amusement museum

[Image> from Suoi Tien Cultural Theme Park, Saigon, Vietnam]

The Buddha version of Disneyland in Vietnam is one of the 5 Asian theme parks selected by CNN in an article featuring entertainment bizarreness. Together with the erotic Love Land Theme Park in South Korea (Chonqing, China currently planning another one), Bruce Lee Theme Park in HongKong, and Hello Kitty and Namco Video games in Tokyo.

Entertainment industry may have exceedingly evolved with time; however, its landscaping and marketing seem invariable all over the world, all over the decades. I wonder whether tastes have really then changed.

Comparing the representation of Saigon’s paraphernalia with the recent world largest Skatepark in Shanghai, it seems that it could be the same place, if one forgets some Pantone palettes and a couple of Zaha Hadid graphic touches.

[Image> SuoiTien Cultural Theme Park Saigon, Vietnam vs. SMP Skatepark shanghai, China]

Zoos are also timeless. Despite a lot of efforts from ecologists to find a balance between displaying animals to public mass and caging, most reproduced environments still show fantasy worlds with similar features of surreality, in their graphical representations.

[Image> Zooplan of Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1859 from FRonline]

[Image> Zoomap of Himeji, Japan 2003 from alexquinn]

Published on February 27, 2010 05:29.
Filed under: learning from

the nesting instinct

“Darwin observed that the orang in the islands of the Far East, and the chimpanzees in Africa, build platforms on which they sleep, and as both species follow the same habit, it might be argued that this was due to instinct, but we cannot feel sure that it is not the result of both animals having similar wants, and possessing similar powers of reasoning. Untamed apes do not share man’s urge to seek shelter in a natural cave, or under an overhanging rock, but prefer an airy scaffolding of their own making.*”

15 June 1767 the Baron Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò decides to leave the ground in order to live in the trees. He refuses all luxuries from his aristocrat family, climbs up a holm oak towards an arboreal existence and will never touch the ground again. “…a person who would like to see the Earth clearly, has to keep the necessary distance…” [Italo Calvino's fantasies in Il Barone rampante - The Baron in the trees, 1957]

[Image> Eviction of North American tree dwellers, in Erasmus Francisci's Lustgarten 1668, from *Rudofsky's Architecture without architects]

Published on February 26, 2010 05:51.
Filed under: non-pedigreed

dwellings below fields

As Bernard Rudofsky proclaimed in his manual on Non-Pedigreed Architecture in 1964, a respectful look back to the “fairy-tale countries” and their “communal enterprise” should urgently happen; exotic built environments not produced by a few intellectuals or specialists, but by the spontaneous and continuing activity of a whole people with a common heritage, acting under a community of experience.

“One of the most radical solutions in the field of shelter is represented by the underground towns and villages in the Chinese loess belt. Loess is silt, transported and deposited by the wind. Because of its great softness and high porosity (45%), it can be easily carved. [...] The dark squares in the flat landscape are pits [...] about the size of a tennis court. Their vertical sides are 25 to 30 feet high. L-shaped staircases lead to the apartmments below whose rooms are about 30 feet deep and 15 feet wide, and measure about 15 feet to the top of the vaulted ceiling. They are lighted and aired by openings that give onto the courtyard.” [from LeopoldLambert's boiteaoutils on B. Rudofsky's Architecture without architects]

The floor/roof has a double function: shelter and crop field. Neither additional air-conditioning nor heating is required, due to natural thermal lag kept in the soil mass. Furthermore, grain from the fields may be dried above ground, and afterwards storaged downstairs in the cave dwelling, simply by letting it directly fall into the storage room, through a hole on the floor/roof.


[Image above> Sunken courtyards in Tungkwan, China in B. Rudofsky's Architecture without architects, 1964]

[Image below> Sunken courtyards in Henan Province, China from chinaculture]

Published on February 26, 2010 04:59.
Filed under: non-pedigreed

holy lift

“Shabbat elevator, refers to a practice in major Jewish centers like New York City, Baltimore, and Boston of programming one or more elevators in a building to stop at every floor. The system allows practicing Jews to abstain from operating electric switches on the Shabbat, a violation of Jewish Law, thus enabling them to live in modern, high-rise buildings”, according to Interboro (Armborst, D’Oca and Theodore), describing tools for Inclusion/Exclusion towards an Open City (IABR).

