RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Urban’

Urban Turf: Mini Gardens atop Window Air Conditioning Units

09 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

window ac top grass

For those who can accept a bit of ironic kitsch in the mix, here is a cute (and functional) solution for city dwellers sick of their only scenery being a brick wall across the alleyway, to the soundtrack of a loud window-unit air conditioner.

window air conditioner garden

Babilawn, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, goes beyond aesthetics as well, however, helping to dim the din of noisy air conditioning and potentially keep birds off your window unit as well (or encouraging them, depending on what you add to your custom scene). Accessories include everything from grass and flowers to miniature white picket fences and tiny garden gnomes, but also pint-sized graffiti walls for a bit of urban color.

window top ac decor

The magnetic grass mat slots onto the top of your air conditioner, covering up the ugly top and letting you set up something a bit more visually appealing from both inside and outside your home. It uses super-strong, rare-earth magnets to remain attached in extreme weather conditions. The composite units are also modular so they can fit various sizes of air conditioners. Its creators are still testing the theory, too, that it might make air conditioners more efficient by providing shade for the units as well.

window urban ledge decor

So how far are they into the design and distribution process? The process so far, quoted from their fundraising page: “It all started with a simple sketch which led to creating and testing the initial concept. From this proof of concept we were able to design and develop an Alpha prototype using 3D CAD and SLS 3D printing. We tested the alpha prototype and noted some areas for improvement.

window decoration background image

“We made the adjustments to the cad model and now, as it was featured in the video above, we have a fully functioning production-ready beta prototype that is patent pending. We conducted preliminary market analysis which includes evaluating demand, retail pricing, and competitive research. We sourced domestic and international manufacturing and fulfillment companies.”

Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Fixtures & Interiors. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Urban Turf: Mini Gardens atop Window Air Conditioning Units

Posted in Creativity

 

Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater Reclaims Urban Space

06 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater 1

An abandoned, deteriorating bridge in the city of Kosice in Slovakia has been rehabbed and modified to serve as an amphitheater and public gathering space that glows in bright rainbow colors at night. The urban intervention was organized by Atrium Studio and Esterni as a temporary installation to reclaim this prominent disused space.

Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater 2

On one side of the bridge, a wooden framework was built that serves as a stage for concerts and performances. On the other, a wooden seating system makes the concrete surface more comfortable for those who come to enjoy the free public shows.

Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater 3

This project echoes many other urban interventions that seek to take the ownership of neglected or abandoned urban spaces into the hands of the people.

Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater 4

Urban interventions can be as subtle as adding eyeballs to mailboxes and other public objects, or as bold as repainting an entire abandoned church in shocking hues.

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Abandoned Bridge Amphitheater Reclaims Urban Space

Posted in Creativity

 

Reflections: China’s Lost Lakes Resurface in Urban Beijing

26 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

China Lost Lakes Installation 1

As China has transformed from a largely agricultural society to an industrial superpower, vastly changing its landscape with both construction equipment and the unintended effects of climate change, over 240 of its lakes have disappeared. In less than half a century, so much of the nation’s natural beauty and tranquility has been lost. A project called The Lost Lakes brings it back temporarily in the illusory form of lake-shaped mirrors installed in the middle of urban Beijing.

China Lost Lakes Installation 2

The lost lakes haven’t just impacted China’s ecology; rapid urbanization has caused severe droughts and water shortages across the country. The problem affects every Chinese citizen. The Lost Lakes installation brings this problem home to city dwellers in the form of customized mirrors mimicking the reflection of water in unexpected places.

China Lost Lakes Installation 3

Fifteen craftsman spent six weeks creating mirrors with curved edges that fit together like puzzle pieces. They’re designed to stand up to weather and curious onlookers, and can be transported and reassembled in a new location.

China Lost Lakes Installation 4

Over 350,000 people have visited the installation to ‘reflect’ upon what the loss of natural bodies of water means to them (or maybe just to gaze at themselves and the skyscrapers around them.)

