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The Art of Tech Living: Amsterdam’s Urban Campsite Lets You Sleep in Sculptures

25 Jul

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Every year, Amsterdam’s Centrumeiland of Ijburg hosts ‘Urban Campsite,’ a public exhibition of sculptural habitats allowing local residents and tourists can spend the night in mobile sculptures. Designers, artists and architects are invited to create cool structures that are way more interesting than the average tent and install them at Science Park, a new area in Amsterdam-East. This year’s theme is ‘The Art of Tech-Living,’ envisioning how art can give science and technology a little boost of imagination.

“Did you ever feel the urge to sleep in a piece of art? Well, then this is your chance! UrbanCampsite is the place where a camping and unique artistic objects meet. You can stay in beautiful, special, sometimes crazy works of art furnished as a hotel room. The UrbanCampsite offers its guests all the amenities of a normal campsite … and quite a lot more than that!”

Prospective guests book the individual habitats on AirBnB, and each sculpture is fully furnished inside. These ‘sleeping objects’ typically have room for two, though a couple will fit children as well, and they range from 85-120 Euros per night. They’re often made of reclaimed materials like trampolines, shrink wrap, pallets and metallic insulation.

For 2017, the selection of sleeping objects includes a mini monastery with an oak sapling at its center, a giant camera obscura, a Dutch electric car from the 70s once used as a mobile post office, a stargazing lab, a 360-degree rotating research ship and a “luxury bungalow made of a sewer tube,” among others.

“Waiting for Water” by Stefanie Rittler and Sascha Henken, for example, bills itself as a humorous view on climate change, saying “The sea water level is constantly rising. Should we wait or change something?” In any case, you can enjoy the views from the upper-level bedroom while the exhibition is still safe on dry land.

[ By SA Rogers in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Posted in Creativity

80,000 Tiles Tell Story of Amsterdam’s Growth in New Bike Tunnel

22 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

bike path tiles

A 361-foot tunnel connecting the historic city center of Amsterdam to its revitalized industrial waterfront district symbolically links past and present with a stunning mural made up of 80,000 tiles. Design firm Benthem Crouwell used iconic Delft blue tiles to paint a picture of a fleet of ships on treacherous seas, taking inspiration from 18th century Rotterdam tile painter Cornelis Boumeester.

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Stretching the entire length of the Cuyperspassage tunnel, which is open only to pedestrians and cyclists, the mural bears a striking resemblance to Boumeester’s depiction of the Warship Rotterdam and Herring Fleet, completed in 1725.

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This traditional view of the Netherlands starts to shift and change the further you walk or bike into the tunnel. The illustrative style starts to get pixelated about halfway through, growing more and more abstract until it’s simply an arrangement of blue-hued tiles.

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It’s a beautiful way to symbolize the growth and change the city has experienced over the past few centuries, with the potential to become as large a part of the nation’s cultural and artistic identity as the work that inspired it.