6% (32/547) 0% (32/297713). Open article.

Almost three years after TD releases its “Sky High –Dow Low” SNOG in MARK Magazine #18,2009, Barclays Capital, one of world’s most respected financial institution, admits that a sudden irrational race for ever higher skyscrapers heralds a period of economic downturn.

Barclays Capital Skyscraper Index

37% (200/547) 0% (200/297713). Open article.

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Open House is a movement in which inhabitants discover their inner service provider and open up their homes to the public for service exchange. Open House aims to revive non-urban areas by stimulating encounters, social cohesion and introducing new economic activities. In collaboration with residents, municipalities, developers and designers the project aims to develop and implement a new housing model that strikes a new balance between public and private space in non-urban areas of The Netherlands. Encouraging self-inventiveness, offering ideas and streamlining implementation, the movement brings more activity, diversity, social cohesion and capital to residential areas through service exchange.

17% (95/547) 0% (95/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger holds a lecture at the Architecture and Science faculty of Ryerson University, Toronto Canada.
lecture schedule

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Groundwork’s started some weeks ago for a private house designed by TD close to the capital of Guinea-Bissau. Through applying as much as possible local materials and assigning solely local contractors for the construction work, the client together with us hopes to stimulate the economy of one of Africa’s poorest countries. The completion of the building is expected in spring 2012.
The pictures show excavation works, the client studying the plans together with the foreman, a bar bender and the three chamber wastewater treatment basin for water purification.

5% (2280/46641) 1% (2280/297713). Open article.

TD is asked to design a vacation destination for elderly and people in need for special health care in the south of the Netherlands. The park should consist of 35 freestanding units and two apartment buildings with 15 units each. Ground works should start at the end of 2011. The masterplan was developed by TD in collaboration with Lenze Plass (Zeeuwse Rozentuin) and Marjanka Rijk from the landscape design office Arend Jan van der Horst.

6% (2783/46641) 1% (2783/297713). Open article.

With this design TD accomplished to be one of the 5 winners of the first round of the architecture design competition for the visitor center of the Oostvaardersplassen nature resort.

5% (2406/46641) 1% (2406/297713). Open article.

At Home in my Office
Most office workers go to an office every day, not because of its technical facilities but for the experience of work-life, the atmosphere and the unexpected, which are happening in a large group at once. Today’s office-work is much more about life than about labour. In groups we work, in groups we live. And in groups we perform even better; not always more efficient but much more present and alive.

5% (2272/46641) 1% (2272/297713). Open article.

Urania Bridge
Design for a pedestrian- and bicycle-bridge in the city center of Vienna opposite the famous Urania observatory. The assignment was to design a movable bridge in order to enable the Danube river-boats to turn at the spot in front of the bridge. The Urania Bridge is designed as “rolling bascule bridge” with the muse Urania as its counterweight.

5% (2376/46641) 1% (2376/297713). Open article.

The project introduces itself as natural reed which grows along the highway. The reed grows higher and higher and slowly starts to take on super-natural proportions until it determines the entire horizon. Drivers consider themselves as ants which crawl in an enormous forest of reed. The super-natural reed landscape vanishes on the other side of the bridge as subtle as it started.

5% (2469/46641) 1% (2469/297713). Open article.

GITP Amsterdam is after GITP Maastricht the second location we redesigned and refurnished according to the new strategy.

5% (2228/46641) 1% (2228/297713). Open article.

The three SOH pavilions are conceptualized and design for a travelling exhibition showing the artwork of Alex Vermeulen.

5% (2140/46641) 1% (2140/297713). Open article.

Together with the client several possible building sites in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau, were visited and analyzed. After the final decision of the site is made and the findings from the journey through Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau are evaluated, we will start designing. The estimated realization period is January-March 2009.

5% (2214/46641) 1% (2214/297713). Open article.