Providing that the condo has a mixed variety of dwellers, as in many reported cases, some neighbours will be also obliged to enjoy(?) everlasting vertical journeys on Saturdays.

This religiousness in elevators reminds me of the Pater Noster lift, invented in late 19th century London, where (Jewish and non-Jewish) users could step in or out at every floor by means of an open cabin. The Christian name comes from the resemblance of its constant looping cabins to the beads of a rosary.

[image above> shabbath elevator by labellekel]

[image below> pater noster elevator by dartfordarchive]

Published on February 25, 2010 12:54.
Filed under: hybrids

leisure nomads

“The elderly is the demographic group who realizes some of the most radical experiments in contemporary urbanism.

As one exemplary case study, the full-time senior Recreational Vehicle (RV) community in the US generates a new form of nomadic network urbanism that challenges established models of static urban settlement, inasmuch as it is mobile, informal, non-hierarchical and network-based”.

Tired of a standard working-life, many retired Americans are joining this itinerant movement, consisting of an independent way of life and thus, a quite collective spontaneous gathering of individuals for certain activities, events or even activist charity actions. Leaving most possessions aside, these nomads choose scenic landscapes to place their mobile dwellings, as well as use temporarily empty urban sites, such as church parking lots in weekdays or shopping mall ones at night.

Based on an internet network exchange, the Good Sam Club has over one million members, who meet at yearly conventions, outdoor dinners or camp-fires setting instant cities in noman’s land.

Physically connected through Interstate roads, there are also meeting nodes known as Long-Term Visitor Areas (LTVAs), administered by the US Department of the Interior, where these nomads may have access to water supply and waste collection.

[image above> Quartzsite in Arizona 2008, by Deane Simpson]

[image below> Types of RV, by RVIA via Deane Simpson]

[source> Deane Simpson+Jörg Stollmann in Instant Urbanism-S AM2, interstices auckland and holcimfoundation]

Published on February 25, 2010 08:39.
Filed under: nomads

acronymed neighbourhoods

Once upon a time, Buda and Pest decided to melt together over the Danube river and MexiCali and CaleXico were founded at both sides of the Californian-Mexican border.

With a current eager for neighbourhood identity, citizens start to shape their mega-cities of residence by renaming some areas in a more familiar sense. NewYorkers invented Soho*, Noho*, Sobro*, Tribeca*, Nolita*, Dumbo*,… and Berliners have already danced many nights at Berghain* and are now rediscovering Kreuzkölln*. As a result of gentrification, these areas acquire a new character and also provide some dose of Locality to cure the increasing sense of loss in a global world ASAP.

From another perspective, cities themselves blur former neighbourhood borders as they grow.

“Although Saskia Sassen observed that extended metropolitan regions are usually nameless entities, the rapid expansion of Jakarta beyond municipal and even provincial jurisdictional boundaries since the 1980s has seen the city acquire a new name locally: JaBoTaBek, which is an acronym derived from the pre-existing municipalities of Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, and Bekasi. This local renaming was then adjusted to Jabodetabek, in order to include the area of Depok. And, more recently still, as Jakarta’s urban and quasi-urban development absorb the hill towns of Puncak and Cinanjur to the Southeast, it has adjusted its name to JaBoDeTaBekPunJur.” [S. Cairns & D. Suryawinata in Reciprocity - IABR 2010]

[Image> Mexicali-Calexico border by ContralasFronteras via muyinteresante]

*So.Ho.> South of Houston Street *No.Ho.> North of Houston Street *So.Bro.> South Bronx *Tri.Be.Ca.> Triangle Below Canal Street *No.Li.Ta.> North of Little Italy *D.U.M.B.O.> Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass *BergHain> Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain *KreuzKölln> Kreuzberg-Neukölln

Published on February 24, 2010 06:47.
Filed under: propaganda

the world is (a) flat

Thomas L. Friedman declares that The World is Flat.

In a current society, where mobility and transnational economies define a Space of Flows, we are almost “required to run faster in order to stay in place”.

