Kosmonaut - Berlin Kreuzberg.

The Kosmonaut in Berlin, Kreuzberg is the work of the French graffiti artist Victor Ash.

"There is something lonely and helpless about this Kreutzberg astronaut; attached to nothing, without purpose and without context. He looks like he is about to float off the wall and into space - the eternal unknown that humans have not yet managed to conquer after all." (Miriam Nielsen)

In the architectural community Victor Ash might be known for the mountain wall painting at the VM Bjerget, by  BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group.

Typo-Garden.

In place of flowers, trees and plants the "Christian Garden" in Berlin-Marzahn is a garden of type. A claustral colonnade built from golden aluminium letters quoting words from the old and new testament. Whereas the landscape and garden design is done by the German office "relais Landschaftsarchitekten" the typography is done by Alexander Branczyk. The designer even designed an exclusive font for the project. [via fontblog]

Lovely Letter (2).

Hotel sign + arrow - seen in Vienna at Graumanngasse (see google maps link). But watch out, the hotel Bauer is a place where guests pay per hour..

Architektin - Gender neutrality in Google.

When you google "Architektin"- the female noun of architect - the German google asks if you mean "Architekt" - the masculine noun. Why - because Google creates the suggestions based on their search index. Accordingly, the noun "Architektin" appears so rarely in the databases that the search engine assumes a spelling error: "Do you mean Architekt?"  The German language makes gender equality difficult, the Duden (the standard German dictionary) however, suggests to use the exact female or male noun, especially in official (governmental) documents and job titles. No "generic masculine" anymore.  Consequently, it should say "Architektinnen und Architekten" - it's a matter of gender neutrality in languages. But nobody seems to care.

Who will tell Google?
(thanks, Annegret and Heike for the tip)

Update (2004-april-11 on twitter): "@byearchitecture We try our best to have google work well in all langs, sometimes gender does trip us up. Spelling team is working on a fix." jackm

Bruno Munari - Drawing a Tree.

"One of my very old friends from the country, a certain Lenoard, born in a small village near Florence, Vinci (postal code 50059) was a very curious fellow. He would spend hours observing the plants..."

The books in the new Workshop series describes different working techniques, from educational to explanatory pamphletes and "poetic" play..

get the book on amazon.com
Bruno Munari: Drawing A Tree (About the Workshop Series)

Anagram City Maps.

Anagram city maps - by Armelle Caron.

27 The Project - A Journey through Contemporary Architecture in Europe.

27 The Project - Teaser from FatCat Films on Vimeo.

"27" is a journey into the heart of contemporary European architecture, under a permanent state of mutation. 27 countries, 27 cultures, 27 architects build according to their own rules, and their own history while giving contribution for the construction of a common space : Europe.

www.27-theproject.com

Color Stair.

The Holsteiner stair in Wuppertal - painted during the "7 stairs" art festival in 2006. It is an installation by Horst Gläsker.

A Dome In Peka Peka.

A Dome In Peka Peka from livlin productions on Vimeo.

A short documentary about architect Fritz Eisenhofer, who designed and built a futuristic earth-sheltered dome in Peka Peka, Aotearoa / New Zealand. A film by Gaby Lingke, who is specialized in creating multimedia content for NGOs, artists, cultural institutions, not-just-for-profit enterprises, and innovative design and science projects.

Republik Kugelmugel.

Kugelmugel ("sphere-hill") is a “micro-nation” situated In the Vienna Prater, erected by the artist Edwin Lipburger. The nation has got 611 citizens and even its own stamps (which brought him almost to jail). Edwin Lipburger argued that a spherical building has got its own centre point - independent from the geocentre - and therefore Kugelmugel is free from laws and (building) regulations. So far, however, the building has neither water connection nor electricity. Of course the “micro-nation” was never confirmed (more information at croynielsen.de).

SANAA vs. Playboy

Was the iconic Playboy bunny chair photograph for the October 1971 cover of the magazine inspiration to Kazuyo Sejima and Rye Nishizawa when designing the "rabbit chair"? Anyway, the "rabbit chair" is a great piece of furniture.

Color History - German Interior.

Color and material cycles (1955-2005) from interiors in the German speaking world (diagram redrawn from Detail magazine 2006/6, page 664).