As I posted before, I wrote a contribution to Volume magazine’s 28th edition on “The Internet of Things”. I have been reading in it for nearly a month now, and I have to say that the quality of the contributions is intimidating. Off course, this was to be expected after seeing the list of contributors: amongst others you will find texts by Adam Greenfield, Kevin Kelly, Deborah Hauptmann, Mark Shepard, Julian Bleecker, Joost Grootens, Ole Bouman and Usman Haque, which are all very much worth your time. I was especially intrigued by the beautiful project “Hylozoic Ground” by Philip Beesley, the insert “Tracing Concepts” by Edwin Gardner and Marcell Mars and the faux introduction “Touching the Interspace” by Carola Moujan (who quotes Keiichi Matsuda, whom I have covered several times on this blog)

Hylozoic Ground by Philip Beesley

After the Jump you can read my article on Urban Content Management or download the .pdf [Read more →]

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Urban Content Management (UCM); a User Centered Model
Recently I participated in a workshop organized by VURB and Volume magazine. The workshop’s theme was ‘The Internet of Things; architects vs. coders’. The workshop was part of their research leading to the newest issue, #28 on the Internet of Things, for which I wrote an article. The issue is now for sale online and in your local bookstore.

Personally I find the Internet of Things a somewhat vague and overhyped term, but the concept of digitally connecting the physical with the digital, the static with the ephemeral does hold great promises for a more liveable living environment. It should be used to empower citizens, to make them part of the constant (re-)development of the city so they can feel more connected everything (and everyone) residing in it. My contribution for Volume #28 describes the system architecture of an Urban Content Management system.
[Read more →]

Tags: Open Data, Publication, Use Cases, visions // 2 Comments »

The next Visible Cities event hosts the Cognitive Cities salon. Also it marks the 28th edition of Volume magazine, on ‘The Internet of Things’ for which I have written an article.

Cognitive City Salon
The synthesis of architecture and network technologies.

Co-curated by Visible Cities.

Date: 30th of June
Location: Club area (upstairs)
Address: Wibautstraat 127, Amsterdam
Begin: 19:00 (start at 19:30)
End: 22:30
Entrance fee: 10 Euros

Thursday (June 30) De Verdieping will host two events on the Future City. One of them is the Cognitive City Salon ( which will take place in the upstairs club area). In the CCS the synthesis between architecture, urban environments and network technology (smart-phones, AR technology, data-visualization and ubiquitous computing) is presented and you’re welcome to join the conversation.

It is our combined pleasure to introduce you to the speakers that will engage the conversation about the future of cities at De Verdieping on the evening of June 30th.

Guests
James Burke – interaction designer, user experience architect and co-founder of VURB http://lifesized.net/
Katalin Galayas – Policy Advisor to the City of Amsterdam
Kars Alfrink – ‘Chief Agent’ of Hubbub http://whatsthehubbub.nl/
Edwin Gardner – VOLUME Magazine http://www.edwingardner.nl

[Read more →]

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Media have been altering the way our cities look. However, because up until now media have always needed a physical medium, the one who controls the medium controls what is shown. This way governments have always had control over how we perceive a certain location, and thus controlled in what level these added media control the look and feel of a location: the program, the architecture, and historical context have always been important factors in deciding what and how much media are allowed in certain locations. In augmented cities this physical medium is no longer needed: everybody can upload content to locations. So how do we protect historical squares from media overload? How do we protect playgrounds from pornography? [Read more →]

Tags: concept // 3 Comments »

In march I saw Ole Bouman, the director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi), speak at Visible Cities, and it became clear to me that he has the right vision to lead the organization into the 21^st century. With NAi’s Urban Augmented Reality application (UAR) they have certainly found a way to connect architecture to the digital world. Ole is also a thinker, writer and creator of architecture. In the nineties he published several essays concerning digital space and architecture. Together with Rem Koolhaas and Mark Wigley he started ‘Volume Magazine’. Some of the editorials can be found on www.olebouman.net. On an incredibly hot day in June I got the chance to interview Ole at his office at the NAi. [Read more →]

Tags: interviews // 4 Comments »

Wow, this is just beautiful! This installation art piece by Joon Y. Moon, an MFA students at Parsons, combines killer looks with intuitive high tech. Take some time to see what the installation does, it really is a sophisticated piece of AR.

via Games Alfresco [Read more →]

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Part of the research behind Archadia was done from the offices of the Waag Society. This is an extremely inspiring place to be at, especially if you are interested in technology, media and social innovation. One of the biggest reasons for this is the amazing group of people who work at the Waag, who triggered my inspiration and imagination with their enthusiasm and their fast, creative and open minds. I interviewed several of them and these interviews will be presented in three parts, of which this is the first.

Tom Demeyer is the ‘head of technology’. Frank Kresin is the ‘program manager’ and ‘research director’. Rinske Hordijk is the ‘head of the education program’. Edwin van Ouwekerk Moria is a ‘mobile developer’. Dick van Dijk is a ‘concept developer’. To start of the interview I asked everybody what their main fascination on the theme of technology and the city was:

[Read more →]

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A close-up of one of the maps I created during my master thesis at the TUDelft has been selected as bookcover “Border Conditions“, by Marc Schoonderbeek, which is the Archined book of the month.

“Border Conditions presents the initial results from the research and design studio of the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. The book offers a collection of essays and experimental architecture projects that emanated from research into the spatial impact of socio-political developments, with an emphasis on mapping the contemporary urban milieu. The book provides a thematic overview of the contemporary discussion surrounding borders in architecture, from conflict situations to marginal urban areas; from Kinshasa-Brazzaville, Gibraltar, Kaliningrad and Kiev to Benidorm, Marseille and Rotterdam. A selection of projects shows how mapping can be used to not only register and interpret urban processes, but to show how these design principles can act as the basis for architectural interventions.”

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Another great movie by Keiichi Matsuda, the maker of Domestic Robocop. He’s back and this time it’s in stereoscopic 3D, so for best results watch it through oldskool red and cyan 3D glasses. If you don’t have these at your disposal you’re best of at Youtube by selecting the “left image” option from the 3D menu

Augmented City 3D from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

[Read more →]

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This is big, and I just found out about it today. The UK government, one of the first governments worldwide to put open government data on the agenda, has released the Combined Online INformation System, or Coins.  Basically this is a huge online dataset in which the government shows every aspect, to the tiniest of details, of their expenditure. [Read more →]

Tags: Open Data // 1 Comment »