The Rise Of Facebook Democracy?
Many companies and organizations have taken advantage of a crowdsourcing model to gauge public opinion on a wide range of questions. Now, the government is doing it. Last April, residents of Helsinki were given the opportunity to use a pop-up touch screen to “Like” a proposal for a government funded Guggenheim museum in their city (unlike Facebook, the screens also featured a 'Dislike' button, giving the opposition an opportunity to be heard as well.)
New Bangkok Restaurant Brings Street Food Experience Inside
Last year this remarkable Coca Grill restaurant opened doors in Bangkok. Designed by Integrated Field, the restaurant's interior reflects Thailand's famous street food culture.
Explore The Unknown Parts Of Your City With Abandoned
Empty buildings have been a ‘problem’ that cities have had to deal with increasingly in the last couple of years. Nevertheless abandoned buildings and even ruins can be very beautiful to explore. It often takes some time to find them though. For people who want to skip the hunt for these places and get to the exploring straight-away, there is THE FORM’s iPhone app Abandoned.
Public Urinal Provides Locally-Sourced Fertilizer For Urban Greenery
When Nature Calls is a project by Columbus, Ohio based industrial designer Eddie Gandelman. It is a public urinal that uses filtered pee as fertilizer for plants growing in an attached planter. When properly filtered, urine provides a number of essential nutrients that are vital to healthy plant growth.
Walkonomics Shows The Walkability Of Streets Around The Globe
Here in Amsterdam it can sometimes be a dangerous task to cross streets and walk without thinking. There are cars and bicycles everywhere, not to mention other pedestrians, who are so keen on getting to their destination as quick as possible. For foreign people it can therefore be a hard thinking to just stroll through the city. Walkonomics tries to change this by showing the ‘walkability’ of streets around the world and helping you explore the city while you enjoy your walk.
Plug-In Capsule Hotel Gives New Life To Vacant Building In Moscow
A while ago we featured the Sleepbox, a movable, 4-square meters capsule that functions as a comfortable and modern hotel room. The concept's best feature, that it can be 'plugged in' anywhere, has been brought into reality as its designers have transformed a vacant building in downtown Moscow into a true Sleepbox Hotel.
The Secret Door: Your Travel Agency To Google Street View
The website The Secret Door tries to unlock Street View's hidden treasures for its visitors. Behind the 'door' a whole world of beautiful landscapes, crazy shops and amazing places on this world have been selected. Users of The Secret Door are dropped at such a spot and are free to wander around digitally. When you get bored, you can easily push the button to be taken to another travel location. Curating Google Street View, The Secret Door could be considered one of the first real online travel agencies.
The Old Walls Project Tells New Stories
The Old Walls Project features an amazing set of photo comparisons that show how street art around Milan has evolved over the past twenty years. Sometimes you can still see figments of what once was and at other times the whole thing looks exactly the same as it did two decades ago. Looking at how new artworks have been influenced by what previously was painted on the wall is very inspiring and finding comparisons between the two in theme and style is almost a game in itself.
Can Augmented Reality Supermarkets Revitalize Vacant Urban Lots?
Yihaodian, China’s biggest e-commerce site, is planning to launch 1,000 virtual stores all around the country. Contrary to the QR code technology that was used by other companies around the world as well as Yihaodian itself, this project is solely based on the Augmented Reality (AR) technology and is called Unlimited Yihaodian.
Abandoned Church Transforms Into A Color Explosion
In Southwest D.C., just a few blocks from Capitol Hill, an abandoned church was transformed into an art installation. Atlanta-based artist Alex 'Hense' Brewer painted the former Friendship Baptist Church in a palette of many different colors. With this project, the artist aims to revitalize an abandoned building and provide something positive to the local community.
Pre-Fabricated Brand Identity For Sale!
Identity and product designer Ben Pierrat offers a complete brand identity for sale. His brand Hessian comes with a name, website, diverse style elements, many logos and all the other elements that make a good identity. The only thing the buyer has to come up with is the product or service that the brand wants to sale.
Restaurant Day And Thuisafgehaald Encourage Foodie-Urbanism
Creative foodies of the world (re)unite! On February 17th, from Amsterdam to Toronto, Poznań to Paris, people will be congregating in art galleries and parks, sidewalks and beaches to meet, eat, and celebrate the next edition of International Restaurant Day.
Inspiration: Contemporary Design Methods In Architecture
Today, the link between architecture and digital software is so strong, it's easy to forget that it hasn't always been this way. Architecture’s reliance on digital design programs has lead to the spread of a homogenous 'global-style' architecture — buildings made from the same material, designed by the same methods, using the same software, all over the world.
Dubbeldam Pop-Up Office Makes Work Work For Everyone
The Pop-Up Office by Dubbeldam is a durable container-based workplace consisting of different modules made out of discarded shipping palettes that can be arranged by the users’ liking to create a workplace that is ideal for everyone involved. The user can choose from different kinds of working environments, like ‘focus’ and ‘refuel’ and in this way always have an ideal place to work. And it can be put anywhere to boot!
Bottom-Up Urbanism Works! An Update From The Livable City Awards
The three winners of the Philips Livable Cities Award demonstrate that the most innovative solutions for people lacking of amenities in cities are often the simplest. These ingenious interventions show again how creative urbanism at a local scale is central to a livable city.
