horseless familiarity

Unfamiliar objects are always given familiar forms:

the first clay vases were modeled on woven baskets, whose forms up to that point were suitable for these functions. First bicycles were equipped with a horse-head, a residue of the preceding form; and first boats with diesel engines had to add smokestacks so that passengers would dear get onboard.

Far beyond being an illogical conservatism of forms, humanity becomes worried when it does not find some element of déja vu in the unfamiliar phenomenon.

[Source> Situationist Asger Jorn in Image and Form (1954) revisited by Tom Mcdonough in the situationists and the city]

[image> horsey horseless car 1899 via loqu]

Published on May 31, 2010 12:01.
Filed under: hybrids

shanzhai trompe-l’oeil

In Ancient China, Shanzhai was a term designating warlord holdouts that were outside government control. But today shanzhai refers to any knock-off product outside government regulations, something hilariously unprofessional, home-made, on the fringe of intellectual property rights. This is generating a parallel copy-paste city of virtual optic effects, where one needs to be cautious all around in case a sudden trompe-l’oeil (one of my favourite Spanish words: trampantojo) appears:

Kentucky Fried ChickenVs. KFG, female KFC, MFC, FBC, CKF;

McDonald’s vs. oMcDnoald’s; Google.com vs. Goojje.com; SONY vs. SQNY; NIKE vs. IVIKE; iPhone vs. HiPhone…

[image sources> shanzhai phenomena via chinasmack, chinadaily, chinahush and chinahush]

Published on May 29, 2010 05:24.
Filed under: propaganda

civil air defense

Migrant workers from the countryside in Chinese megacities need to take care of their own housing needs. Not having the official right to stay in the city, it is hard for them to find any kind of shelter (the urban/rural hukou drama). RufinaWu already documented the squatting of rooftops in HongKong, but she previously did an exploration on its underground version in Beijing between 2005-2006.

The so-called floating population houses herself in this case in a former civil air defense basement in the capital city, creating a perfectly organised sort of hostel, where tenants struggle to make its mouldy walls more habitable. Compact to the limit, these shared rooms along a tunnel are micro-worlds also trying to defend themselves from the consumption society going on above ground, from which they are both supporters and victims.

[images1,2,3&4> interiors of Beijing underground migrant dwellings via unhoused] [image5> map of Beijing Underground hostels via one small project]

Published on May 28, 2010 01:08.
Filed under: urban research

tour describers

Maps are different from Tours. When describing a house, the abstract concept of a map makes rarely people say that the living room lies next to the kitchen, but rather use the mobile concept of a tour: you turn right and come into the kid’s room. Time and trajectory play a decisive role in people’s mind, and it is also shown in primitive mapping of realities.

Similar to first medieval maps of Europe, where pilgrimage was the main objective in life, maps used to show distances calculated in hours or in days of achieving different stages to spend the night on a journey. As Michel de Certeau describes in his Practice of Everyday Life, itineraries are more real than static maps.

He mentions the example of the brilliant maps of Cuauhtinchan, showing the Exodus of Totomihuacan. This historic document dating 16th century migration movements of Toltec tribes in Mexico is rather a history lesson than a mere geographical description. The drawing shows the routes of the journey marking out by footprints with regular gaps between them and pictures of the scenes that occurred in every stage, meals, battles, crossings of rivers or mountains…

A Map on the contrary, eliminate any pictural figuration of the practices that produce it, being influenced by Euclidean descriptive geometry of abstract places.