The rediscovery of the contemporary American City.
Phoenix is an ideal city, which is celebrated by the grid. Every part in a grid has the ability to be equally important and there is, in its very beginning, no defined hierarchy. Hierarchy is planned or happens historically and gets reinforced where it once began. Our first investigation into Greater Phoenix is an investigation into urban hierarchies.

5% (2536/46641) 1% (2536/297713). Open article.

450m tall observation tower in Cheongna, South Korea.
Super Mo is awaiting you. Super Mo is like a huge friendly giant settled down in the lawn of Central Park, enjoying the chipper activity on its legs and arms, happy to be experienced by curious visitors. Super Mo is humble; in fact the tower is much taller than it dares to reveal. Fully raised this giant would grow to a staggering 1.182 meter height, gradually rising from the soil.

5% (2140/46641) 1% (2140/297713). Open article.

Rethink and reshape the real space for communication.
GITP, Holland’s most established and consolidated Human Resource Management Office is about to undertake a forward looking reorganization. Unlike its competitors GITP is not focusing for the quantity but strives to continue its high quality people business activities, guided by a totally new formula for the HRM business.

6% (2606/46641) 1% (2606/297713). Open article.

Investigation into the possibility for ecological living combined with multi-generational living.
For this project the “house in a house” system was established, where different layers of comfort are wrapped around the residential zone. These layers are layers of different temperatures and at the same time layers of privacy. The core is the most private and temperature controlled.

4% (2072/46641) 1% (2072/297713). Open article.

LECI N'EST PAS UN PONT

5% (2140/46641) 1% (2140/297713). Open article.

The Bootle Log represents the bridge in its most basic and most symbolic way...

Bridges are the most basic, yet most symbolic infrastructure elements. The Bootle Log represents the bridge in its most basic and most symbolic way and refers to the very first day of the invention of the bridge. In this suburban setting along a centuries old canal that is historically deeply rooted in the times of the industrial revolution and nowadays used for recreation, the Bootle Log is both: nostalgic and science fiction.

5% (2133/46641) 1% (2133/297713). Open article.

Park and Ride facility for 2000 cars.
The parking garage is one of the new Park and Ride (P+R) buildings in Rotterdam. It is placed on top of the Metro station Kralingse Zoom. Starting from an existing design the project develops more efficiency and simplicity in the garage circulation, at the same time that creates an image for the area due to it s busy location at the exit of the A16. The green houses on top use the CO2 produced by the cars.

5% (2183/46641) 1% (2183/297713). Open article.

The design of the ENM is part of the Estonia’s nation building process. The ENM collection is based on Folklore, which has a big importance in the history of Estonia.
To organize the museum we started from two different principles; the ‘wonder chamber’ concept as the origin of all the museums, and the ‘shopping mall’ as the current containers of our folklore. The cross-breeding of department store and museum leads to a new museum typology.

4% (2025/46641) 1% (2025/297713). Open article.

The assignment given by 3plex in Groningen was to create out of a very diverse set of materials a functioning Bar. Altar and the Bar are mainly seen as opponents, yet their existence is totally intertwined. Once their where one and the same thing devided by God’s word some 3500 years ago. The disgn of ‘The golden Calf’ represents the common denominator of bar and altar. It gives a preview to a time of unified festivity; it brings together what is separated since almost 3500 years.

4% (2075/46641) 1% (2075/297713). Open article.

The ambition of Linz to realize a building that is able to show musicals, operettas and operas as well as experimental, contemporary theatre, made it necessary to rethink the current typologies of theatres. In order to create a flexible core that is able to accommodate all this theatre-forms, we rearranged the program in a way that all fixed program is moved to the side is wrapping around the flexible main room.

5% (2130/46641) 1% (2130/297713). Open article.

This info box should promote the new Philips City Centre, designed by Mecanoo, in Nijmegen. The assignment was to design a pavilion that is a combination of a 20x20 meter box and a 21 meter high tower. The interior world of this box is a fully animated high-tech virtual cinema that allows no view to the outside world. The task of reality check is reserved for the tower.