This anxiety for knowledge about new things led an investor in Shenzhen, China, to develop the Mecca of the express tourism: Window of the World theme park, where replicas of 118 scenic spots all over the world are gathered together in the same site. Ranging from different scales 1:1, 1:5, 1:15… it is easy to loose even more the sense of reality when walking from the Taj Mahal to the Kremlin. Promenade of a constant Illusion.

The World dreams then, to be like a compact flat, where citizens can look through its windows to visit remote realities; travelling freely may also be replaced by fake substitutes.

Bringing the mountain to Mohammad…

[All images by deconcrete-shenzhen 2009]

Published on February 23, 2010 08:42.
Filed under: ersatz

optimal roof-use

[Image> Row Houses at the rooftop of a 10-story shopping mall in Jakarta, from hellomister]

Hard to distinguish at google-maps satellite view, roofs reinvent themselves towards mixed-use buildings. A symbiosis, which camouflage communities, such as the one in the picture above. Aiming the most efficient land use, real estate developers come up with new follies à la Cedric Price, by overlaying diverse functions one above the other.

“In cities like Istanbul, Jakarta or SaoPaulo, [...] because of the absence of public infrastructure, communities develop their own self-contained cities, the rich in the form of luxurious enclaves, the poor by occupying land and building gececondos, kampongs or favelas.” [Kees Christiaanse for Open City-IABR 2010]

The formal version of the informal rooftop squat communities documented in HongKong by Rufina Wu (described in an earlier post).

Published on February 22, 2010 05:55.
Filed under: learning from

a room with a view

how much does a balcony in Madrid cost?

8 neighbourhoods in downtown were researched in 2008.

maravillas*lavapiés*chamberí*goya*recoletos*jerónimos*ibiza*argüelles

from the intricate medieval urban fabric to the rational modern Extension, there is a wide range of housing typologies depending on its courtyards. from some deepest apartments (3 metres of façade x 20 metres depth) to the brightest (50 metres of façade x 6 metres depth).

Apart from showing the trilateral relationship euros/m2/balconies, conclusions led to question the relevance of the Address as well.

In the wealthiest areas [with wide promenades], price did not exceedingly depend in the amount of balconies, but the ZIP code counted; makes one dream of windowless bunker-buildings along every block… Meanwhile, in the most economic areas [with tight streets], balcony was The Luxury. Could buildings turn into an explosion of micro-openings, so that apartments would be filled with virtual balconies along inner corridors?

windowful!

Published on February 21, 2010 13:13.
Filed under: urban research

flash decade

Rush hour at any Central Station of a megalopolis. The watch on the wall strikes 6 pm and a sudden general synchronised applause breaks out, among astonished businessmen returning home.

A world-wide repeated happening which appears to be born in the early 2000s, as a result of Flash Mob initiatives (Bill Wasik). In 2002, Howard Rheingold fixed the appearance of Smart Mobs: the next social revolution, when communication and computing technologies amplify human talents for cooperation; basically, it dealt with new social networking movements aiming actions in public spaces. In its Flash variant, encounters are more about apolitical instant meetings (several minutes long) followed by quick dispersion of participants once the goal is achieved. Megacities in this first decade of 21st century have experienced such happenings in different ways:

*Time freezes> typically during rush hour in central transport stations. everyone freezes his movements for some minutes, to keep on normally walking afterwards. Reminding not to live in a constant hurry.

*Group invasion> originally conceived to buy a Love Rug for an invented commune in a rug store in NewYork, all together. Participants would discuss at the department store which one would fit best in their warehouse-dwelling. Another variant is to pretend to be a tourist group of shopaholics rushing to buy into any exclusive fashion store.

*Naked Bike Ride> worldwide initative to slow down urban traffic by collapsing main streets in city centres. Aiming reduction of pollution and more friendly policies for bikers.

*Peaceful fights> As reported in a post from January (Tactic Winter Day), fighting for fun by throwing either rotten vegetables or snowballs. Another variant is with feather pillows, which was named as Artistic Terrorism according to its Spanish branch activists.

