A new home

Well, it's been a while. Ok, to be completely honest: it's been terribly long since I've last posted here. And no, this is not a post to mention the next reanimation of this blog. However, on the new and improved website studio-also.eu, the studio for my design and research projects, I've integrated a blog. Some of the posts from this blog will be recycled over there. Same, same - but different. So, for future reference, please see the Studio Also website.

Architecture books

Books where the theme of yesterdays' post, and books are the theme of todays' post. This time, an online book store. Even though nothing beats spending hours and hours browsing through a bookstore, finding more and more amazing books. It's even more lovely to look through a really specialized bookstore and find really specific, hard to find books.

But not everybody has such a great bookstore close to where they are located, and not everybody has the time to visit those stores during opening hours. So that's why it's great that there are specialized online bookstores. As much as I like amazon.com, nothing beats specialists. In this case: specialists in architecture books. It's easier to find what you want, it's more useful to find more in-depth items and it has more power to surprise. That's what makes architecturebooks.eu such a nice webstore.

The only thing that is lacking from an online architecture bookstore is, ironically enough, good architecture. Like one of the nicest examples I've seen thus far: Academia Bookstore in Helsinki, by Alvar Aalto, on the image above.

Archigram archives

Even though the work of Archigram is mainly unbuilt, there's no doubt that they've been extremely influential. There have been loads exhibitions, books and magazine articles on their work; presumably every school of architecture has had at least one lecture series or seminar on them; they've received a RIBA gold medal in 2002 (28 years posthumously); and a vast number of famous (and slightly less famous) architects claimed their influence on their work.

Now there's a comprehensive guide on their work, which you can browse from the comfort of your home. EXP, the Research Centre for Experimental Practice at the University of Westminster, set up a website called the Archigram Archive Project. And the amount of information to be found on the site is huge! You can see the contents of the legendary magazine or read up on the people behind archigram. But, most importantly: there are over 200 projects by Archigram on the site, organized by year.

So if you are only slightly fascinated by Archigram, this website is worth checking out. And if you are avid appreciator on the kooky retro-futuristic, conceptually smart projects by this team, you can litereally spend hours on this site. Like I did...

Dreamspaces

You don't have to be a car buff to enjoy the television show "Top Gear". They just have a way of presenting things that gives it a bit of a twist in comparison to other television programmes.

Well, just recently, I've discovered the architectural equivalent of Top Gear: A TV-show called Dreamscapes. It has the same kind of quality - I can only imagine that people are just not that much into architecture would thoroughly enjoy this show. And at the same time architecture geeks would probably love the show, too. It was a simply irresistable combination of architectural freakshow and travel guide, hosted by David Adjaye, Justine Frischmann and Charlie Luxton.

However, the sad thing is that this BBC 3-programme only existed for the duration of one season of twelve episodes, some years ago. But just today, I came across a post on idents.tv, inluding download links to 11 of the 12 episodes.

Oh, and in case you wonder why the famous drawing of the "Walking City" by Archigram's Ron Herron is placed with this post? Just because I wanted a sexy architectural image - and there's a report about "The Beatles of Architecture" in episode 10...

Web ecoist

Sustainability issues seem to be revolving around the same principles: material reduction, emission reduction, energy consumption reduction - all thrown in a mix with some tried and tested technical feats.

And that's what I like so much about the website webecoist.com: they focus a bit on the other side of green design and sustainable living: the sustainable oddities, small initiatives and green luxories.
There are loads of things to discover on that website, from failed eco-innovations to mud and dirt buildings; and from alternative fuels to a list of green weblogs.

The image above is a picture of an ancient Persian windmill, which can also be found on webecoist.com, by the way.

The complex history of sustainability

After all is said and done, a lot has been said about sustainability. Almost every single designer claims to be "sustainable" - even though it doesn't extend beyond the "green" image in many pieces of architecture. Exactly the complex matter of sustainability, the many face it entails, the rich history of ideologies - this all seems to be swept away in a storm of sexy wind turbines, spectacular photovoltaic cells and a strategically placed comment about the cradle to cradle principles inherent in the design process.