5% (2135/46641) 1% (2135/297713). Open article.

A huge shopping window of 3 x 25 meter unveils the ground floor of a former farm house that was transformed into a supermarket. This extension of an existing supermarket increases its shopping area to 500 squaremeter.

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“Roll-On” is a calendar in the shape of a simplified (cylindrical) globe which is fed by a paint role. Each full rotation lets a day pass by; adding notes to the circumvention turns this calendar in a diary.

2% (740/41482) 0% (740/297713). Open article.

Total Tourism - The Alpine ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’

Tourism is the world’s largest and fastest-growing economic sector, with more than 800 million people traveling every year, and the world’s largest employer, responsible for 230 million jobs (8% of the global workforce).
The world’s fast growing middle class promises a tourist boom in the nearby future. It is estimated that the global middle class will double in the upcoming twenty years with China and India providing two-thirds of this expansion. Growth in middle class citizens inevitably leads to growth in tourists: experts predict that by 2020, the global 'tourforce' will reach 1.6 billion.

Tourism is a true people-to-people business. Guests express their desire directly to the host, who fulfills it instantly. The tourist’s desire does not stop at the breakfast table but expands to the room, the house and the entire landscape, since enjoying scenery is the foremost reason for visiting a place. In order to satisfy their visitors' wishes and distinguish themselves in an increasingly fierce global competition, the citizens, leaders, and planners of tourist destinations are increasingly shaping their communities to satisfy the expectations of outsiders. In the most extreme cases, this produces environments that are entirely designed around the tourist expectations - homes 'designed' by guests.

5% (2205/41482) 1% (2205/297713). Open article.

Survey and lecture about big buildings and large scale developments in Rotterdam in collaboration and assignment of AIR – the Architecture Institute of Rotterdam.

5% (2145/41482) 1% (2145/297713). Open article.

The exhibition opened in the afternoon of the Dutch national liberation day by Lodewijk Asscher the interim mayor of Amsterdam. TD developed in collaboration with Partizan Publik the concept for this exhibition. The result of one year of investigation into the notion of freedom and liberty is presented on 300m2 right in the Central Station of Amsterdam; world’s most liberal city. Or isn’t it?

5% (2223/41482) 1% (2223/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger curates the graduation show of the Master Media Design Course,Piet Zwart Institute at the CBK (Centrum Beeldende Kunst) in Rotterdam.

6% (2604/41482) 1% (2604/297713). Open article.

On May 5 2009, the national Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) which marks the end of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, TD and restruct were present on the Museum Square in Amsterdam to introduce the Liberty City project.

6% (2350/41482) 1% (2350/297713). Open article.

For imagining a new future for Nordhavnen, it can be helpful to rethink its origin. By looking closely at this strangely shaped peninsula which was used for decades as harbour, one can easily trace the outlines of five ships. But what was here before - the ships or the harbour?

5% (2112/41482) 1% (2112/297713). Open article.

Pro-Test is an interactive democratic battlefield on a public square in Rotterdam. This project is made possible through an invitation by Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and Stichting Pleinmuseum for the purpose of 'Dropstuff’ .

5% (2175/41482) 1% (2175/297713). Open article.

‘The Hague International’ is a proposal for a long term, integral planning process which includes ideas about an international zone as well as all of The Hague’s inhabitants and businesses. It shows a city that could become the first exclusively international area where all nationalities are equally welcomed and regarded as enrichment to the city.
download the study here

6% (2326/41482) 1% (2326/297713). Open article.

Landgraaf defines itself along a spine. This spine was neither planed nor ever longing for being something more than a road that connects the houses and villages along it. 25 years ago three villages along this spine united to form the newly defined town Landgraf. Since then the spine took on a new role and became somehow the town itself.
The study “Welcome to Fabulous Hoofdstraat” unravels the true nature of the spine and finds its utmost economic uniqueness by walking from door to door.