*Subway Party> One of the most famous has been the Circle Line Party Movement in London by Spacehijackers, massively operating since 2003, turning the wagons into funparks by adding playing devices.

*Dancing> Reclaim the Sparkasse organizes instant parties at a determined enclosed ATM during Berlin’s extreme winter, as well as the partner-event Reclaim the Waschsalon does with Laundromat establishments. Organizers carry portable loudspeakers and dj equipment with them.

*Cinema> Hit-&-Run-Kino is a series of spontaneous meetings to briefly squat abandoned buildings in Berlin and watch a movie. Every time in a different location and food, drinks and candles are provided by the organisers.

*Group shopping> the most practical version of Flash Mob initiatives comes from China. The aim is to gather many people wanting to buy any refridgerator (or whatever appliance), so that the group bargaining might result cheaper.

After such an enriched Flash Decade, the only threat for me is that these initiatives do not turn into commercial advertising strategies for brandmarks…

[picture> madrid pillow fight from flowmi]

Published on February 20, 2010 13:35.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung

dead spaces

Basketball fields, playgrounds, card games, karaoke, mini-market, laundry salon…

An endless list of informal activities, which happen among the graves of Manila’s North Cemetery; one of the best known examples of popular squats, world-wide known since last decade. A place where homeless citizens had invented themselves the job of guard-tombs in exchange of a dwelling. After even three generations of peaceful symbiosis with the deads’ visiting relatives, it seems that it is coming to an end. The local Government, among its goals for the regeneration of the South Cemetery in 2008 declared: “demolition of shanties illegally constructed, eviction of informal settlers, restoration of peace and order [...]. All is for the people of Manila.”

Meanwhile, England is running out of burial space along its scenic landscape cemeteries. Mendip Council is leading a pioneer re-use of empty graves, so that current landscape may be preserved. Their sustainable strategy allows the use of recyclable materials for coffins (cardboard, wicker, bamboo), formerly forbidden, and reduces the property period of the plot from 100 to 50 years.

This trend towards green-burials, is generating a new market niche for the Tokyo-based company Bull Life Co among others. Due to the increasing shortage of cemetery space in Japan, they are optimizing existing cemeteries, as well as turning redundant bankrupt-gone golf courses into new graveyards.

[pictures> izismile mendip]

[sources> npr bahag vice pruned japantoday manilagov]

Published on February 20, 2010 06:48.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung

reclaim the lane

Lilong housing characterizes the city of Shanghai, dating from 1840s to 1949. An exotic mixture resulted from intellectual Chinese planners having studied abroad and Western architects fascinated with oriental dwellings. Lilong settlements still comprise the majority of housing stock in the old city centre today, consisting of 3-storey row housing along vivid narrow lanes. After the Cultural Revolution, Lilongs had to reinvent themselves; each single unit was turned into multi-family housing, due to lack of other residences; consequently, the new subdivided units obliged their dwellers to occupy the lanes, as an implementation to the minuscule indoor space. This informal use of the lanes has survived until today, with many advantageous features: hierarchical spatial organization networks, separation of public and private zones, high degree of safety control, strong sense of neighborly interaction and social cohesiveness. These factors make the Lilong settlements a pleasant place to live and hence local populace loves them. [from Qian Guan]

Before gentrification ends up with this intense unplanned way of experiencing public space, RECLAIM THE LANE! aims to translate the high degree of already achieved D.I.Y. sustainability into contemporary necessities. It is in only in extreme situations of lack of facilities that normal inhabitants use their wit to create low-cost or even no-cost solutions.

After several months of urban expeditions through these paradises of informality, unnoticed from the main streets, 8 basic patterns of squatting strategies were detected, dealing with: greenery, health, laundry, storage, entertainment, eatery, information and fragmentation of facilities. Aiming a future where dwellers do choose their living environment, how can these experiences reduce costs of housing and implement social relationships among dwellers?

RECLAIM THE LANE! wants to show another way of interactive no-cost housing…

Published on February 19, 2010 16:50.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung, urban research

grape opera

One hour away from Beijing, China, a real Loire Valley seems to be born. Château Changyu and its old oak barrels imported from France are one of the latest leisure/snobbery attractions “among a Top-notch, comprehensive and fashionable tourism, with an aristocratic leisurely style serving leaders, statesmen, business tycoons, foreign friends and medium and high-end fashionable white collars that positively enjoy life.”