But there's so much more than this contemporary - relatively superficial - approach to sustainability. This inspired Amir Djalali, with Piet Vollaard, to compile "The complex history of sustainability". Originally, it was intended for a publication in "Volume #18 - After Zero" only, but the timeline has been transformed into an interactive website, based on a mash-up of the google earth software by CASA.

On this web-interface, on can browse through the history of sustainability. Sure, one might doubt some of the -isms as used. And the selective nature of the people captured in this timeline. And the speculative connections between peoples and issues.
But all in all, it gives a nice insight in the complexities and contradictions within the single term "sustainability". From the 18th century romantics, the eco-anarchists and the global warming denialists to bio-mimicry, cybernetics and nazi eugenetics, all is portrayed in this timeline. Linked to the key figures on every stage. As a nice bonus, books, movies, games and architectural projects are added on the time-line.
It might not all be 100% accurate and complete, but at least it doesn't simplify the true meaning(s) of sustainability.

Sustainable Cities

There is already a lot being said about sustainability. The thing for designers is that sustainability touches every single aspect of their design. It's not just clean energy, or eco-friendly materials, or ways of dealing with waste - but it's all that, plus several other issues. And if a designer is trying to put sustainable thought into action in his design, it's important to keep an overview of all the issues at stake.

the Danish website sustainablecities.dk is thus a very noble initiative in my eyes: it's a platform for all kinds of sustainable issues in thinking about cities and making cities. It displays cases and topics of all sorts, lists experts, gives way to various discussions. The content of the website is clearly in a development phase, but the initiative is clearly worth everbody's attention - if you are even remotely concerned with sustainability issues, that is.

Architectural competitions

Competitions are a big part of architecture. Loads of interesting commissions are obtained by means of competitions, and quite some offices solely obtain their jobs from competitions. And that's not only the big, invited competitions that the stars of architecture participate in, also smaller design competitions play a huge role for offices.
But also for young, emerging architects, competitions can form a breakthrough moment to obtain commissions one would otherwise never get. Just think of the offices that started out after winning Europan, or something similar.

And the internet is, of course, a brilliant way to actually find different competitions. It's easy to browse through online databases with competitions, select local ones that might be interesting, choose certain types of commissions and more. The downfall is that there are just so many websites filled with competitions out there, that it's hard to keep the overview. And that's exactly what I'm trying to do with this post: make some sort of overview of the (many) websites that regularly display overviews of architecture and design competitions. It will definitely not be complete, so if you think a website is missing, let me know...

Akademisk Arkitektforening
The Danish institute of architecture keeps an overview (and helps with the organization) of Danish competitions - and adds some international competitions to the site, too.

Archined
Archined is a Dutch architecture portal, on which they keep a small selection of competitions, calls for papers and so on. It's devided in "national" (Dutch) and "international" (worldwide) competitions.

Archiseek
This international portal has a free mailinglist service, to keep updates on competitions. Other than that, they have some information/discussion about competitions on their forum.

Architectenweb
This Dutch website gives a small overview of Dutch and international competitions. However, the site is only in Dutch.

The Architect's Newspaper
It's not the website with the clearest overview, or the best way of searching through the listings, but they have a lot of competitions and awards on their website.

The Architecture Room
This all-round architecture website has a nice variety of competitions. They also have some nice non-architectural design competitions on here, every once in a while.

Architekturwettbewerb
This site has the full overview of architectural competitions and awards in Austria. It shows results, new competitions, it has different ways to search the database: all in all, it's very complete. But only in German, though.

Baunetz
An overview of German and international competitions, in German. A nice selection, but I'm pretty sure this is a collaboration with Bauwelt, so they have the same competitions featured.