5% (2119/41482) 1% (2119/297713). Open article.

Commissioned by the Rotterdam Architecture Institute (AIR) we investigated the language and imagery used in real estate selling brochures, in order to promote 15 buildings in Rotterdam. By doing this we were able to show how public spaces, landmarks and services provided by the city where claimed for promoting and selling apartments.

5% (2215/41482) 1% (2215/297713). Open article.

With the Ruhr-Area in Germany for the first time in history not a city, but an entire region will participating as European Capital of Culture in the year 2010. As the company that continues the coal and steel economy which sculptured the entire region, the RAG is anxious to participate actively in this event.
The study was much appreciated at the presentation. Yet the client did neither pay, nor respond at all. Afterwards we realized that parts of the study were implemented by the European Capital of Culture Ruhr 2010. (our proposed name change from ‘Ruhrgebiet 2010’ to ‘Ruhr 2010’ was executed, incorporation of sub-cultures in official program,etc.)
See our study here
See the Ruhr 2010 program here

5% (2098/41482) 1% (2098/297713). Open article.

Center Zuid could emerge between the two existing main poles: Ahoy and Kuip. Both are designed to be conveniently accessed by public transport and car, providing more than 3000 "free" parking lots right in the centre. Center Zuid could also become the first part of the city with bilingual (Dutch / English) features. Signs, advertisements, menus in restaurants, public transport, etc. will be explained in both languages.

8% (3398/41482) 1% (3398/297713). Open article.

The question was: What is the soul of Spijkenisse? Compared with other cities of South-Holland, Spijkenisse has an outstanding performance in terms of shopping and is recognized as such by the people as well as the politicians. By reinforcing the supreme position in shopping for its Hinterland with the excellent connection to Rotterdam, Spijkenisse could position itself in a totally different way as its competitor cities.

5% (2062/41482) 1% (2062/297713). Open article.

The assignment for Dubai Business Bay was two-fold:
1. to find names and division-strategies for the districts of a masterplan
2. to find an appropriate way of advertisement for the whole development
But, how do find unique names? How do find outstanding advertisement strategies? When every resort in Dubai is already highlighted as something unique and outstanding; doing the same with Dubai Business Bay would only add another colour to this mosaic.

5% (2098/41482) 1% (2098/297713). Open article.

Not Paris, London or Berlin are the most vivid cities in Europe but Zaragoza, Utrecht, Turin and Marseille. These secondary cities still need to fight for their position and need an image to sell in order to arrive at the top of European Cities. Zaragoza, the 5th city in Spain, has been silent for a long time, but is currently preparing its official presentation in Europe. To be recognized as ‘European City’ a portfolio of projects needs to be assembled.

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The city proposed in the site a park with residential elements. After subtracting the non build able areas the density rises more than double. This confronts us with a major challenge: How to inhabit a park? The main concern by developing houses in a park is the question of who maintains the green space. We will privatize most of the green space giving it to the inhabitants who will care for it. Due to the sunken condition of the area the total will become a visual garden for the city.

5% (2098/41482) 1% (2098/297713). Open article.

To mark the occasion of Austria's 2006 Presidency of the European Union, the exhibition ‘The Image of Europe, first shown in Brussels in 2004, was updated and extended.

5% (2099/41482) 1% (2099/297713). Open article.

The city of Eisenerz is loosing out on population at an unprecedented speed. The city counsel already decided to demolish a huge part of its residential building stock. In our proposal we suggest to transform the old mining industry into a building industry for tourists - the removal/transformation of the houses included.

5% (2092/41482) 1% (2092/297713). Open article.

For the event of the IPO (initial public offering) of the RAG (now Evonik) company OMA and TD where asked to design a temporary coverage of the RAG headquarter in Essen / Germany. Several proposals were made; at the end a cheap rip-off was executed which can be admired here

0% (411/115013) 0% (411/297713). Open article.

