(small) creative initiatives that challenge (big) traditional ideas
• ( egoistic ) • activistic • architectural • audible • cinematic • conceptual • graphic • strategic • surface • urban • wireless
Hüttenpalast is a new unconventional hotel, located in a former factory building in the residential district Neukölln in southern Berlin.
Hotel rooms are made up of caravans and wooden huts that are placed in a 200 sq meter warehouse space.
Hütten Palast ("Hut Palace") is created by event maker Silke Lorenzen and designer Sarah Vollmer. Their aim is to offer visitors a unique and personal Berlin experience.
Hüttenpalast
Hobrechtstraße 65/66
12047 Berlin
Neukölln
info(at)huettenpalast.de
Tel: +49-(0)30-37 30 58 06
The National Gallery of Denmark has teamed up with Roskilde Festival to facilitate a series of collaborative art events at the upcoming festival in June.
The biggest event, quite literally, is Museo Aero Solar - a huge solar-powered air balloon made of reused plastic bags.
The artwork is conceived by the artist Tomas Saraceno and festival goers can participate by collecting plastic bags and taping them together in small sections. The sections of various bags are eventually connected and formed into a big balloon that will float above the ground.
You can participate + win tickets to the festival by donating at least two (clean) plastic bags. Send your bags by post to the National Gallery of Denmark (or stop by in person if you are in Copenhagen) before june 13th.
The photos are from a previous event.
To win festival tickets (or simply participate for fun) send your plastic bags to:
Statens Museum for Kunst
Att: Morten Sørensen
Sølvgade 48-50
1307 København K
Denmark
• www.smk.dk/roskildefestival2011
Pop-up stores are usually associated with retail brands and physical products, but the small software start-up Podio has challenged the tradition and opened a pop-up store in San Francisco to promote its launch.
Podio is an online work environment (labeled a "Facebook for companies") and the temporary facilities in the physical world are used to host workshops and seminars.
Hotel recommendations rarely take up much space on this site, but if a hotel manages to create a unique and positive experience, exceptions are happily made - and JIA Hotel in Shanghai is one of those happy exceptions.
For a relatively pricey hotel, JIA Shanghai is pretty understated. In fact, there is a good chance that you will have trouble finding it, especially if you arrive by taxi. Small letters next to a front door of tinted glass simply says JIA. In a city where size tends to overshadow everything else, a subtle hotel entrance is a good sign of what to come.
JIA means "home" in Mandarin and that's what they want you to feel - at home. The atmosphere is casual and guests seem to be returning, which is another good sign. JIA is a design-led hotel, in the sense that design is not just cosmetically applied, but integrated in the hotel's DNA. Attention is paid to detail - from the architecture and interior design to the friendly service and the delicious complimentary cookies in the lounge. Luckily, in all its chicness JIA is not a place without humor. In the rooms you'll find classic board games, including Chinese checkers (!) and the lobby is decorated with quirky works by contemporary Chinese artists Liang Binbin and Caroline Cheng of the fantastic Pottery Workshop (more of this please).
Like most contemporary things, JIA is a mix of different impulses. The founder is a business woman from Singapore. Rooms are designed by the Melbourne based firm BURO and the lobby and restaurant are designed by Hong Kong architects André Fu and Darryl Goveas, respectively.
And a few Shanghai tips:
Casual places to eat
Noodle Bull - A large communal table creates the atmosphere in a room stripped of any decor. And the noodles are good!
Pho Rea - A cozy place with an eye-catching interior. Woven bamboo baskets are used as lamp shades.
Kin - Small street wear shop with a café/restaurant at the back.
Misc contemporary design
The Pottery Workshop - Ceramics and pottery from various young Chinese designers. Good stuff.
Spin Ceramics - A renowned ceramics brand. The shop will move to 360 Kangding Road in March 2011.
EMOI - A Chinese take on Muji (?)
Neocha - A creative agency and network of Chinese designers. It may give an idea of what the creative youth is up to.
Give a Minute is an online platform that encourages urban residents to respond to questions posed by featured city leaders.
The platform is shaped as a virtual brainstorm session and ideas are visualized using Post-it notes in different colors (apparently, there is no explanation as to what the colors represent). To enable viral interaction, ideas can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
All ideas are reviewed by community leaders from the private and public sector and the best ones receive a personal response.
Give a Minute launched in Chicago in November, followed by Memphis. It will soon come to New York and San Jose. The platform is privately supported but it is not really clear how it is administered and how cities are being selected - or if the platform is open sourced for any city to employ and develop.
Don't miss the great video-intro on Vimeo.
NB. Interestingly, the navigation of the website is based on Google Maps (but without showing any maps).
Related: Idea Map: What Citizens Want + Dear Copenhagen + I Wish This Was + City of Hamtramck Master Plan + Verbeter de buurt
• www.giveaminute.info via GOOD
The municipality of Copenhagen has a created an online platform, which allows citizens to share their visions for the city.
At the website, users can submit ideas in different categories and add them to a visual 'Idea Map',
A new urban plan for Copenhagen's inner city will be developed in the autumn of 2011, and 'Idea Map' is one of many elements put forward by the Municipality to generate input and democratize the political process.
Related: while collaborative ideation is a really good thing, it could be interesting to see the concept developed with a little more direction and urgency in line with the OpenIDEO community. See also Dear Copenhagen + I Wish This Was
• www.indrebylokaludvalg.kk.dk (in Danish)
Posted by Sebastian on Dec 23, 2010
One of the problems with prisons is that criminals tend to get more criminal inside of them. A new Danish state-prison will try to change that by creating a better environment for inmates as well as the personnel.
The closed prison is designed as a low urban structure with lots of green areas. The structure is centered around leisure and working facilities connected via streets and a central square.
The aim - and hope - is that the architecture and its emphasis on variation, nature and light will help contribute to the resocialization of the individual.
The prison is designed by C. F. Møller Architects.
Posted by Sebastian on Oct 19, 2010
Architects love to make up new catchy words - and strange looking utopia.
Econic Design (ecology + icon) is architecture that adapt to environmental change and mimic the forms of the natural world.
At TED Atlanta, Matthias Hollwich of the firm HWKN gave some examples of Econic Design and how he believes cities and buildings will be build in the future.
• TED presentation + A future scenario
If you live in Chicago you may be able to get yourself a Frank Gehry building for free. Or more precisely, a copy of Frank Gehry's Venice Beach House (pictured).
Behind the gift is an architect/artist called Nick and in exchange for the building, you need to document your experience with the structure, periodically recording how it has effected your life.
The purpose of the project is to question the benefits of contemporary 'starchitecture' and its effects on the human condition. If interested, you can contact Nick via Craigslist.
Posted by Sebastian on Mar 23, 2010
Bucky Bar is a spontaneous and temporary public building made entirely of umbrellas.
Visitors were asked to show up with an umbrella at an outdoor location on a Friday night in Rotterdam, NL. With the help of a team of architects, the umbrellas were then used to build a fully equipped bar, complete with DJ and drinks.
300 people turned up at the event, and just as it began, the beautiful building ended its life spontaneously when the Police showed up at 2:00 AM.
Bucky Bar is a project by the DUS Architects and the Studio for Unsolicited Architecture, produced to coincide with the opening of the Architecture of Consequence exhibition at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi).
Contact: Sebastian Campion