HOTEL OF DOOM WAKES FROM COMA

the 105-storey Ryugyong Hotel in North Corea's capital Pyongyang

North Korea is refurbishing the "the worst building in the history of mankind" after a 16 year break.
the three sided pyramid that dominates Pyongyang's skyline used to be the number one prestige project of Korea's leader Kim Il-sung. after losing the sowjets as their main supporters the construction had to pause. just until now: Kim Il-sung's son Kim Jong-il decided to put the hotel back under construction.
one of many questions: who will dwell in that 3000-room giant in a country that basically does not except tourists?

"...Bruno Giberti, associate head of California Polytechnic State University's Department of Architecture, said the project was typical of what has been produced recently in many cities trying to show their emerging wealth by constructing gigantic edifices that were not related in scale to anything else around them."
thanks to yahoo news for the info - link

watch this great movie referring to the hotel of doom.

the utopian vision of north korea's future once it's open to the global market

thanks for the movie - link

! MAP THIS ! #8 - SHRINKING CITIES

World Map of Shrinking Cities from 1kilo on Vimeo.

Shrinking cities is a project (2002-2008) of the Federal Cultural Foundation, under the direction of Philipp Oswalt (Berlin) in co-operation with the Leipzig Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and the magazine archplus.


Moving Datas from 1kilo on Vimeo.

Thanks to Digital Urban for the link

HYDRO VISONS

A project already discussed a lot a few month ago, but worth to remember: the hydro-net vison for San Francisco 2108 by IwamotoscottArchitecture. See related article on Inhabitat.
The architect's Flickr photo set also provides a deeper insight into to project.
While this project takes advantage out of natural processes by growing seaweed, algae and chanterelle mushroom the atmospheric physicist Carl Hodges believes that salicornia will be the natural resource for future energy supply.Salicornia is a crop nourished by ocean water that holds the potential to provide food and fuel to millions. See related article 'The man who farms with the sea' by LA Times

excursus II

In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards", no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.

Directed by James Frost
From the album IN RAINBOWS

Thanks to information aesthetics for the link

1 MILLION TREES FOR NEW YORK CITY

image source
link

postscript URBAN FLORA

subtle subversive urban seeding. Have a look at: Bloom: Peddling Green

The Bloom device is meant to be a subversive and inspirational tool for our concrete jungles. Similar to the tuft of a dandelion as the wind carries the seedling, we propose a way of dispersing seedlings with bubbles and bicycling.

related: Urban Flora's High Speed Evolution, Urban Agriculture

URBAN FLORA'S HIGH SPEED EVOLUTION

recent studies show that weeds are able to adapt to urban conditions very rapidly. reason for this is the split-up of their habitat. but for them this is not a problem at all: instead of investing energy in complex flying divices to fan out (such as the so called Holy Pippau/crepis sancta does), they focus on creating seeds that are heavy enough to fall down from the plant directly and germinate at the same location. makes sense, since it is not very likely the flying seeds will fall down on a piece of fertile soil.
remarkably is that this process of adaptation from rural to urban only takes a few seasons!
so now we know. not only humans are capable to adjust to city life...

WHEN ARCHITECTS MEET AUTOCRATS

Republic Square Kazakhstan by E.O. Moss

...some architects argue that architecture is more important to them than politics. “I’m a guy who has on my wall a picture of the guy in front of the tank,” said Eric Owen Moss, a Los Angeles architect, referring to the famous photograph from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. “But I’ve never turned down a project in Russia and China.”...
???????

link

excursus I

excursus will be a new irregular series of posts, collecting links of diverse interest with some sort of personal influence. Here comes number I:

Digital Kitchen.


a digital media firm responsible for Six Feet Under's great opening credits. An Artwork itself.
Also the opening sequence of Dexter is worth a look.

HYDROLOGICAL HEALING

These images appeared recently relating to a project in Los Angeles, related to the restoration of water reservoir levels of bromate. A new approach is the use of sun-block, in the form of plastic balls, that limit the mixing of bromide and chlorine which is causing elevated levels of bromate.

"Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form."source Boston.com and Landscape+Urbanism blog