Bauwelt
An overview of German and international competitions, in German. A nice selection, but I'm pretty sure this is a collaboration with Baunetz, so they have the same competitions featured.

Bustler
The American website Bustler has loads of information on competitions, events, awards and all that.

Competitionline
This German website is all about competitions. Whether it's competition announces, competition results, you can find it here. It's mainly regionally confined to the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), but they also have some more international competions on the site. The website is in German.

Competitions
This website is solely dedicated to architecture and design competitions. And they have a nifty newsletter-service, too!

Concursos Publicos
An overview of Spanish architectural competitions. Or at least, I assume it is. I hardly understand Spanish, so I'm not completely sure.

Death by Architecture
A decent overview of a wide assortment of competitions, mainly US-based. However, it seems that the website had more content some time ago - or would it be that there are less US-competitions because of the financial crisis?

Designboom
Well, it isn't architecture, but this site features some design competitions, every once in a while. I figured that that's close enough to earn a position on this list...

Deutsche Bauzeitung
If you are able to read German, you can pretty much find all European competitions and tenders through this site.

Europaconcorsi
This Italian website remains somewhat of an enigma to me - and not just because of the language. It's clear that they have tons of information on competitions, but I've got the feeling that you have to be a (paying) member to be able to see the most crucial data.

National Association of Norwegian Architects
If you are looking for a competition in Norway, this is the site to turn to. However, don't bother if you cannot understand Norwegian - It's all in Norwegian, as far as I can tell.

Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland
An overview of some competitions in Ireland. However, I get the feeling that this website isn't updated very regularly.

Royal Institute of British Architects
If there's an architecture competition in the U.K., It's bound to come from this website. The RIBA organizes and publicizes the British architecture competitions.

SIA
The Swiss association of architects has a database with all kinds of architecture and building commissions. The website is both in German and French.

Steunpunt Ontwerpwedstrijden
This Dutch organisation helps with organizing competitions, makes sure that competitions follow the right procedures for competitions and such - albeit only in the Netherlands. Correspondingly, it has a (small) database of live competitions in the Netherlands. The Website is in Dutch.

Swedish Association of Architects
An overview of live architecture competitions in Sweden, mixed with some international competitions. Unfortunately, even though there is a ton of information in English on the site, the contents of the competitions are mostly only in Swedish.

TED
TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) gives an overview of all European Tenders - which means all kinds of public commissions that fit within the rules of the European Tenders. Part of these are architectural works, but most are otherwise. A lot of great jobs can come from a site like this, but it takes time to search it, and (depending on the country) it can be a hassle - including stringent demands on behalf of the competitors - to enter the competitions.

Union of International Architects
Within the site of the Union of International Architects, there's a small section dedicated to international architecture competitions. Most of them can be found elsewhere, too.

Having the hots for staircases?

Let's, just for the sake of argument, imagine that you're a total architecture geek. And your whole life revolves around architecture. It's all you talk about, it's all you think about, it's completely immersed in every aspect of your life.
Then there's the problem of your sex life. What would you do for sexual relief? Luckily, there's a porn site just for the architecturally challenged out there: stairporn.org. The absolute architecture nerds can get their sexual relief from looking at a collection of really sexy looking staircases...

A different perspective

I know that I should definitely stop mentioning the Euro 2008 football championship. And I'm sure that I would have stayed off the subject if I hadn't heard about this brilliant feature by Eurosport and Yahoo, called "Virtual Replays". You can watch every single goal from Euro 2008 from a bunch of different perspectives. But the most brilliant thing about it is that you can actually see the goals from the perspective of some of the players involved. My favorite ones: well, probably either the goal by Arjen Robben (Netherlands) against France, seen through his eyes. Or the goal by Nihat (Turkey) against Czech Republic, as seen through the eyes of the Czech goalkeeper? Anyway, it's really nice to have such a feature at hand that really takes advantage of computational powers available.

