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City vs. Urbanization
An interesting passage from the great book ’Brussels - A Manifesto. Towards a Capital of Europe’, about the difference between city and urbanization, civitas and urbs, and the citizen member and the...
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Nocturnal City
Today I came across a piece on Guardian Cities titled ’Cities are losing their smell’ by Oliver Wainwright. It reminded me of the fascinating book (and catalogue to the similar-titled exhibition)...
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Explore Everything: A Subversive Urban Critique
For Failed Architecture, I reviewed Bradley Garrett’s fantastic book Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City.Bradley Garrett’s Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City is a book that goes beyond...
View ArticleWe Own The City - Enabling Community Practice in Architecture and Urban Planning
Here’s the sneak preview of the book We Own The City by CITIES and published by Hong Kong University Press and Trancity*Valiz.I contributed to several parts of the book, mostly by interviewing renowned...
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Sandwich shop, Jodenbreestraat, Amsterdam, 1965. One of the last...
Sandwich shop, Jodenbreestraat, Amsterdam, 1965. One of the last remaining buildings in the Waterlooplein area, which was torn down in the 1960s.Image by Ed van der Elsken. Courtesy of Annet Gelink...
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Amsterdam's Latest Innovation in Sustainable Urban Food Transport
For The Guardian I wrote about FOODLOGICA, a smart solar-powered tricycle service for food delivery. You can read it by clicking the image below.
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“Voids speak to a transient ideal of imperfection - a...
“Voids speak to a transient ideal of imperfection - a principle of aesthectic appreciation in longing for authenticity.” - Hiroshi Naito in Tokyo Void
View ArticleGreat time-lapse running up to Amsterdam’s Week of the...
Great time-lapse running up to Amsterdam’s Week of the City, which is about to take off. This year’s theme is the city’s ring road A10 and the ringzone surrounding it. From November 5-9, you can...
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Squat eviction, Vondelstraat. Amsterdam, 1980
Squat eviction, Vondelstraat. Amsterdam, 1980
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Why we need more architecture criticism
“Frank Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne (above) and his Panama Biomuseum (below) flagrantly disregard their settings, reducing architecture to mere superfluous spectacle,...
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Tahrir today: new (defensive) landscaping, a flagpole erected,...
Tahrir today: new (defensive) landscaping, a flagpole erected, and the Nile Ritz-Carlton almost reopening. The square’s subway station is out of use and the former NDP HQs are still ashy. (bij Tahrir...
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‘Roosevelt’s erection’ (187m), built in 1961 with CIA bribe...
‘Roosevelt’s erection’ (187m), built in 1961 with CIA bribe money and Soviet help, recieved a fatwa in the 1990s because its shape amidst greenery could excite Egyptian women.
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City of symbols: Egypt’s National Democratic Party HQs were set...
City of symbols: Egypt’s National Democratic Party HQs were set ablaze during the 2011 revolution. The blackened carcass is now rocking an ad for Egypt’s £30bn capital to be: New Cairo. (6th October...
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From the Sky Lounge of Deloitte’s new HQ - the...
From the Sky Lounge of Deloitte’s new HQ - the “world’s most sustainable office building” - you can see Crystal Tower, a 13 year old, 20.000 sqm building Deloitte left behind empty. Talking about...
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The Haussmannisation of Amsterdam
In the midst of central Amsterdam’s gentrification wave a luxury department store has been given the name of the ruthless 19th century Parisian planner. The irony of the reference demands a closer look...
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