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Reflections: China’s Lost Lakes Resurface in Urban Beijing

Posted in Creativity

 

Urban Graphics Photography

23 Jul

Ein Beitrag von: Siegfried Hansen

In der folgenden Fotoserie „Urban Graphics Photography“ habe ich Fotos gemacht, die den Menschen in seiner städtischen Umgebung zeigen. Die meisten Großstädte der Welt sind zugebaut, asphaltiert und zubetoniert; sodass sich dort der Mensch wie ein Fremdkörper bewegt.

Den meisten Menschen ist gar nicht bewusst, in welchem architektonischen und grafischen Umfeld sie sich bewegen. Die Grafik ist wie ein Korsett, das die Person oder den Menschen umspannt, umgarnt und vielleicht sogar einengt.

Die abgebildete Person sieht ihr Umfeld nicht aus dem Betrachtungswinkel des Fotografen und weiß somit gar nicht, in was für einem schönen, hässlichen oder eleganten Umfeld sie sich bewegt. Ich suche speziell in den Städten nach solchen Mustern, Linien und Strukturen, um die Situation besser zu veranschaulichen und darzustellen.

Inspiriert wurde diese Serie durch den Bauhauskünstler Lionel Feininger, dessen Art es war, die Welt in Flächen zu zerlegen, was mich schon immer fasziniert hat. Mir kam es in dieser Fotodarstellung darauf an, das vorhandene urbane Umfeld in Flächen und Linien zu erfassen und abzulichten mit einem menschlichen Fokuspunkt.

Hamburg 2007 © Siegfried Hansen
Hamburg 2007

Bei dem ersten Bild habe ich ganz formal nur die Flächen gesehen. Ich habe mir einen für mich interessanten Standpunkt gesucht und einen Teilausschnitt aus dieser gesamten Brücken- und Rolltreppe-Situation gewählt.

Meistens warte ich einen Augenblick ab, bis jemand vorbeikommt, oftmals besuche ich die besagte Stelle aber auch mehrmals, bis sich der für mich richtige Zeitpunkt ergibt. Die Grundsituation bleibt, nur Licht und Schatten müssen bei dieser Vorgehensweise noch beachtet werden.

Die Wahl des Standpunktes geschieht rein nach Gefühl, geschult durch jahrelanges Sehtraining von Flächen, Linien und Formen in der Straßenfotografie.

Hamburg 2012 © Siegfried Hansen
Hamburg 2012

Als erstes fiel mir die sogenannte „Rasterfahndung“ zu diesem Bild ein. Ich sah die Situation von einem Parkdeck aus. Zuerst beobachtete ich das Umfeld. Teilweise überquerten die Leute die Straße oder es fuhren Autos vorbei. Aus mehreren unterschiedlichen Aufnahmen und Betrachtungen entstand diese Aufnahme, die mir am besten gefiel.

Hamburg 2011 © Siegfried Hansen
Hamburg 2011

Im folgenden Bild haben mich die Rundungen des Geländers sowie die abgerundeten Treppen inspiriert. Eine Fotografie, die auf mehreren Ebenen aufgebaut ist. Auch hier spielt der Mensch nur eine Randfigur in der urban-grafischen Sichtweise.

London 2008 © Siegfried Hansen
London 2008

Während bei dem vorherigen Bild die Rundungen dominierten, sind es bei diesem Bild Linien, Licht und Schatten. Zuerst habe ich auch hier die Grafik gesehen und überlegt, wie ich mich am besten positioniere, um für den Betrachter eine interessante, grafische Darstellung zu zeigen.

Hamburg 2013 © Siegfried Hansen
Hamburg 2013

Bei dem letzten Bild dieser Serie habe ich eine Wendeltreppe in die vordere Ebene platziert, um diese grafisch dominante Situation besser darstellen zu können. Der entscheidende Moment entstand, als eine Person die Straße überquerte.

Einen ausführlichen Bericht über 14 Seiten mit Tipps zur Entstehung meiner Bilder zeigt die Zeitschrift fotoforum in ihrer aktuellen Ausgabe Juli/August 2013.


kwerfeldein – Fotografie Magazin

 
Comments Off on Urban Graphics Photography

Posted in Equipment

 

City Evolution: Watch Urban Growth in 3D Visualizations

18 Jul

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

City Growth Maps Main

Watch Manhattan multiply and San Francisco soar into the sky in a series of growth animation videos that show the expansion of cities over more than a century. Created by Calgary-based real estate company Cube Cities, the videos utilize developer-reported data of building construction dates to show buildings pop upon top of city maps.