Life's a Muxtape

I just love mixtapes. The combining of songs to get a certain mood across, the selection of songs that tell a story, it's a lot of fun to compose a set like that. Unfortunately, the rise of the mp3-generation has taken quite a bit of that charm away: instead of sharing music as inspiration, people just seem to download more than they could possibly seriously listen to. So I'm really glad that a site like Muxtape is around. It's basically a virtual tool for mixtapes: you can combine up to 12 songs into a mixtape, to share with friends - with all the digital advantages.

In the past, I've been writing for a punk and hardcore e-zine called AsIce.net. My last act before I quit writing for that e-zine was adding a mixtape in a series called "Life's a Mixtape". The idea behind that is to write the story of your life with a mixtape. Just ten songs, that describe a part of your life, your personality, you experiences. The thing is: it was only text. The songs itself: well, you just had to search for them. But then "muxtapes" came along, and now I have the possibility to let people hear my "Life's a Mixtape". A So here's my muxtape (http://archipelagoes.muxtape.com).

And for the stories behind the songs: this is the text as I wrote it on AsIce.

1. Endpoint – Brown County
This song is the epitome of what hardcore and punk mean to me. It’s not about being harder core than thou, it’s not about fitting in and following the flock, it’s about taking your own road. Maybe I should take it one step further (and take the risk of sounding pathetic): this song is the epitome of what life means to me.
Endpoint started out somewhere in the late eighties, influenced by the hardcore by the hardcore bands that were coming up at that time. But still, they managed to make something of their own. Also, lyric wise they did whatever they wanted: focusing on social and political injustice in a progressive and empowering way.
I discovered the band years after they had quit. I first heard of the band because Rob Pennington from By the Grace of God sang in this band before, but that’s beside the point. The point is: if there would ever be a personal anthem for me, I think I’d have to go with ‘Brown Country’. I don’t care what other people think about my choices, I don’t mind that I do things differently, and I couldn’t care less about what others think about “how things should be done”.For me, this song is the ultimate statement of individuality with social conscience.


2. Rich Kids on LSD – Give it up
Highschool was, to me, about two things only: skateboarding and loud music. I’ve been listening to heavier guitar music probably since I’ve heard “Welcome to the Jungle” for the first time, but during my six years in school, I was mainly into punkrock. And punkrock and skateboarding seemed to go hand in hand. Luckily, I lived in a town close to Den Bosch, in which the Willem 2 booked at least one good punkrock-show a month. Anyway, I was hooked on punkrock for the obvious reasons: it was fast, it was aggressive and it was melodic. At one time we were sitting at a friend’s place, listening to a new CD he bought: one of those punk-o-rama samplers, I believe. And all of a sudden RKL came up on the CD. And it was punkrock too, yet different. More metal-riffs, a singer that sounded far more pissed off, and none of them “ooh-aah”-singalongs. Basically: more musicianship and more aggression. Most of my friends couldn’t quite get into it at that time, but for some reason the band got under my skin.
Now it’s about ten years later, and I’m not in highschool anymore (which isn’t that surprising, come to think of it). Plus: I don’t ride a skateboard anymore. The doctors advised me so. I have many different friends. I don’t listen to punkrock all that much any more. Pretty much everything has changed over the years. But RKL stayed with me.

3. Boy Sets Fire – Vehicle
I have said many times before that at least 90% of all people are idiots. And I still believe that to be the truth. Many people just don’t seem to think at all – it’s so much easier to follow someone, something or some idea blindly. It’s safer than anything to copy the opinions, arguments and gestures. For many, the easy way out is the best: pick a role and stick with it. This can be seen in many ways, ranging from religion, politics, sub-cultures etcetera. It’s the simple way to turn of your brain and just adapt – you can also see that in many people that “grow up”: the turn off and tune themselves in onto the norm. And do just what is expected of them by everyone else. It scares me that this attitude can be found everywhere. Call me naive, but I refuse to live that way.
‘Vehicle’ is a plain and simple statement against people who daren’t stand up for themselves and bound themselves into submission of religion. But I’d like to take the message a bit further than just a group of religious zealots: for me, it’s about people in general who adjust themselves to whatever role they want to take. Secondly, Boy Sets Fire is one of those bands that had a huge impact on me the first times I saw them live: they were active, intelligent and dared to start discussions. What happened later on with this band is a whole different subject…