After a huge investment in researching the optimal conditions for wine producing and the ambiance that surrounds it, this complex offers the true experience of the amusement park of the 21st century in the 6th wine-producer country of the world, where all existing kinds of grapes are already being introduced.

Included in the teleported journey to an ancient vineyard, visitors can borrow a basket and a pair of scissors and pick themselves some grapes home.

[source> Is China the new Chile when it comes to wine?] [elegance and wine in rural beijing]

Published on February 18, 2010 04:25.
Filed under: ersatz

citizens vs. citizens

“Chen Jiayi, a 72-year-old retired worker, is Mr. Fixit & Mr. Manners for one Yangpu District community in Shanghai. He keeps the environment clean, fixes broken street lamps, replaces manhole covers, helps direct traffic and reminds residents not to toss their garbage just anywhere. He is also on the lookout for bad public behaviour and bad manners, such as spitting and littering. For the past 8 years, chen has led two volunteer teams, mostly retired workers who care about the environment. They show up in parks, open areas and lanes, checking infrastructure and reporting sewer system problems to city work crews. They even repair street lights, or report light problems. They consider the park a second home and know each tree and what it needs.”

However, which are the implications of controlling dwellers by dwellers themselves?

For the sake of an Image of the city, informal social activism may also lead to destroy spontaneous behaviours. This group of volunteers, aims to improve their park  in a more efficient way that the authorities could never achieve themselves, but also limit somehow urban interaction from others. After noticing that citizens where used to pound nails into trees to hang up their clothes while they practised sport, and transform trees into closets, the volunteering team decided to remove them, so that people would not be accidentally hurt.

Image> volunteers ending with the natural bike parking chaos.

[source>shanghai daily 13/02/2010]

Published on February 18, 2010 03:39.
Filed under: participation

dining disorders

increasing disorder in a dining table by diller scofidio [source: 375gr] Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till in relation to the strawbale house and quilted office project [correction by: swarch]

Published on February 17, 2010 11:15.
Filed under: mutant

break the ice

ice suburb in helsinki by Kevin Chu describes a nomad community over the ice thick layer covering Finnland Gulf. The variable condition of the winter ice leads to an unpredictable architecture in an endless transformation. Ice is therefore understood as a quick and efficient material to combine different mobile autonomous components. During the warm season, since the ice layer is fragile and unstable, the community settles in a compact way; in colder periods, when ice is more stable, the settlement tends to a disperse fragmentation. During the intermediate estates, the whole ensemble reacts and evolves towards the new physical environment.

[source: 375gr]

Published on February 17, 2010 10:22.
Filed under: mutant

trashing the neoliberal city

“The projects in this publication raise fundamental questions about our right to the city and the possible uses of culture in the struggle for community self-determination: How do we want to interact with our neighbors? What kinds of reforms do we want from the state and what kinds of collective infrastructures should we be building ourselves instead? What kinds of spaces encourage resistance, free movement and the well being of the whole population?”

essays on Right to the city, Protest experiments & Social reorganization.

[autonomous political practices in Chicago from 2000-2005, edited by Daniel Tucker & Emily Forman]

info from learningsite & areachicago

Published on February 16, 2010 13:48.
Filed under: participation

rooftop squatting

“There is no elevator. We walk up the eight flights of stairs, hesitating on the last one, looking at each other, out of breath: we have no right to be here.

The roof is a maze of corridors, narrow passageways between huts built of sheet metal, wood, brick and plastics [...] We look down at the building from a higher one across the street. The roof is huge, like a village. There must be thirty or forty households on it. From the outside there is no way of knowing what is inside. [...]

Self-built settlements on the roofs of high-rise buildings have been an integral part of Hong Kong’s history for over half a century. Rooftop structures range from basic shelters for the disadvantaged to intricate multi-storey constructions equipped with the amenities of modern life. Rufina Wu (Canada) and Stefan Canham (Germany) utilize the tools of an architect and the tools of a photographer to document rooftop communities on five buildings located in older districts in the Kowloon Peninsula, slated for redevelopment by the Urban Renewal Authority of Hong Kong. Text records of the residents’ stories, measured drawings of each distinct rooftop structure, and high-resolution images of the domestic interiors of more than twenty households offer an unprecedented insight into the everyday life on Hong Kong’s rooftops.”

