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Urban Transformer: Bus Unfolds into Mobile Fresh Food Market

07 Dec

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

mobile food market bus

Bringing healthy and organic fruits and vegetables into low-income areas of Toronto lacking grocery stores, this converted bus is much more than a normal food truck – it looks like an ordinary vehicle until it stops and deploys its colorfully-stocked shelves (images by Laura Berman).

converted food truck side

As in many cities, there are ‘food deserts’ in Toronto in which it is hard to find fresh seasonal produce. Using a vehicle donated by the Toronto Transit Commission, LGA Architectural Planners helped convert this vehicle to address this issue.

Mobile Good Food Market bus launch

“Even in a city as dynamic as Toronto, there remain neighbourhoods where residents are unable to access the foods essential to a healthy diet. This happens for a variety of reasons, including low-income, lack of access to public transit, and long distances to groceries and markets. Such conditions make it extremely difficult for individuals and families without access to a vehicle to find and purchase healthy foods. Senior citizens who might be less mobile are hit especially hard by this type of isolation.”

mobile food desert vehicle

Lettuce, berries, okra, yucca, broccoli, apples and more fill the fold-out shelves extending out from the side of the Mobile Good Food Market. Inside, bins of additional veggies and fruits can be accessed by walking or wheelchair, a handy feature for cold and wet weather.

mobile food interior exterior

The project was commissioned by FoodShare Toronto in partnership with the City of Toronto and United Way Toronto in a joint effort to help supplement unhealthy local options in neighborhoods starved for good and fresh foods.

Mobile Good Food Market bus launch

“The design also offered the opportunity to shop from the inside in inclement weather,” notes Dean Goodman of LGA, pointing out that as a former Wheel-Trans bus, ramps for ease of entry and exit were already in place. “Good food is beautiful when displayed well, so when we decided we wanted this to be a feature we worked out the mechanism so one person could fold out the shelves, restock as necessary and display the food so it was attractive.””

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Vehicular Hives: Envisioning Urban Commutes in Compound Cars

24 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

modular office on wheels

Imagine a future where driverless vehicles transcend their expected role in transit, becoming modular hubs that can link up for meetings or socializing beyond just getting you from Point A to Point B.

platooning-car-idea-example

modular office warehouse cars

modular vehicle gathering event

There is a great deal of talk about how car-sharing will save space (we only use 4% of roadway surfaces even during peak transit times), reduce waste (less pollution and fewer idle vehicles) and cost (by up to $ 100 billion a year in fuel) and reshape the urban experience, but what if platooning cars could also help reconnect us with other people?

modular office interior design

modular office interior board

That is part of the premise behind IDEO’s Automobility project, which extrapolates current trends and modes of transportation to predict how we might use vehicles in the not-so-distant future. We may use empty vehicles during the day, for instance, to drop off packages, or to pick up things from stores-on-wheels.

modular office display walls

modular park vehicle place

Beyond that, though, we might come together in new and different ways, too, at portable parklets, coworking space and open-space offices that migrate, congregate and dissolve on demand.

modular car shipping idea

modular car delivery cargo

“It opens up ideas about what the communal experience is in a vehicle, versus a single person in a car,” says Danny Stillion. “We’re definitely thinking about vehicles as a much more social space, where you could have face to face conversation and socialize in a much richer way while you’re in transit.”

modular car system design

modular parked empty vehicle

Imagine, too, destination events – a sort of next-generation tailgating – in which the spaces of the vehicles used to take you to and from a place become temporary spaces inhabited or otherwise utilized by those same attendees, rather than dead loads to be dropped off.

modular car cell call

car modular design idea

With legislation in place to keep wheels in cars for the foreseeable future, there may be intermediate steps. Still, none of these ideas are a particularly radical departure from the present, just a natural extension of how we already socialize, carpool and use public transit. “How different will tomorrow be from today? Both a lot and very little. More of us will live to be 100. Our resources will diminish while our technological capacity grows. Stuff will get faster and cheaper. But our basic needs? We’re betting those stay the same—that humans will still need to sleep, to eat, to work, and to move from place to place. That last part is what we’re interested in here. What happens to mobility in the next 15 years? Let’s go for a ride and find out.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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Scalpel Cities: Urban Landscapes Made of Surgical Tools

13 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

scalpel landscapes 1

Bird’s-eye views of cities around the world, from Paris to Hong Kong, are visualized in the form of surgical tools like scalpels and skin graft blades against glossy black surfaces by famed British artist Damien Hirst. The ‘Black Scalpel Cityscapes’ series continues the artist’s method of using sharp metal objects to create complex compositions in stark monochrome.