4. Catharsis – Obsession
Around 2000/2001, I set up a couple of shows with a friend of mine, in a local squat in Eindhoven called ‘Trammelant’. We basically let bands play that we liked and didn’t think too much of it: we just wanted to do shows that we liked to see ourselves. This was mostly Dutch, Belgian and German bands. And then we got the chance to do a show for Catharsis and Newborn. Catharsis! I got rather nervous by the thought alone… It was the biggest show we’ve ever did, with about 250 to 300 people inside. And there was so much energy about that show, even the guys from Newborn were walking around with a big smile on their faces, proclaiming that the evening was “just magic”. Personally, I think I had a smile on my face for about a week afterwards. The passionate, intense attitude of Catharsis is still inspiring (even though I generally don’t agree with them too much, ideologically): “Give lust and life to our dances, flight to our fancies. Give me courage for my passions and my pain”

5. Minus the Bear - I'm Totally Not Down With Rob's Alien
Somewhere in the summer of 2005 I was walking home at night, somewhere in Berlin. At that moment I remember feeling rather good about the fact that I moved to another country – where I didn’t know anybody or anything – and managed to survive in a nice way. I actually enjoyed the fact that I was more or less alone without any responsabilities, and didn’t have too much to worry about. And at the moment I was contemplating the fact that I liked my life the way it was and saw the sun rising over the park, this song came up on my disc-man. And the lyrics seemed to apply to my situation just perfectly, savouring the situation: “And I'll swim out as far as I can and float on my back, just waiting for nothing…”

6. As Friends Rust – When people resort to name calling
Words, my friends and enemies. As might be clear: I really love to read and write – and I think I will keep on doing that for the rest of my life, in whatever form. As far as writing goes: I like the process of thinking on twists and turns, surprises and arguments.
Because I don’t care about writings without something special to it, my style is always very aggressive and cynical – no matter what I write for. I’d rather have 9 out of 10 people hating what I do, than most people being indifferent to it. Oddly enough: this gives people the idea that I’m an arrogant bastard.
At the same time, I am not a very sociable person. For instance: I cannot do smalltalk, even if I wanted to. And my methods of expression can sometimes come across as being too crude – or too uncertain. So at parties, I am mostly the guy standing in the corner, quietly sipping my soda and observing.
Apparently “I don’t open up enough” around people I don’t know too well. For some reason, unless people get to know me, many of them get the impression that I’m arrogant, because I am staying an outsider in most social situations. Ah well: I probably am arrogant. And even though I cannot talk about it if my life depended on it, I can probably write a snappy and sarcastic article about it…

7. Iggy Pop – The Passenger
When I was 20, I dropped out of college – like so many people do. It’s not that I wasn’t good enough in what I did, it’s just that I didn’t think I wanted to be involved with the subject of sociology my entire life. So I decided that college just wasn’t the thing for me, and I got myself a job. After I saved up enough money, I packed a backpack, took my snowboard and went to Canada. I didn’t really have a specific goal – just travelling around and doing whatever I felt like. I remember the amazing feeling of sitting all alone on a snow-covered mountaintop, with beautiful forests all around me.
Unfortunately, the trip ended a bit too soon when I crashed into a tree with my snowboard – fracturing my pelvis. It is quite an amusing story of how that came about, but since it’s rather long, I’ll save that one for later. To make a long story short: I was in a hospital in a small town somewhere in western Canada for about two weeks. And considering that I crashed myself into that particular tree on the first day in that town, I didn’t know too many people there. Actually, I only knew one guy (since I had met him before in a different hostel) and he had to travel back to Australia the day after my crash. So I was all alone in that hospital on the other end of the world, on a hospital ward populated by elderly women who had had hip replacement surgery. Luckily enough, most of the nurses were really sympathetic, and tried to make my stay there durable. For instance, one of them picked up some random books and magazines for me (unfortunately, they magazines were about ‘home and garden’, ‘women’s health’ and ‘horses’ – but it’s the thought that counts, right?). Another nurse got me an old radio, headphones, and some tapes she had at home. One of the songs on those tapes was this one. And whenever I hear this song, my mind travels back to Canada…

