Archive for 2007
2nd Cycle
Artek and Tom Dixon have a new range / recycling strategy for their furniture. It’s called 2ndcycle and it is reselling used Artek furniture again. But in addition they add an RFID tag, this tag has information for access to a website which then gives the history of that item, when it was made where [...]
Oscar Niemeyer 100 today
Congratulations to Oscar Niemeyer who is 100 today. Listen to an interview by Jonathan Glancey with him on the BBC. Truly one of the great 20th Century Architects. (Thanks to Bifta for the heads up!)
Estonian Embassy in Second Life
Estonia has just opened an embassy in second life, being the second country to do it officially behind Sweden. Interestingly Estonia’s official second life embassy is different from Swedens offering in a few subtle ways that seem to me to make it a more thoughtful offering. The Architecture is especially of interest to me, while [...]
Giant Moose
Storalgen has permission to build giant 45m high moose in Sweden to boost tourism. Check out the video, and look at the full story on Eikongraphia, then shake your head wondering briefly what the f### they were thinking of, and then go back to what you were doing.
Frontiers of Architecture 1 – Cecil Balmond
Some weeks ago our office went to Copenhagen on an Architecture excursion and I’ve been sitting on a few posts about my time there because of lots of other things were taking priority, but I have a little time now so first post up is about a wonderful exhibition about the most influential man in [...]
Superspatial
I just posted for the first time on Superspatial a collaborative weblog (myself and kosmograd so far) and jumping off point for urbanism of all kind. Posting on urbanisation issues will really focus there. We have entered a couple of competitions already so if you are interested in joining in then please get in touch. [...]
Kiln Dusker
A really beautiful ambient album full of warmth, space, and texture. I’ve become enchanted by it over the last few days , lovely melodies but with big beats and good balance between producing tracks and soundscapes, maybe a little like Boards of Canada. Try listening to fyrepond courtesy of paperthinwalls and see what you think. [...]
Museum of Horses***t
I haven’t laughed so much for a long time…. It is what it is: An attractive and diverting repository for a massive load of horseshit. And, well, let’s be realists: That load of horseshit’s not going away anytime soon. Might as put it somewhere that it’s out of everyone else’s way. The Creation Museum manages [...]
Buildings to Suit your Mood
Yesterday it started snowing here and already in the afternoon the landscape had flipped from earthy autumn colours to white. Everything, the grass, the roads, the buildings look different, especially those white prefab concrete block apartments now so ubiquitous in our fair nordic capitol. And last night I couldn’t help think about how it would [...]
Baltia
A new quarterly magazine is due to come to Finland soon called Baltia covering Architecture, Urbanism and Design. Published in Russian and English it is based in St.Petersberg with a brief to cover Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and NW Russia, around the St.Petersberg area including Kallingrad. Why Poland, Germany and say Sweden are not covered [...]
Otaniemi Expansion
A new island forms the centrepiece of an expansion of the Otaniemi campus of Helsinki university in Espoo. The competition won by NRT Architects is for office and teaching space for 1500 people with a further 700 residences. Its a major addition adn improvement to the campus which already contains some world class Architecture.
Designer Labels
An excellent gallery of old Finnish Beer labels. Russia and the Baltic are also covered. Too bad we can’t taste them also!
Helsinki Urbanism
A couple of events taking place now Megapolis2022 (via) and Hernesaari scheme proposals (via). Megapolis 2022 is an urban environmental festival and seems like a growing event, the premise is right, that our current environmental problems will be solved in the cities. On Saturday 13th October, there will be a debate about the role of [...]
Mimoa
An update of sorts on a previous post finding architecture I posted over a year ago now. MIMOA is a new website for finding good Architecture in Europe. A database like nextroom but with a social aspect with the ability to contribute, comment and print off projects when travelling. I have held off mentioning it [...]
Open House Helsinki 2007
Open House Helsinki is on tomorrow, with some buildings opening up to the public as part of the larger Helsinki Design Week 2007. It could have been a little bigger and more widespread but there are some potentially interesting buildings to visit. The Hotel Katajanokka, a converted Jail for example wets my appetite.
Never Be An Architect
You’ll never be an Architect, but aim for a career in journalism! -Toivo Salervo to Alvar Aalto, who, in the summer of 1916, just before beginning his studies in architecture, was a trainee in Salervo’s architects’ office. #