City Growth Maps NYC 1

City Growth Maps NYC 2

3D mapping technology from Google Earth provides the base of the videos, and animations show construction as it occurs through each decade. The videos highlight the busiest decades for growth, which is most visible in New York City during the 1920s, San Francisco during the ’60s and Toronto during the ’70s.

Next Page:
City Evolution Watch Urban Growth In 3d Visualizations

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on City Evolution: Watch Urban Growth in 3D Visualizations

Posted in Creativity

 

Urban Apps: 13 Interactive City Maps, Tools & Guides

15 Jul

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

Urban Apps Main

Chances are, even if you’re a lifelong resident of a particular city, you don’t know every nook and cranny, every food truck location, or the lore of every interesting local building. Apps for smartphones, tablets and other gadgets are making big urban centers feel smaller than ever, making it easy to catch a ride, find cheap eats, check out street art and make new friends.

Eat Cheap – Roaming Hunger

Urban Apps Roaming Hunger

Find out where your next meal is parked with Roaming Hunger, an app that shows real-time food truck locations in your area. The app not only displays the trucks on a map, with their hours at that location, but also allows you to sort results by meal, and browse menus. Additional apps are city-specific, like Street Food App, which currently shows schedules for Boston, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.

Maps and Travel Guides – City Maps 2Go

Urban Apps City Maps 2Go

Want access to maps while traveling abroad, without gobbling up roaming data or lurking in a spot that offers wi-fi? City Maps 2Go downloads maps for the cities of your choice for offline use, including millions of POI (restaurants, bars, hotels etc.), 500,000 Wikipedia entries for sites and attractions, and travel guides. It’s avaiable for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Connect – MeetMe

Urban Apps MeetMe

Among the most popular apps to show you who’s nearby and looking to meet new people, MeetMe gives both social butterflies and the shy an easy way to connect. You’ll probably find more people looking to date than to make new friends, and it might be easier to just walk up to someone and introduce yourself than spend your time scrolling through photos, but hey – whatever works.

Avoid Your Friends – Hell is Other People

Urban Apps Hell is Other People

Maybe, instead of making new friends, you want to avoid the ones you already have. There’s an app for that, too. Hell is Other People will show you where your friends are based on check-ins on Foursquare, Facebook, Instagram and other networks, and provide ‘safe zones’ where you can hang out without being recognized. Of course, it only works if your contacts are avid users of social media, and you might find yourself relegated to unexpected places in the city.

Find Street Art – 1AM Mobile

Urban Apps Street Art

This free photo app called 1AM Mobile lets users pinpoint, share and discover street art in their own communities before it’s gone, as it often is within days or weeks of completion. Shoot photos of street art and the app will map them, date them and credit you as the photographer before sharing them worldwide.

Next Page:
Urban Apps 13 Interactive City Maps Tools Guides

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Urban Apps: 13 Interactive City Maps, Tools & Guides

Posted in Creativity

 

Urban Fabric: Stretched, Stitched & Suspended Mobile Home

15 Jul

[ By WebUrbanist in Global & Urbex & Parkour. ]

fabric mobile urban home

Imagine rooms that expanded and compressed depending on occupancy, then stretch your mind to conceptualize a whole home that works the same way – it folds virtually flat then unfolds as you move through it.

fabric home nomadic urbanists

Thi sultra-slim temporary dwelling design, dubbed Cocoon by Tanya Shukstelinsky, is early-stage and essentially conceptual at this point. It is nonetheless compelling as an idea and prototype for nomadic urban explorers – a thin and lightweight way to slip oneself in between buildings or into other cracks in a city.

fabric hanging home design

A series of handholds and other slim elements are stitched into place to create horizontal and vertical spatial dividers as well as other essential domestic elements like stairs, seats, sleeping platforms … even a fillable bathtub. Then, of course, like a tent without poles, the entire structure can be packed up into a highly portable unit, too.

fabric temporary portable shelter

Giving a new, more literal meaning to the phrase ‘urban fabric’, the designer writes: “I came up with an idea for a space between two stitched layers of fabric. A person who lives in the space can move upon the stitches. The stitches are dividing the fabric into different areas – dining area, sleeping area and bath.” 