[Portraits from above>Hong Kong's  informal rooftop communities by Rufina Wu & Stefan Canham]

informal cities

Published on February 16, 2010 13:14.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung

barefoot in the park

[night dancing in Shanghai's Xujiahui Park]

Far beyond closing parks at night in a safety paranoia, some Asian cities are used to have their citizens gather around late in the evening or early in the morning for dancing. Either for the sake of gymnastics, for social meeting, or flirting, the result is a surprisingly interactive use of open spaces.

The most two common versions are dancing with a partner, who might change with the next song, or the choreography group following a fit Madonna/MichaelJackson-like leader’s movements. Sometimes the music is brought by any of the dancers himself, other times by any informal organizer.

Reported cases so far>  Shanghai’s  XuJiaHui Park, Hanoi’s Lenin Park, HoChiMinh City’s Gia Dinh Park, Phnom Penh’s Hun Sen Park, and Kuala Lumpur’s Subang Jaya.

[couple-dancing at Lenin Park, Hanoi, Vietnam] Picture by AllTheDumbThings

[group-dancing at Subang Jaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia]

Published on February 14, 2010 06:54.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung, participation

learning from tacky tourism

More than 30 years after Venturi and Scott Brown admired Las Vegas as a self-made city based on gambling, Southeast Asia seems to be winning positions nowadays as a world-wide Mecca for cheap tourism.

After suffering countless massacres, wars, battles, colonizations and protectorates of every kind, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are decided to reinvent themselves to attract tourism at any cost for their urban redevelopment. The vast offer of extravagant activities appeal youngsters from all over the world, under the promise of living exotic experiences. As a result, lost towns are increasingly becoming reference points in the map of cheap entertainment for the masses, which is making informal local economies grow, as well as towns themselves.

*Sex in Bangkok, Thailand> multi-billion dollar sex industry running massage parlors, where everything can happen inside: money-boys, lady-boys, go-gos,… “Unlike brothels or strip clubs, Ping Pong Shows do not lure clients through promises of sexual arousal, but promises of sexual perversion — if not sexual torture.  They offer freak shows where women’s bodies are reduced to grotesque objects exploited for tourists’ entertainment.”

more> untold stories pullitzer center bbc news

*Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos> “I survived” is the printed motto on the popular tank-tops, one can show off after his experience. It consists of hiring a floating doughnut on the local river and just let oneself flow downstream stopping at any of the dozens of the bamboo cocktail bars, which have lately flourished along both banks. (several people have already died whilst tubing in last years)

*Tailors in Hoi An, Vietnam> a world-heritage fishermen village turned into a huge instant tailors market. Each and every store along its ancient streets houses a tailor-made business, either for coats, dresses, suits or sneakers, promising a finished result in even 12 hours, just in time before the tourist departs from this stressful location again. Imitation and Original, who is first? Nike shoes already launched the Do-It-Yourself official design in their website.

*Home-stays in Minorities villages> when the first travelers reached these mountainous landscapes of Northern Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, the hundreds of different ethnic minorities were a rarely precious piece of originally preserved culture. Nowadays tourists want also to be travelers and home-stays are offered everywhere at a high price. Intimacy can be bought and sold, and no one seems to care, whenever money is handed in.

[Dzao Minorities, Northern Vietnam]

[Miao Minorities, South Yunnan]

*Cooking courses> after having perverted local restaurants into a variety of international dishes advertised everywhere in these Tourism Meccas, they also reinvent back now their own locality. Learning how to cook local food is sometimes the only way left to scape to fried eggs with bacon…

*The Backpackers alley> is the latest trend in ghettos. Almost every destination in Southeast Asia has developed a street with cheap guesthouses (double price as anywhere else in the city) one after the other, surrounded by all-you-can-eat canteens, and fake opium street dealers at night.