[image1>map of cuauhtinchan No.2 via quecholac] [image2>map of cuauhtinchan via Washington University] [image3>fragment of the map of cuauhtinchan No.2 via mc2 map] [image4>fragment of the map of cuauhtinchan No.3 via mc2 map]

Published on May 27, 2010 01:08.
Filed under: dérive

realising landscapes

dreaming of everyday lives in impossible landscapes is the task of thomas wrede. Real Landscapes is a series of photographs, which need to be named as Real. This can make us think that these landscapes do really exist, not being a result of photoshop; but also, that landscape concept can be fulfilled by imagining a human coexistence in intricate background, otherwise impossible.

on the other hand, real landscapes may also be urban, like the ones proposed by guerrilla activists Rugwind: the guerrilla bench. If the Wreder’s images reclaim humanity into nature, Rugwind propose humans to experience their environment more naturally. Making the impossible possible, and the ordinary extraordinary, they turned a power box into a sitting corner, which may appear or disappear, according to landscape conditions…

[images1&2> real landscapes by thomas wrede] [image3> series of the guerrilla bench by via designboom]

Published on May 25, 2010 07:56.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung, ersatz

elevated strata

Elevated Trains have been a generator for dreamt utopias during the whole 20th century. With a more modern society in mind, these inventions tried to solve urban mobility at any cost. Chicago’s elevated loop used to connect main skyscrapers lobbies, so that messengers could rush from one to another by jumping on the first train.

In its 21st century version, Bangkok skytrain connects main luxury shopping mall lobbies. By recreating an artificial climate, consumption society is literally elevated to upper strata. Almost without suffering from soaring temperatures, one could jump from the platform on to the shopping mall, and continuing to next one, so the city of consumption is segregated from the city of survival.

Ground level under the skytrain in Bangkok was almost unlivable, because of pollution and heat; a territory where beggars could build up their shelters under pedestrian bridges. After recent rioting, this social conflict was made worldwide visible. The wastelands under the elevated train were turned into battlefields for barricades and protests, as well as parade avenues or sudden camping sites. A video on the bbc video shows this post-rioting warscape, seeming that everything is calming down again.

thanks viktor!

[image1> cross sectin of bangkok skytrain] [images2&3>bangkok skytrain before rioting by deconcrete2010] [image4> bangkok skytrain via ki-smile] [image5> camping underneath skytrain in bangkok, april2010 by christao] [image6>demonstation underneath skytrain via new mandala] [image7> retro-futuristic elevated train via my urban sherpa] [image8> German visions for elevated trains in 1931 via modern mechanix] [image9>chicago train utopia via clintecker]

Published on May 20, 2010 16:09.
Filed under: post-crisis

gone with the wind

In a time where wind shows off its power to collapse a whole continent mobility, others simply decide to enjoy its push instead of swearing against its ashes.

Either in form of a rabbit, a nun, a heart or a turtle, the Aeolian Ride movement basically consists of enjoying biking and wind.

Taking their ripstop nylon inflatable suits to different cities of the world, citizens are invited to take part in a massive event for the fun of experiencing the city from the power of its blows. Promoted by Jessica Findley, such participatory meetings have been taking place since 2004 in cities like New York, L.A., San Francisco, Melbourne, Tokyo, Milan or the last version in Lisbon, last October 2009.

[All images> Aeolian Ride actions in Brooklyn, Tokyo & Melbourne via aeolian-ride]

Published on May 18, 2010 18:46.
Filed under: dérive

golden feathers rock the block

golden cushions start to fly around, and golden feathers show up!

berlin 16.mai 2010. one truck parked outside is turned into a Greek amphitheatre towards the dj-stage.

Torstr.74 decides to organise a street Sunday party with other shops in the same block and a sudden rush for fun appears…

[images via lesmads]

Turning trucks into mobile discos is also possible by combining 4 lorries all together. Robin&Wientjes is the easyjet-like firm for renting trucks in Berlin. In February, a collective turned them into an itinerant bar.

[video via pop-up city]

Published on May 17, 2010 10:50.
Filed under: homo ludens, relational

what happens in vegas

“In 1968 Venturi and Scott-Brown did for Las Vegas what Giambattista Nolli did for Rome in 1748: they revealed the essence of a city by mapping it in a new way.” Rustam Mehta and Thomas Moran have made a new reading of the mega-casino in their essay Casino City State for latest issue on Monu Magazine. Analyzing diverse visitors maps of Las Vegas gambling paradises, they suggest that mega-casino’s true ambition is to be rather a city than a big hotel.

