joel, remember when we went here?

dudok. so jazzy.

nErD aLeRt

UNStudio's arnhem station is opening after 19 years of construction and it's already dated.

i like it tho. reminds me of the saarinen TWA terminal.

who wants a gemini chair?!

i know i do.

Part of UNStudio's Gemini collection for Dutch brand Artifort, the asymmetric chair was designed to let sitters "sit up, slouch, lounge, hang, repose or hunker", as well as to "shift, twist, turn, swing around, pivot to face each other or turn towards the room." (via)

NeRd aLeRt!!

usually i am a big fan of any design that comes from the netherlands, but this redesign of the delegates lounge at the united nation seems like a wasted opportunity. there are two beautiful hand crafted window treatments by Hella Jongerius on either end, then they just piled in an array of dutch furniture in between. all this for 3.5 million dollars. not good enough.

more pictures and a description of the design process here

this is definitely the most dramatic youtube you will watch about a concert pianist today. for sure.

During a lunch concert at Amsterdam's famed Royal Concertgebouw, Pires sat down at her piano fully expecting to hear one Mozart concerto, but the orchestra suddenly started to play a different one: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. (via)

nErD aLeRt!

With a fifth of their population below sea level, the Dutch have historically been ahead of the curve when it comes to planning for ecological disasters. A new project from Dutch designer Pieter Stoutjesdijk takes that efficiency one step further, with an emergency shelter that can be built in a mere five hours. (via)

diving with the stars

abc is launching a new reality competition show called celebrity splash featuring celebs doing olympic-style dives.

According to the producers, in Celebrity Splash, celebrities perform dives from dizzying heights, which increase in difficulty each week, including backflips, somersaults and other gymnastic feats. Leading up to the competition, a professional diving instructor gives each celebrity weeks of training. The set up echoes ABC’s veteran Dancing With The Stars and its short-lived spinoff Skating With The Stars. (via)

above is a clip from the dutch show that inspired it.

nErD aLeRt!

this is the design for a new high-rise by dutch firm MVRDV. does it remind you of anything?

i guess a lot of people were reminded of the world trade center towers exploding. MVRDV responded on facebook saying:

A real media storm has started and we receive threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse.

MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes regarding 9/11, it was not our intention.

The Cloud was designed based on parameters such as sunlight, outside spaces, living quality for inhabitants and the city. It is one of many projects in which MVRDV experiments with a raised city level to reinvent the often solitary typology of the skyscraper. It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologize to anyone whose feelings we have hurt, the design was not meant to provoke this.

The design inspiration of The Cloud is visualised in the image here. (via)

ooooooooooooops!

it's really too bad it looks like 9/11, because it's kind of cool otherwise.

nerd alert

The Moses Bridge, as its name suggests, is pedestrian bridge that creates the illusion of walking through water — in this case, the West-Brabant waterline near Fort de Roovere in the Netherlands. Designed by RO & AD Architects, the bridge was built using Accoya wood, a type of modified wood that offers the enhanced durability necessary to sustain a sunken bridge. via

nErD aLeRt!

i saw this and i loved this before i even knew it was dutch.

la llotja de lleida by mecanoo

The mountain with the historical cathedral Seu Vella and the Segre river mark the high and low points of the mountainous landscape in which Lleida lies, after Barcelona the second city of Catalonia. On the banks of the Segre, somewhat outside the centre of the city, is coming La Llotja, a large conference centre with a theatre. Mecanoo has interpreted the landscape of Lleida as an exciting decor before which the building has been set down somewhat away from the river. The mise-en-scène is elaborated on three levels of scale. Regarded at the large scale of the region, the building represents a connecting link between the river and the mountain. Viewed at the level of the city, La Llotja and the river forms a balanced composition. At street level the cantilevers of the La Llotja de Lleida conference centre provide protection from sun and rain. (via)

the dutch do it again

such a playful pragmatism. and orange.
this is from a train station in utrecht.

history!

as you probably already know, the city is currently tearing up fulton street, in some sort of effort to make things better. while digging, they recently uncovered at old-timey well from the 17th-century farm of new york's first native-born mayor, stephanus van cortlandt. they also found a bird head about some old dutch teapot pieces. you can read all about it here.

bonus link: the development of a new urban farm in the battery

nErD aLeRt!

reference desk made of books, architecture library at delft university of technology. in the netherlands, of course.

(via)

A unified theory of New York biking

linked from the article, "Why Do New Yorkers Hate Cyclists." Basically, the idea is that bikes should generally behave more like cars, and pedestrians should be far more aware of bikes on the road.

It is clear that it is possible for bikes, cars, pedestrians, and other modes of transportation to coexist, and it is kind of sick that there aren't better American examples. Why can't we all be a little more Dutch?

put your glasses on.

installation : 4000 books by anouk kruihof

great job, orange dutch soccer vols.

i like your outfits. 2-1 over poor slovakia.  

rawr!

lets go dutch orange soccer vols!!

jealous?

governor's island plan by west 8.

The plan, by Adriaan Geuze of the Dutch landscape architecture firm West 8, calls for a park that, if realized, will eventually include a cluster of steep, artificially created hills that form a focal point at the park’s center, visually tying it back to the city. Its wildly original array of parkscapes — including a “hammock grove,” a grottolike shelter, playing fields and marshlands — will give the island the kind of strong identity it currently lacks. When considered with Michael Van Valkenburgh’s Brooklyn Bridge Park, under construction across the harbor in Brooklyn, it represents a shift in the character of the city’s park system as a whole that is as revolutionary as Robert Moses’ early public works projects or Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s Central Park. (via) (slideshow)

thx g.

have you ever thought about polka lady gaga

thats dutch

from

aren't libraries the best?

fact: everyone loves a good library. i dont have to tell you that. today, the huffington post has compiled a pretty cool slideshow of library spaces around the world, old and new. you can rate them, too. so it's interactive!!

that reminded me that during a recent stroll, john and i stopped in the brooklyn historical society to check 'er out, and were pleasantly surprised to find this little gem, the othmer library.

what's that? you were wondering what my favorite library is? oh, well, that's pretty easy. it's the delft university library by mecanoo, in the netherlands!

what's your favorite?