scalpel landscapes 3 scalpel landscapes 4

The depiction of these cities (many of which are sites of recent conflict) from an aerial viewpoint references the ‘all-seeing eye’ of constant surveillance in the modern era. Look closely and among the blades and surgical tools you’ll also see small items that relate to each individual city, like cheap silver keychains of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and even silvery condom wrappers.

scalpel cityscapes 8 scalpel cityscapes 9

In a video interview with White Cube, Hirst explains that he began working with scalpel blades “because they’ve got kind of a nice and nasty feel to them.” Flying over Milton Keynes, a town in England, he noted how modern and unnatural the landscape looked, sparking the idea for the series. In addition to cities like Baghdad, which have a symbolic connection to the medium used, Hirst depicted cities that are personally meaningful to him.

scalpel cityscapes 10 scalpel landscapes 6 scalpel landscapes 7

“I’ve done one of the Vatican where I’ve used lots of religious symbols. So I think you try to make them into a portrait, but always from a distance they’re going to look totally like a photograph.”

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Urban Dog Tags: Wear City Grids Around Your Neck & The World

07 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

urban dog tag design

Like giant-sized fingerprints, urban grid patterns are unique to each city – this project turns that individuating property into an wearable asset, allowing you to hang you hometown or favorite metropolis around your neck as a point of pride.

city dog tag laser metalk

nyc etched metal necklace

Currently in crowdfunding on Kickstarter, the Urban Gridded Dogtag set is a “collection of unisex accessory so that architects, cartographers, urban planners, urban explorers, nomads, travelers, jet setters” and others can enjoy. New York City, San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo – can you tell which is where? Many more are also shown below.

urban dog tag wearing

urban dog tag concrete

urban dog tag options

The tags come in laser-cut black, gold-plated or stainless steel, with circular variants also available for those who want something without the implicit military reference. Many major cities have already been ‘unlocked’ and further ones will become available depending on how well-funded the campaign becomes before it closes (just one week left!).

urban gridded dog tag

From the creators: “Each piece is carefully designed to capture the cities underlining iconic street network as a lace-like pendant. The information is sourced from gps data by openstreetmap to ensure accurate portraits of the city. With chemical etching technology, the pendants are produced on thick .020″ Stainless Steel with a high level of detail, consistency, and quality. We strive for the component of the dogtags to be locally sourced, made in the USA. Including packaging and mailing supply.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

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Most Massive Murals: 14 Large-Scale Works of Urban Art

04 Nov

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

Large Murals Asia's Tallest 1

Human faces loom over the city on the sides of skyscrapers, colorful characters cover industrial silos and Boeing airplanes and entire neighborhoods serve as canvases for optical illusions in some of the world’s largest-scale murals. Taking up hundreds of thousands of square feet in some instances, these massive works of urban art required an astonishing amount of paint to produce.

World’s Largest Mural in Berlin

Large Murals Berlin Apartment 2

Believed to be the world’s largest mural, this project in Berlin measures as astonishing 236,800 square feet and consists of imagery inspired by the nature in a nearby zoo. Completed by the French mural company CiteCreation, the work spans three buildings of an apartment complex and appears to significantly best the current Guinness World Record holder, the 178,200-square-foot Pueblo Levee Mural Project in Colorado.

Tribute to Architect Oscar Niemeyer by Eduardo Kobra

murals kobra niemeyer 2

Nearly the entire height of a skyscraper in Sao Paulo, Brazil pays colorful tribute to architect Oscar Niemeyer in honor of what would have been his 105th birthday. Muralist Eduardo Kobra completed the 170-foot-tall work of art in early 2014 with the help of four other artists.

Boeing 737 Mural by Os Gemeos

Large murals Boeing 737 2

It took 1,200 cans of spray paint to complete this incredible mural on the outside of an entire Boeing 737. Brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandalfo, known as Os Gemeos, painted their signature yellow characters on the plane that carried the Brazilian national football team during the World Cup, completing the project in just a week.

Shepard Fairey’s 14-Story Paris Mural

Large Murals Fairey 2

Known best for his iconic political portraits, artist Shepard Fairey also works in larger scales, with this 14-story mural in Paris being a notable example. Working in conjunction with Mairie du 13e, Butterfly and Mehdi from Galerie Itinerrance, Fairey completed the mural for a community art project called Street Art 13.

Asia’s Tallest Mural by Hendrik Beikirch

Large Murals Asia's Tallest 2

A 230-foot-high building standing in the foreground of Daniel Libeskind’s glimmering Hauendaue i’Park building in Busan, South Korea, this mural by German artist Hendrik Beikirch depicting a fisherman stands as a reminder of the nation’s working class.