Providing blurred boundaries, omissions of clear main entrances, organic building perimeter, countless facilities & services, transport facilities, artificially controlled eco-system and weather…mega-casinos function as city-planners offering all kind of dreams that the conventional city does not provide.

what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas…


[images 1,3&4> Visitor maps of Caesars Palace, MGM & Bellagio casinos in Las Vegas via vegas casino info] [image2> Nolli map of public space Rome 1748 via the blue room] [images 6,7,8&9> interiors of Eiffel, Flamingo, Bellagio and Venetian in Las Vegas by deconcrete2007]

Published on May 15, 2010 11:01.
Filed under: ersatz

cutting selvedge

Selvedge is the term for self-finished edges of fabric, the margins. What normally is a mere cutout of clothes production, has turned now into the future development of a walled country.

North Korea has allowed the first foreign design production in history in their territory. A Swedish team of publicists in their 20s have started a mediatic bomb of producing jeans in one the most hermetic economy of the world. NOrth KOrea jeans (NOKO) has launched its 2 unique models: Kara & Oke.

Impressed by the experience of the reality in Pyongyang, the Swedes have translated the city into some details of the clothes. Pockets with the shape of the never-ending Ryugong Hotel Tower, imperfect circular bottoms, wavy threads symbolising unstable economy, black colour instead of forbidden standard American blue…In a country dominated by Zinc mining economy as only efficient resource, the only available production site for them was a mining uniforms textile industry.

After recent visits of Kim Jong II to China, it seems that North Korea could follow his neighbours’ steps in opening the country to a fierce capitalist-communist society. Swedes may show the selvedges in their clothes; but Pyongyang still hides any yearn for marginalising out of the masses.

[image1> nokojeans Swedish/northkorean team via elpais] [images 2&3> parade at the main square pyongyang via blame it on the voices] [image4>pyongyang analogies via noko jeans]

Published on May 14, 2010 12:14.
Filed under: hybrids

fiction mountains

Could a viewing platform be built around a pre-existing suburban housing settlement?

The society of spectacle led to the very pure form of a model-homes showroom, by building fiction the other way around. An abandoned baseball stadium in Osaka was turned in the late 1990s into a Real Estate fair of one-family homes. Next step was to turn this imagined world of commercial housing into a fake green mountain, housing a commercial centre.

Namba Parks was the greenyfied answer to end with the temporally dreamt utopia. An artificial mountain of overlapping bridges, footbridges and terraced consumption. In a way, analog to the underground consumption city to which some metro stations have evolved, such as Shibuya in Tokyo.

If ones grow upwards, the others expand deeper and deeper to the centre of the Earth; the former add soil into the air, the latter add air after extracting soil.

[image1>abandoned osaka stadium via mellowmonk] [image2> namba parks in osaka via halbstark] [image3> diagram of Shibuya Metro Station in Tokyo via tywkiwdbi]

Published on May 13, 2010 12:16.
Filed under: ersatz

artification

Bierpinsel is in danger!!! Built as  another UFO archifact of West Berlin 1970s, it is threatened now by gentrifying real estate artification.

After legal procedure for denigrating its heritage value, it seems that its inventors Ralf Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte have lost the futuristic battle against the investors. Private developers prefer turning it into a contemporary Berlin guerrilla wannabe.

Premise Group desperately tries to increase the value of the building to attract new leasers, assassinating any trace of art in its purpose. Let’s only hope that the other Schülers’ UFO in Berlin, the International Convention Centre, is not curated by the same real estate corporation in any near future.