8. Refused – The Deadly Rhythm
I love my job. There are probably a lot of people claiming the same thing wrongfully, but I really mean it. My work is probably my biggest hobby as well. Let me explain that: I am an architect. My job is about understanding social conditions and cultural phenomena, getting the best out of clients, solving technical problems, thinking strategically, generating images, influencing human behaviour, dealing with tight budgets and big ambitions and considering environmental care. And basically it is about making really pretty stuff. And every project is different: there’s no routine in it. It’s a creative outlet for me.
Therefore I don’t mind that I have to put in a lot of time. Especially when working on big competitions, there’s no such thing as ‘nine to five’ in architecture – it’s more like pulling several all-nighters in the office. It can be exhausting, but it is a lot of fun too. The fun and excitement is in combining tried and tested ingredients into something new, fresh and surprising. Basically, that’s what I loved/love Refused for, as well. They throw a whole bunch of ingredients and influences together, and created their very own amalgamation out of that.

9. Bram Vermeulen – Verlangen
Bram Vermeulen has made a great deal of great songs. What makes me like them so much is the combination of the well-thought lyrics with his gritty, melancholic voice. I think ‘Verlangen’ is one of my favourite Dutch songs of all times – he has formulated things better than I ever could…
I am always unrelaxed. My mind is always wandering. Many nights, I cannot sleep because my mind is overflowing with thoughts and ideas. Every once in a while I need to break away from my normal life, and escape. Preferably alone – I really enjoy travelling alone. Even though those two things seem rather different, they are part of the same emotion for me.I am not too sure, but I guess that I am never 100% at ease with the way something is, I am always longing for something new or something familiar. I always want something else…

10. The Sleeping – King of Hearts
I really enjoy sitting in my car, driving to see my girlfriend (who lives in Germany), and having the CD of ‘The Sleeping’ making spin after spin in my CD-player the entire trip. I am inside my private little world on the road, shouting along on the top of my voice. This record is great for that. It might be a bit flaky to sing songs of bad breakups (like this one) whilst travelling to one’s girlfriend, but I’m like that. Sue me.
In the past two years, I wrote about 150 to 200 reviews for AsIce (roughly estimated), and did a dozen or so interviews. It’s rather difficult to say which of the bands involved really made an impact on me. To be honest, most of the bands I don’t even recall – which probably speaks for itself. However, there are a couple of bands that I’ve discovered through AsIce, such as The Sleeping.
Thank you AsIce…

Motorola City

When someone says "government and public safety solutions" to me, I am having trouble surpressing a deep rooted "YAWN!"

Until I saw the website that Motorola has for just those products. Normally, one would expect a simple site on which it is possible to browse through the products in a systematical matter. Well, they decided to go all out on an interactive site, on which is shown which kind of communication devices is needed to make critical situations in the public realm work out the right way.

Photoshop disasters

I think it happened to the best of us at one time another: a fluky photoshop. Becasue of the time pressure of a deadline, or just a lack of concentration, things might go wrong in an image that you are working on in photoshop. Most of the times it goes unnoticed, but every once in a while a small error pops into prominent view.