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Most Massive Murals 14 Large Scale Works Of Urban Art

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

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Transparent Home: Glass Dwelling Puts Urban Life on Display

29 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

see through house japan

A beautiful and boldly open design, this see-through structure uses glass to reveal (and staggered layers to conceal) different parts of the everyday lives of its occupants.

see through transparent house

see through ome facade

Designed by architect Yuusuke Karasawa for a medium-density city lot in Tokyo, the snakelike S House relies on upper layers, underground areas and limited walls to create privacy where required or desired.

see through floor plates

see through ome interior

The split-level approach replaces corridors with staircases and serves to section off parts of the interior without creating excessive walls, all reinforcing the overall openness of the design (reminiscent of Modernist masters including Mies van der Rohe, Philip Glass and Le Corbusier).

see through house design

see through kitchen area

see through exterior view

Primarily white, limited wood accents are added and the neighborhood becomes a kind of passive decor, its textures visible from almost any area of the interior.

see through japanese urbanism

see through night view

see invisible house detail

Partly, the design plays on a cultural element of respect for personal space found in Japan – prying eyes are not something to be worried about.

underground bedroom japan house

see through master bath

see through rooftop deck

Nonetheless, the master bedroom and bathroom are located on the level below ground, and a rooftop deck also affords a higher degree of seclusion when needed.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Eye on the City: Visitors Dangle from Urban Art Installation

28 Oct

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Eye Installation 1

Take a seat, fasten your seatbelt and allow an usher to wheel you into a giant eyeball dangling outside of a building so you can take in all of the sights without anyone else present. The exhibit, entitled EYE, asks you to look first at the city, and then at yourself. Installed in five different buildings throughout the city of Den Bosch in Holland, the project by Belgian artists Pascal Leboucq and Lucas De Man features enlarged reproductions of the real pupils of local residents.

Eye Installation 2

Eye Installation 3

EYE is currently installed in a theater, a modern hospital, an old factory that’s about to be redeveloped, a monument and a corporate business. Billed as “an extraordinary audio-visual theatrical experience,” each eye seats one visitor at a time. After taking a seat and entering the eye, they’re invited to relax and take a look. Then, the guide asks them, “What do you see?”

Eye Installation 4

Eye Installation 5

“A city with eyes is a city that looks and shows itself,” says De Man. “No closed doors or shut windows, but open. We gave the city eyes so you can hang in the air above the world and look. Just look.”

Eye Installation 6

The installation will remain in place until November 1st, with tickets available online, and will tour the world in 2015.

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Subtle Street Art: 27 Easy-to-Overlook Urban Enhancements

26 Oct

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

subtle street art little people 1

Just knowing that these tiny urban art installations exist – ranging from tiny figures dangling from ATM machines to utility boxes painted to look like miniature skyscrapers – might just inspire you to look at the city around you in a new, more observant way. That’s the hope of the artists behind these 27 subtle works of street art, which are often so small and simple that they’re typically overlooked.

Beautiful Trompe L’oeil Windows in Istanbul

subtle street art pejac windows 2

subtle street art pejac windows 3

subtle street art pejac windows 4

A tiny intriguing window framed by oversized shutters draws you in for a closer look, until you realize that what you’re seeing isn’t in three dimensions at all – it’s an expertly painted illusion on a wall. Spanish artist Pejac brightened up blank surfaces throughout Instanbul with a series entitled ‘Lock, Poster and Shutters,‘ representing the “perception and illusion of freedom.”

The Little People Project

subtle street art little people 2

subtle street art little people 3

subtle street art little people 4

subtle street art little people 5

subtle street art little people 6

Only the most observant passersby take notice of the miniature figures living out their lives in the big city, meticulously created and arranged by a street artist calling himself ‘Slinkachu.’ The Little People Project is an ongoing series of incredibly small installations placing human figures in humorous contexts, interacting with real-world objects like trash, dead insects and sidewalk weeds. The figures are left there to be observed or ignored, with the vast majority of people never even realizing they’re there.

Miniature Cities Within Cities by EVOL

subtle street art EVOL 2

What looks like an image of a gritty, run-down urban neighborhood is actually a collection of electric power boxes on an urban rooftop. Berlin-based artist EVOL creates cities within cities, typically transforming urban surfaces with stencils. Any rectangular or square object can become a miniature skyscraper. But when the artist has a little more time and privacy to work, the illusion is uncanny.

Yarn-Bombing Sidewalk Cracks

subtle street art yarn cracks 3

‘Project Pothole’ by artist Juliana Santacruz Herrera called attention to potholes in the streets of Paris, softening these trouble spots with installations of yarn. Filling the cracks with color, Herrera engages in a passive sort of protest while simultaneously brightening the urban landscape.