[images1&2> Bierpinsel before and after artification via kunstturm.de] [image3> ICC aerial view via detail.de] [image4> ICC hydraulic mobile seats platform by deconcrete2008]

Published on May 12, 2010 12:16.
Filed under: forensic destruction

outer space everyday

*96 day-flight

*22 parallel time-series

*1,500 sunsets & 1,500 sunrises

*a schedule for space walks and baths

*planned visits of resupply ships bringing equipment, fresh fruit and gingerbread

Hand-made cyclogram in 1977 by cosmonaut Georgi Gretschko on board of the Saljut-6

[image>cyclogram from Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information via feo inútil e inestable]

Published on May 11, 2010 08:08.
Filed under: dérive

touch down arrives

With a mix of excitement and fear to the unknown, i crossed to the other side of the fence. Tempelhof airport in Berlin downtown has just opened its boundaries for the city as a public park. Without no clear function in mind for a more successful use, the officials and investors have at least and at last just let people in.

A sudden freedom of limited movement is in itself the success. Fences will not be torn down, but closed at night. Nobody knows a clear use for the vast area yet and temporary users were suggested to initiate an urban pioneering spatial appropriation. However, the opening day seemed more a commercial town funfair, which leaves no trace of life behind it, after moving on to next  town festival.

In a misleading misinterpretation of temporary use, restrictions limited imagination to the standard currywurst stand. but let’s hope that more independent initiatives appear on-site before the International Gardening Exhibition spreads daisies and bushes all over in the near future.

[all images> opening tempelhof 8th may by deconcrete 2010]

Published on May 10, 2010 08:06.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung

real estate cartoonises real estate

The Simpson’s are a replica of current post-American Dream society.

And a replica of the replica was built 1:1 in the State of Nevada to commemorate the popular series anniversary: their house. Using real architectural codes and language to reproduce cartoon fantasies, it could almost become the suburban pre-fab reference for future suburban developments; what means, real estate copying its own parody, only for USD 120,000.

[interior images via pictovista and Spaceinvading] [floorplans via simpsoncrazy]

Published on May 6, 2010 20:45.
Filed under: ersatz

conveyors

Walls precede Walls. The longest conveyor belt in the world, located in BouCraa (Western Sahara), is an elevated structure flying phosphates from the mines in the desert to the Atlantic coast. Under a heavy nationalist conflict, the whole territory has experienced countless landscape subdivisions, by means of industry as well as politics.

In the 1970s, this conveyor belt was the main objective for attacks by guerrillas against imposed Moroccan sovereignty. In order to protect it, a series of walls started to be carved out of the sand dunes in successive front lines. The 1980s sculptured the Sahara in continuously changing Berlin Walls dividing pro-independence from pro-king supporters.

Camps may convey militaristic, political and romantic feelings. But in the Western Sahara, it has been one of the most common kind of settlement in last years. Either for refugees, military or industrial workers, camps resulted in a blurred mix of autonomy, control and necessity. [Charlie Hailey: Camps, a guide to 21st-century space].

Turning a hostile territory into dwelling space, camps need to imagine built environments in the middle of aggressive milieus. The spaces of camps are both open and closed; they register the struggles, emergencies and possibilities of global existence as no other space does.

[image1> BouCraa belt conveyor via conveyorbelt] [images2&3> BouCraa camp settlement via googlemaps] [image4>BouCraa settlement in 1975 by jotapebe] [image5> Western Sahara military Walls in the 1980s via academic dictionaries] [image6> Morocco's Wall of Shame via bythefault] [image7> Western Sahara Wall 1980s via the Independent]

Published on May 6, 2010 09:27.
Filed under: ersatz

playful miracles

“Almost Amusing: Rainbow is a mobile rainbow installation whereby natural and organic items are used to reveal a hidden image of our reality for a single moment.” To create this public illusion, conceived by Kasia Krakowiak for The Knot-Berlin, water will be blown up in the air with one button – the way the whales blow it up.

If Krakowiak appropriates herself of climate for the sake of joy, Kitegen profits from joy to rethink climatic conditions. Planned for optimizing current conventional windmills (only an average of 80 m height), 1 km-long kites might serve as more efficient energy generators. It is in the higher layers of the atmosphere (around 1,000 m) where wind speed is most optimal for turbines, only reachable by means of kites.

