Open Your Own Little Free Library
I know you guys like new-style street and commmunity libraries (like this one, this one, this one or this one), so I'm happy to share another library project I came across. Inspired by the Little Free Library movement, Boing Boing blogger Amy Seidenwurm decided to open her own library in public space with help from friends and relatives. 'Little Free Library #2646' is located on a "sad vacant lot near our house and a nursery school", Seidenwurm explains. The Little Free Library project started out as an idea to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges around the world. Over the last years the project has grown into an international movement with more than 2,510 (!) community-driven libraries.
Hebrew Teacher Teaches Student Street Smarts With Tel Aviv Graffiti Tour
Two of the best ways to understand a place is by learning the local language and checking out the street art, but it can be challenging to take the time to master both. But if you’re in Tel Aviv, Guy Sharett can take you on a tour of graffiti in Florentine, one of Tel Aviv’s hippest and most colourful neighbourhoods, and explain the plays on words in stencils, poetic texts in window fronts, and municipal signs.
Vegitecture: A Supersized Green Wall In Barcelona
The Green Side-Wall is a 21 m structure designed by Capella Garcia Arquitectura for the city of Barcelona. It is the pioneering project of a new field, coined 'vegitecture' by the architects. This new design concept is essentially a large-scale free standing green wall that acts as a protective layer to its adjacent building.
99 Tiny Games Are Hidden In London’s Public Space
Inhabitants and visitors of London can currently find 99 tiny games in public space. The games are part of Showtime, a free outdoor arts festival that gives all Londoners the chance to enjoy "world class entertainment and culture on their doorstep". People who look closely will find the games in all kinds of places, varying from bus stops to bandstands and from parks to shopping malls. A conversation game over here, a chasing game over there, a people-watching game up on that balcony... The little games are everywhere, really. The only thing you have to do is to find the round posters on the walls and floors in streets and parks that explain the rules of the easy-to-play games.
The Ultimate City Souvenir: Canned Air
We caught wind of some truly wacky city memorabilia, courtesy of the folks at PSFK. Prague artist Kirill Rudenko has created a new way by which people can remember a beloved city — 100% authentic city air captured in a convenient can.
The Instant Rainbow Painter For Cities
Dutch artist Edwin Deen came up with a new machine to instantly create rainbow patterns on walls. Using a sprinkler installation that's normally used to water the garden, the machine is able to turn any tunnel or alley into a fresh rainbow like space. Currently part of the ‘Use it Again’ exhibition at the Ampelhaus in Oranienbaum, Deen's Rainbow Machine can also be used for indoor purposes as it transforms clean white spaces into almost perfect colorful gradient rooms.
Plaza Móvil Changes Streets Into Pop-Up Parks
Shouldn't the city become more of a place for relaxation, games, sports and social activities instead of a place for traffic, cars and pollution? Industrial designer Manual Rapoport came up with Plaza Móvil, a portable street park that temporarily takes traffic away from the streets in Buenos Aires and changes them into mobile parks. With recycled materials like car tires and supermarket carts, Rapoport makes mobile street furniture as well as play and game equipment for kids that pops up on streets at hours with low traffic. All elements of Plaza Móvil are easily transportable to other parts of the city. With his project, Rapoport aims to bring instant recreational facilities to the people that don’t live close to parks and playgrounds.
Curitiba Cable Car Transforms Into A Library Train
After serving as a humble train wagon, the cable car was installed in 1973 within the center of Curitiba, Brazil, in an attempt to provide entertainment in the heart of the city. It has had many after-lives ever since. First a children care unit to take care of children when their parents needed a break, the colorful wagon was transformed in a tourist information spot during the 1980s. As of 2010, the wagon was transformed into an open library train providing books for local residents.
TRACK In Ghent — A Review
TRACK art festival has taken over the city of Ghent in Belgium. Curators Philippe van Cauteren and Mirjam Varadinis gave the keys of 6 areas to 41 international artists to create new work and feed a reflection about urban challenges. For this museum without walls, artists used sites as material to raise questions about the contemporary city.
The Glow-In-The-Dark Skate Park
When you're so passionate about skateboarding that you don't wanna stop when it gets dark, you must like this one. Korean artist Koo Jeong-A designed the so-called Otro, a glow-in-the dark skate sculpture on Vassivière Island, France. During daytime you won't see anything special, but as soon as it gets dark the structure transforms into a beautiful, glowing skating oasis.
Stockholm Stacked: Vertical City Fantasy
Stockholm is growing fast. Really fast. Land in the centre is becoming hard to come by. However, Stockholm's traditional urban forms have created large pockets of open land throughout the city, in the form of courtyards. Swedish architecture firm Visiondivision is proposing a solution to the land crunch that's true to their penchant for bold and fanciful design. They envision magnificent skyscrapers taking the place of the humble courtyards.
Play Street Quest On The Streets Of Cape Town
The Cape Town office of ad agency Ogilvy has developed an interactive gaming campaign for Volkswagen. Street Quest is a Facebook challenge that uses 'pinning' in Google Street View to promote the car brand. Players of the game compete to search and pin as many Volkswagen cars as they can on the South African roads in Street View.
Magic Box: The Kamasutra Of Olympic Architecture
Madrid barely missed the occasion to host the 2016 Olympics. Nevertheless, Dominique Perrault's Magic Box is a remarkable piece of architecture in Madrid. The Olympic Tennis Center holds three tennis indoor/outdoor courts with covered area for 20,000 spectators (12,000, 5,000 and 3,000 respectively). The 100,000 square meter project also contains various outdoor courts, a swimming pool and other social facilities.
The Gourmet Busker: Cooking With Love
The girl strumming her guitar by the lamp post, the elderly gentleman belting out Sinatra in the subway corridor, or the energetic trio of b-boys breaking out acrobatic moves in the plaza. Buskers are a sure sign you've landed in the city, where anyone can take their talents to the streets and earn some cash. Some time ago, I was strolling through London's Real Food Market on the South Bank (where we also found this cool container restaurant) and stumbled across a most unique and intriguing busker. John Quilter, aka the Food Busker, has put his own unique spin on busking. He will cook you a meal and if you like it you can drop some money in his busking tin. If not, you can tell him "to take a hike".
The Urban Renewal Board Game
Toronto-based visual artist Flavio Trevisan's work is always strongly related to mapping and analyzing the urban fabric. One of his projects is 'The Game of Urban Renewal', a board game that introduces its players to the exciting world of urban renewal. The game can be played by any number of people and enables players to "do all the things that are done in a modern city's cut-throat planning office".