Share on Facebook



[ By WebUrbanist in Global & Urbex & Parkour. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Urban Fabric: Stretched, Stitched & Suspended Mobile Home

Posted in Creativity

 

Urban Time Lapse: 15 Videos Show Cities at Super Speeds

24 Jun

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

City Time Lapse Main

Watch the frenetic motion of urban scenes around the world in mesmerizing time lapse videos created using thousands of still photographs. Often captured from some of the highest vantage points in the city, these city time lapse videos take us on tours of Shanghai, Dubai, New York, Melbourne and more, showing off monuments, street scenes, sunsets and city lights.

 

Melbourne

City Time Lapse Melbourne

Tilt-shift techniques make Melbourne look miniature in this entrancing time-lapse video.

Chicago

City Time Lapse Chicago

Over 30,000 still photographs taken by filmmaker Eric Hines in a span of four months around the bustling downtown areas of Chicago become a dizzying trip through the city in this time-lapse video.

London

City Time Lapse London

Sped up 17 times, this footage of planes queuing up to land at London’s Heathrow Airport gives the illusion of a miniature scene, with the planes as tiny toys.

New York

City Time Lapse New York

Animator and director Philip Stockton created this film, ‘New York: Night and Day’, to show the transitions between light and dark in the city using a mix of time-lapse and animation.

Moscow

City Time Lapse Moscow

Using a tripod, taking a small step forward with each photo, the creator of this time-lapse video of Moscow gives a feeling of sweeping movement through the city.

Next Page:
Urban Time Lapse 15 Videos Show Cities At Super Speeds

Share on Facebook



[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Urban Time Lapse: 15 Videos Show Cities at Super Speeds

Posted in Creativity

 

Unauthorized Installations: The Fine Art of Urban Subversion

19 Jun

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

street art brad downey

Brad Downey is familiar with both sides of the art world, with a fine arts degree and gallery exhibitions, on the one hand, and run-ins with the authorities about his sometimes-unsanctioned street art on the other.

street sidewalk ripped up

His work is harder to describe that it is to simply see, since it is often in the most public places you could imagine (or documented via extensive photography) – erupting from sidewalks, disrupting bicycle lanes or literally ripping up cobbled streets

street art object manipulations

Per the pictures, sometimes these installations transpose ideas and objects from other contexts, but they also frequently warp existing everyday objects like bicycles, cars, signs, benches, shopping carts and garbage cans.

street alley art wedging

Sometimes he works alone – sometimes collaboratively. Some of his pieces are stand-alones and one-offs while others form sets, like Wedging (shown above), which is a series of experiments of balance and obstruction in alleys with ordinary household items.

street art impossible bicycles

He has had run-ins with police while working in cities ranging from London to Amsterdam, on both art and guerrilla marketing projects performed in that gray area of public and possible vandalism.

Share on Facebook



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

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Unauthorized Installations: The Fine Art of Urban Subversion

Posted in Creativity

 

Useful Billboards? Advertisements Extend Into Urban Space

08 Jun

[ By Delana in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

smart ideas for smarter cities awning billboard

At its best, advertising is entertaining, even useful. At its worst, it is invasive, abrasive, and perhaps even offensive. IBM’s new campaign from Ogilvy France skirts the line, featuring public objects that are useful but which somewhat invade the urban space.

ogilvy france bench billboard

The Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities campaign includes three billboards that extend out from city walls and into the urban environment. One is an awning of sorts, providing a dry space for residents to get out of the rain or a bit of shade to get out of the sun.

ibm ramp billboard

Another is a small bench which gives weary pedestrians the chance to sit down for a moment. The last is a ramp that covers a portion of a small staircase, letting cyclists or luggage-wheeling residents take an easier route.

The campaign is meant to inspire viewers to think differently about their cities and how some elements could be tweaked to be more useful for residents. It’s something of a risk, however, since this invasion of the urban environment may not be welcomed by residents who think that advertising is already too ubiquitous on city streets.

(images via: Fast Company)

Share on Facebook



[ By Delana in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]

    


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Useful Billboards? Advertisements Extend Into Urban Space

Posted in Creativity