Although architecture itself was a prime source of information during the Middle Ages*, its position has become increasingly marginalized down through the years, owing to the rapid growth of newer sources of information that also feature architecture from time to time. As a result, we find ourselves in a paradoxical situation in which we get most of our knowledge about architecture from media such as internet, magazines, books, TV and exhibitions.

1% (758/115013) 0% (758/297713). Open article.

Buildings account for 40 per cent of total energy consumption in the European Union. The most reliable and important way to reduce energy use in buildings is insulation, which can reduce the consumption of energy by as much as 78 per cent.

1% (1328/115013) 0% (1328/297713). Open article.

Since the 100 mostly used words in the Quran and the Bible are almost identical, this comparison of the two books is not made to highlight the extreme difference between the two religions but rather shows the slightly different focus points within their extreme similarities. What strikes the most is that the Bible seems to be a much more political book than the Quran. It is highlighting specific places like Israel and Jerusalem, focuses on the house as space to life in, representing the king as ruler and the hand as a tool. While the Quran is referring to the world and earth in general as space, mentioning people almost equally often as man and the heart as most important body part. Nevertheless in either publications are Lord, God or Allah hugely over presented while women are barely mentioned.

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With China on the rise and Europe standing strong, Eurasia is rapidly becoming the world’s new economic centre. Clogged seaports and a vulnerable air-transport system have shifted the focus to a network of railways – also known as the Iron Silk Road – intended to shrink today’s supercontinent in the coming years. The project is aimed at shortening the time of bulk consumer-goods transport between China and Europe and, at the same time, unlock the cities at the heart of Eurasia. Thanks to their strategic position, creating better access to these cities will greatly facilitate the ability of their inhabitants to travel and do business throughout the vast area served by the new network.

2% (2360/115013) 1% (2360/297713). Open article.

Communism is still alive. Although capitalism won a victory when the Berlin Wall went down, communism is triumphing as nation states continue to bail out banks in the wake of the recent economic crisis.

2% (2372/115013) 1% (2372/297713). Open article.

TD wishes everybody a bright and healthy 2011

2% (2169/115013) 1% (2169/297713). Open article.

The Fortress Amsterdam / Fortress Netherlands is one of the results form the Liberty City exhibition which was shown this year.

3% (2965/115013) 1% (2965/297713). Open article.

The UN-HABITAT report ‘State of World Cities 2008/09’ claims that the phenomenon of the so-called ‘Endless City’ could be one of the most significant challenges for the way people live and economies operate in the next 50 years. The biggest confrontations are not faced by the people who move to the cities voluntarily but by the ones that stay on the countryside and get caught and incorporated by the giant urban dough – the ‘Endless City’.

2% (2150/115013) 1% (2150/297713). Open article.

The modern utopian city finds its origin in the renaissance where the discovery of new continents and the appearance of the first non-autocratic governed nation states in Europe generated hope for the emergence of ideal societies located in paradisiacal territories.New technologies and political ideologies as well as the overcome of two World Wars released an unprecedented avalanche of utopian ideas in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, when it was almost compulsory for architects to design a utopian city.

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In 1519, only three months before Ferdinand Magellan’s fleet left the harbour of Seville in order to circumvent the earth, Leonardo da Vinci, world’s most prominent polymath died. The start shot of globalization - the birth cry of the expert, coincided with the end of the Homo Universalis. Ignited by the Copernican Revolution which made aware that not earth was mastering the universe but that the universe was mastering earth, humankind had to change position and leave the centre. The only way to regain a central position was through making alliances and being part of larger constellations.

2% (2182/115013) 1% (2182/297713). Open article.