And now: there's a weblog to have some fun with those mistakes, aptly called "Photoshop Disasters". And it has some nice examples of Playboy magazine went all out on a frenzy with the cloning tool... and made the poor girls' bellybutton dissapear...

Less Rain

The website of the media design firm Less Rain itself is already a wonderful display of what kind of creative concepts they work with. But wait until you've seen their house style flyers/posters/brochures/businesscards and whatnot (or "propaganda", as they call it themselves).

But also the work they do for others is really cool: whether it's a corporate identity concept, a website, a virtual train to spray virtual graffiti upon, a concept for a way to turn the Red Bull formula one car into a charity auction - it all shows a love and passion for work with a strong concept and a sharp, contemporary visual style. I love it.


say yes to good weather! Less Rain!

architecture TV

It is pretty much an impossible task to get to see all the interesting buildings over the world live. For those of us that don't happen to have an unlimited amount of airmiles: thank god for 0300.TV. This website has a pretty impressive amount of videos of architectural walkthroughs. Unfortunately, the descriptions are only in Spanish (making navigation a bit challenging, to say the least), but the videos surely do make up for that. It doesn't beat the real thing, but still it's great to sit behind your computer at home and virtually walk through a building in China. Or Buenos Aires. Or somewhere else in the world...

Strange Maps

Thanks to archispass.org, I found this great website called strange maps. The title basically says it all, it's a collection of strange maps with the accompanying stories. For everyone who's into these kinds of things, it's great read. I've spent a whole bunch of time reading there...



This map, for instance, is indicating the plans that the Dutch government designed shortly after the second world war for annexing large parts of the German territories as war repairment payment. The main figure behind this all was Frits Bakker-Schut, member of the official governmental "Staatscommissie ter Bestudering van het Annexatievraagstuk" (state commitee for the study of annexation), as well as the un-governmental "Nederlandsch Comité voor Gebiedsuitbreiding" (Dutch commitee for territorial expansion).
Shortly after the war, they rallied for support with the above plan (in three versions)
- Plan A: Annexation of all areas west of the line Wilhelmshaven-Osnabrück-Hamm-Wesel-Cologne-Aachen (including all those cities).
- Plan B: Basically the same proposal, but excluding the densely populated areas around Neuss, Mönchengladbach and Cologne from annexation.
- Plan C: The smallest proposed area of annexation, with the border being moved to a line beginning in Varel, including all of Emsland and the Wesel area down towards Krefeld.

Early 1947, at the Conference of the Western Occupying Powers of Germany in London, Netherlands came with a annexe-claim, consisting of a smaller version of plan C.
Needless to say, the Dutch didn't get that much. At the Germany Conference in London on April 23, 1949, 20 German fragments of land became Dutch over night - in total less than 69 square kilometres...

Their circular life

On their circular life Lorenzo Fonda and Davide Terenzi document the day in the life of a piece of urban infrastructure. Well, actually, they document a day in the life of five places. By means of 24 still photos, combined with sound clips, they present 24 hours of urban life in one time-lapsed video.

The two guys that started the project in 2001 say the following about 'their circular life': "Humans are all equal. They have the same needs. They feel, act and behave accordingly to an unknown law. Urban places know this well. By living the life of urban infrastructure, you become an external observer of what happens everyday in every place on earth."
And it's just that. Imaginative observations of life. Not life on the streets, but the life of the streets...

By the way, the project is open source, so feel free
to participate with a film that you made yourself.

CouchSurfing

Two of the most interesting things that the internet has brought forth over the last years are, in my view, so-called "social networks" and "interactivity".
Personally, I am mostly fascinated by virtual/real life crossovers. CouchSurfing is such a virtual network that is actually enhancing the real life.
The basic idea is rather simple: who better to show you around a city you visit? And why not help travellers out with a place to sleep? So, on CouchSurfing, you can find people who are willing to figure as some sort of travel guide for their place, or people who are willing to let you sleep in their place. And the only thing that is asked in return is that you are willing to do the same to others. No money involved, no difficult transactions, but instead a great way to meet nice people and see interesting people.