[image1>rainbow installation via kitegen]

[image2>kite energy infrastructure via the lonely horseman]

Published on May 5, 2010 15:47.
Filed under: homo ludens

sovereign furniture

After reading in Pruned about Ikea’s labyrinth condition and its visualization of pedestrian models, the company’s eagerness to Conquering becomes clearer. Buyers’ minds are intentionally remote-controlled to certain corners of the shopping-space.

The Swedish giant already governs the field of cheap design worldwide, erasing any trace of local tastes. As Theo Deutinger states, New Year’s Day is now globally shifted to 1st August, when Ikea releases its new catalogue, the only printed medium with larger circulation than the Bible.

Consequently, the Blue-and-Yellow Empire has somehow captured every home mattress, worktop or threshold. In an older entry in this blog, it was shown the role of IKEA in unwillingly providing a public consumption-park in Shanghainese everyday entertainment. In New York is providing free public transport, by means of a rapid ferry connecting two sides of the city, either for clients or not. And in Badalona (Spain) it has appropriated of the aerial view of the city from above, with its large-scale sign painted all over the roof.

Like in the Spanish, British, Dutch, Austro-Hungarian or French Empires, its soft-colonialist strategy is constantly playing Risk, assuming rulers’ roles. Aiming higher sales, it is already improving open spaces and mobility in cities. Will Ikea also be another Sun-Emperor providing urban facilities, such as social housing with standard dimensions, fitting its own products?

[image 1>pedestrian modelling of ikea agent trails by ucl bartlett] [image 2> colonial expansion of ikea by td] [image 3> ikea new york ferry via newyork seriouseats] [image 4> aerial view of ikea badalona from googleearth]

Published on May 4, 2010 16:17.
Filed under: propaganda

grillwalker

1990s in Berlin underwent massive street souvenir sales of concrete pieces of the Wall, both original and fake. Soviet winter fur hats or DDR memorabilia have also been a must among street sellers since then.

However, strict regulations on barbecues in the city have led to the well-known mobile grillwalkers. Obliged to come up with an ambiguous understanding of street selling laws, their equipment, consisting of a 15 kg weight grill, an umbrella and a gas canister, cannot touch the floor at any moment.

The fact that most Berliners love eating outdoor despite these regulations make potential sellers come up with new witty devices.

looking forward to a mobile döner-kebab…

[more> die Zeit] [image> grillwalkers in berlin by deconcrete 2010]

Published on May 3, 2010 17:50.
Filed under: hybrids

bee city

Cities out of slabs or pre-fab dormitory towns: the Plattenbauten in former Eastern Germany. Conceived to house the masses in a collective way, Soviet-style Urbanism produced worker colonies, whose monotonous built form we are obliged to inherit today.

Honey Neustadt (Oct 2006) by Höfner & Sachs is a reinterpretation of the DDR shrinking city of Halle-Neustadt. Questioning the concept of worker community, they proposed to house 1 million bees in mock-up Plattenbauten to work in a 250 kg. honey production.

As part of Berlin’s general reuse of vacant urban lots, the Skulpturen Park has been a bottom-up initiative running since 2006. Under a rotating curatorial team, several project,s such as Honey Neustadt, have been dealing with neighbourhood and urban voids. Former private subdivisions for lots shaping the block have given place to a common space for residents.

This newly achieved communal wasteland for the city awaits speculative fulfillment by developers. But until then, private boundaries scrupulously delimited on paper are blurring in reality. Philip Horst proposed for the site in 2006 a collective lighting hanging 20 metres above the empty block: Blur. Its remote control would be passed on every 2-3 days to a local resident surrounding the Skulpturen Park, so that the power to light the area would stay at residents’ wish.

[all images> Skulpturen Park]

Published on May 2, 2010 13:36.
Filed under: co-optation/zwischennutzung, participation