I wonder how relevant is the role of Lonely-Planetarism in all these perversions of local spots; as long as travel-guide Bibles keep on recommending activities, travelers’ spontaneous decisions become very limited.

On the other side, however,  local informal economies are boosting in a short-term perspective; their future sustainability is what still remains uncertain for urban life.

Published on February 12, 2010 05:04.
Filed under: urban research

half the bag

Optimizing a plastic bag. Cambodians like and need drinking everywhere; glasses-to-go either on foot or by motorbike with a device, which saves the half of the standard bag. Any extra properties for cooling?

plastic half bag found in Phnom Penh

Published on February 7, 2010 14:07.
Filed under: hybrids

my tailor is rich

Far beyond street sellers all over developing countries, Vietnamese (as well as Chinese and other Asian citizens do) come up with new locations for their daily businesses. Survival and invention lead to freely occupy open public spaces in different forms of temporary activities.

*Hairdresser kit>  a removable chair and a mirror (which may hang from a wall or a tree). when there is no client, the coiffeur waits sitting on the same chair, or even has an additional plastic stool.

*Tailor kit> a sun protector and a sewing-machine with tiny wheels. when it gets dark, electricity for a bulb may be taken by connecting to a street lamp.

Published on February 7, 2010 13:56.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung

propaganda for identity

political propaganda samples of Vietnamese streets.

with a naif and charming style graphics, the Government keeps on trying to transmit ideas for a collective identity. would it mean a progressive loss of a socialist concept of a nation nowadays, that needs to be expressed anyhow to the people? hard times for it, above all, when US$ notes are too common on everyday pockets…

Published on February 7, 2010 13:32.
Filed under: propaganda

jumping happens

1970s was a time of expanding consciousness and arranging urban space. Prototypes for new ideas for living were created, influenced by new building materials, and proposals for redesigning people’s living space.

Haus-Rucker-Co proposed Giant Billiard, an inflatable interactive device for people to provoke entertainment, and invite them to jump and play together, and be actors of a scene. However, the sterile, the minimal surroundings of the gallery threatened to drain the vitality from the work, transforming the projects into sculptures, static objects not to be touched. When confronted with the museum space, the artists chose to add an additional set of contextual objects comprised of furniture from their own apartments. They transported bed rooms and living rooms (televisions included) to the museum and moved into the commandeered gallery space for the duration of the show.

Above, Giant billiard relaunched in 2007 within a sterile background without additional dirtiness.

Moebel Olfe launched in February 2009 at the Modulor Haus in Berlin a memorable happening, open to spontaneous decisions, with another giant  inflatable device as main character and diverse surprises, turning a vast office derelict space into a vivid playground for grown-ups. Party-tecture as part of an enjoy-and-reuse interaction with an empty space.

furtherfield blog inflatable enclosures Steven Lauritano at Pidgin

Published on February 7, 2010 01:04.
Filed under: homo ludens

pharaonic paella

After dramatic flooding, one river’s course crossing a city was to be altered.

In 1986 the city of Valencia, Spain, succeeds in turning the empty bed of the river Turia into a beautifully empty garden, instead of a highway. However, it experienced again one collapse, when the centre-left Mayor decided that terrific tyrannosauric buildings should invade it. Not enough with this megalomaniac plan, now is turn for the centre-right to destroy a protected village, which interferes the official plans between the city and the beach.

El Cabanyal, whose origins date back to the 12th century, is a clear example of the New Towns of the Spanish Enlightenment of the 18th century. Built under hygienic principles of orientation and ventilation, this fishermen village was placed next to the harbour in the outskirts of the main city.

Rediscovered at the turn of the 19th century by the bourgeoisie, it resulted in a beautiful mix of enlightened blocks with fine art deco summer-houses among fishermen playing domino in the street. The perfect site for the birth of the most traditional eating spots for paella in Valencia.

Today, and against the central Government desire of protecting El Cabanyal, 1651 dwellings threaten demolition by the jaws of the real estate developers. current dwellers and supporters keep on fighting…

source graphic: el pais source pictures: salvem el cabanyal

more

Published on February 1, 2010 13:40.
Filed under: forensic destruction