If you are wondering how it exactly works, this is how they put it on their website:

1. You become a member of CouchSurfing.com. Create a profile and fill it out as much as possible, including photos. Be sure to link to any friends you might already have in the network.

2. Consider joining some discussion groups in your areas of interests or engage in the chat. You meet some friendly people online and share in some interesting discussions.

3. You decide you want to spend two weeks traveling around Europe. You get a ticket arriving in Amsterdam and departing from Florence.

4. You log on to CouchSurfing.com and do a search for members within 20 km/miles of Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich and Florence- your new travel itinerary.

5. You contact interesting prospects from the list and explain the sort of travel/stay you're interested in. Use the "Request to CouchSurf with..." button to include specific details.

6. You get several offers for places to stay. You decide that you want to spend a few days in each city.

7. You confirm with your hosts, adjust your travel plans, and excitedly fly off to Amsterdam.

8. Martin picks you up at the airport and takes you back to his flat in the Rembrandtplein section of Amsterdam. The two of you walk around the neighborhood and meet some of his friends at a lively cafe for dinner. You stay up late sharing stories and getting to know each other. Martin recommends some interesting places you might like to explore around the city. When he returns from work the next evening, he takes you to his favorite pub and you tell him about your adventures. The two of you laugh and connect; you make new friends at the pub, and you're grinning the whole walk home along the canals.

9. As an example of a good surfer, you do as much as you can to give back to your hosts. This includes doing simple things like, for example, washing the dishes, making dinner or helping out in some way. Maybe you have a special skill you're willing to share?

10. You say good-bye and move on to Brussels, Frankfurt, and then Zurich. In each location you've met some great people and gotten to experience being a part of the culture through your connection with your host. You go places you would have never read about in a guidebook, meet interesting locals, and spend time bonding with your host. You're actually experiencing those "deep and meaningful connections" you've read about on the site, and you're making friends for life.

11. You decide to stay a little longer in Florence and your host, Donia, has agreed to let you spend a week with her.

12. You spend the week talking with Donia about politics, travel, art, your hometown, and a whole lot of other things. She lets you borrow her bicycle and gives you a map she's marked with some fun places to check out. On the weekend she takes you on a side trip to visit some relatives in a small Tuscan village. You learn to make awesome marinara sauce, you take a hike through picturesque rolling hills and her uncle, a craftsman, gives you a handmade leather belt. You're amazed at the time you're having! Back in Florence, Donia takes you to her favorite gelato place and you know it's the best thing you've ever tasted.

13. By the time you leave on the bus for the airport, you feel that you've gotten a good feel for the local life in each of the places you've traveled. You've made many new friends and you hope Martin, Donia and others will visit you. You can't wait for your turn to show them the great things about your culture.

14. When you arrive home you are so excited about CouchSurfing you go immediately to the participate tab and start helping CouchSurfing community advance the mission of the project.

AddArt adds art for ads

It seems to be a common annoyance: advertisements on websites. For instance, ad-blockers are among the most popular add-ons for Mozilla Firefox. For most people. it would be enough if an advertisement would be simply replaced by a blank space. Not for Steve Lambert, however. He came up with a plugin called AddArt that does just what the name proclaims: it turns the internetbrowser into some kind of online art gallery. Right now it's still in the prototype phase, but maybe someday soon...

Visual Complexity

It's a question that many designers have thought about over the years (non-designers too, of course): how can you possibly visualize complex networks?
Visualizing is, in this case, not just about making pretty pictures, but it is also a way of understanding complexity.
Manuel Lima, an interaction designer, information architect and design researcher started a website called visualcomplexity.com , which is completely devoted to the subject of depicting complex sources of information, like social networks, internet features, art and more. There are plenty of examples to be found, that might help one understand the subject matter a bit more...