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Subtle Street Art 27 Easy To Overlook Urban Enhancements

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

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Urban Subversion: 13 Radical Examples of Guerrilla Housing

09 Oct

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

guerrilla housing dumpster 3

Vacant lots, billboards, rooftops and even dumpsters are hacked into inhabitable spaces in these examples of often-illegal guerrilla housing. All manner of urban surfaces can be subverted into safe, dry shelters, often taking examples in gray areas of local laws or flying under the radar simply because they blend so well into the city environment.

Billboard Housing

guerilla housing billboard 1

guerilla housing billboard 2

Belgian artist and hacktivist Karl Philips focuses on “themes such as gaps in legal, economic and social systems, the omnipresence of advertisement, unrestrained capitalism and consumerism, etc” so it’s no surprise that he decided to turn a billboard into an illegal parasite apartment. Invisible from the street, the apartment consists of a simple wooden platform and a clear plastic enclosure. Another more capitalism-friendly project in Mexico City attached a 170-square-foot house onto the back of a billboard as a residence for artists, who hand-painted the billboard for paper company Scribe.

Inflatable Parasite Housing

Attach a specially-crafted plastic shelter to an air vent on a building and you’ve got an instant inflatable shelter for the homeless. Michael Rakowitz creates these ‘paraSITE shelters‘, which narrowly fit the legal definitions of temporary structures due to their size, on a budget of less than five dollars each.

Dumpster Housing

guerrilla housing dumpster house 2

Artist Gregory Kloehn turned an ordinary dumpster into a pop-up shelter with a working kitchen and toilet, storage and sleeping areas as well as a modular rooftop deck, outdoor shower, flower beds and even a bar. It took six months to modify the Brooklyn-based house, in which Kloehn actually lives part-time. Perhaps the ultimate in urban camouflage, the dumpster looks no different from any other trash container when it’s all closed up.

Shopping Cart House

guerrilla housing camper cart

It may not be spacious, but artist Kevin Cyr’s pop-up camper cart takes advantage of ubiquitous shopping carts to offer a dry, portable place to sleep. When not in use, the whole thing folds down into an inconspicuous wooden box that fits within the cart.

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Urban Subversion 13 Radical Examples Of Guerrilla Housing

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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City Cinemagraphy: Animated Photographs of Urban Motion

07 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Photography & Video. ]

urban puddle test

With compelling attention to depth, detail and movement, French photographer Julien Douvier uses cinemagraphic techniques to capture everything from fleeting moments to frustrating routines that define life in bustling contemporary cities.

urban freeze frame photo

endless escalator

urban leaf bench motion

nature path fall leaves

urban puddle reflection

Working both in black-and-white as well as color, depending on what he is trying to depict, many of his works are simple loops of short time periods – typical cinemagraphs – but others go beyond that basic typology, too.

urban daily grind loop

urban walking routine

urban walking route

urban routine two

urban routine

In his Routine series, for instance, individuals are looped but also overlaid in multiples within the frame, creating a sense of infinite or endless repetition – in other sets (examples shown below) he utilizes transparency, nature and reflections to enrich each frame.

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Posts Tagged ‘Urban’

Urban Transformer: Bus Unfolds into Mobile Fresh Food Market

Vehicular Hives: Envisioning Urban Commutes in Compound Cars

Scalpel Cities: Urban Landscapes Made of Surgical Tools

Urban Dog Tags: Wear City Grids Around Your Neck & The World

Most Massive Murals: 14 Large-Scale Works of Urban Art

World’s Largest Mural in Berlin

Tribute to Architect Oscar Niemeyer by Eduardo Kobra

Boeing 737 Mural by Os Gemeos

Shepard Fairey’s 14-Story Paris Mural

Asia’s Tallest Mural by Hendrik Beikirch

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Most Massive Murals 14 Large Scale Works Of Urban Art

Transparent Home: Glass Dwelling Puts Urban Life on Display

Eye on the City: Visitors Dangle from Urban Art Installation

Subtle Street Art: 27 Easy-to-Overlook Urban Enhancements

Beautiful Trompe L’oeil Windows in Istanbul

The Little People Project

Miniature Cities Within Cities by EVOL

Yarn-Bombing Sidewalk Cracks

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Subtle Street Art 27 Easy To Overlook Urban Enhancements

Urban Subversion: 13 Radical Examples of Guerrilla Housing

Billboard Housing

Inflatable Parasite Housing

Dumpster Housing

Shopping Cart House

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Urban Subversion 13 Radical Examples Of Guerrilla Housing

City Cinemagraphy: Animated Photographs of Urban Motion

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
City Cinemagraphy Animated Photographs Of Urban Motion

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City Cinemagraphy Animated Photographs Of Urban Motion