Today, organized crime is foremost an urban phenomenon. Only the pirates of the Indian Ocean are a reminder of the times of highwaymen and bandit bands. Yet they are relatively small in numbers and revenues compared to international operating clans like the Cosa Nostra or the Medellin Cartel. One could state that these pirates are in all respects ‘old school’. With the end of the Cold War and the rise of a “new world order”, criminal organizations started to cooperate like multinational organizations. Today a group like Cosa Nostra is known to collaborate with the Irish Mob, the Japanese Yakuza and the Russian Mafia (allegedly world’s largest organized crime group; ~500.000 members worldwide).

2% (2034/115013) 1% (2034/297713). Open article.

How language atomized our planet

Word creators are potential separators. Each newly created word or word combination can potentially splinter the globe and if one listens carefully to the daily usage of language, one discovers a galaxy of wor(l)ds which highlights the gap between us and “the others”.

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The notion of freedom is universal. Yet baptizing a town or city with the prefix or suffix of free, liberty or freedom seems to be a rather European idea. 93 languages from Afrikaans to Zulu where researched but the outcome was rather surprising since more than 90% of all places we found are in English, Spanish, German or Slavic language. It seems that within Europe the free town concept was used as instrument for urban development while outside it was used as marking the end from European oppression.

2% (2119/115013) 1% (2119/297713). Open article.

TD designed the cover art for the first full release by Makyo Star , an alternative pop/punk rock band from the United States of America. There will be 10 songs on Makyo Star's debut album. Each song on this album is visually represented by a circular waveform of the first refrain. These waveforms are ordered in decreasing size from 001 to 010 and subsequently overlaid, resulting in the red star on the album cover.

2% (2160/115013) 1% (2160/297713). Open article.

Regardless of how the economy is doing, natural resources are hot. Many of the easily accessible resources on the mainland are exhausted and more and more effort is being put into off-shore exploitation.

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Without a doubt, Monopoly is the world’s most commercially successful board game, with over 200 million games sold in 82 countries, translated into 26 languages, and with more than 750 million players.

2% (2450/115013) 1% (2450/297713). Open article.

‘On hold’ is probably the most heard phrase in the past several months in architecture offices around the world. What might sound at first as a slight delay has had an effect similar to stepping on an active garden hose: either the stoppage is brief and the project jumps into realization, or the hose bursts – end of project.

2% (2288/115013) 1% (2288/297713). Open article.

The project “World At Work” will be presented for the first time as physical machine in real space at the exhibition "Work Now" at the art center Z33 in Hasselt (Belgium).

2% (2143/115013) 1% (2143/297713). Open article.

The decline of cities is of all times. However it is of utmost significance when this decline goes hand in hand with the decline of an entire civilization.

2% (2425/115013) 1% (2425/297713). Open article.

The Visualisation Magazine Volume 2 – Circles is released, showing a brilliant collection of visualizations. TD is happy to be published in the Visualisation Magazine with an updated and reorganized version of ‘High Rise’, a national skyline.

2% (2157/115013) 1% (2157/297713). Open article.

In the history of modern capitalism, the direct connection between office towers and speculation is undeniable. Skyscrapers, as the most expressive typology of office buildings, are like amplitudes from glass and steel, reflecting the extremums at the stock exchange.

2% (2129/115013) 1% (2129/297713). Open article.

The semptember 09 issue of WIRED UK presents a silver edition of World At Work.

2% (2178/115013) 1% (2178/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger presents the Average European as life size installation at the Ostrale 2009 in Dresden. Curated by Lukas Feireiss.

2% (2368/115013) 1% (2368/297713). Open article.

"World at Work" is the first computer programmed SNOG by TD. Impakt Online, with Sabine Niederer as curator, invited TD to contribute to this year’s exhibition with the title "It’s about Time".
The work was produced in collaboration with Michael van Schaik/restruct.org

2% (2095/115013) 1% (2095/297713). Open article.

The tsunami of privatization in the 90’s and 00’s did not leave the fresh water supply sector untouched.

2% (2226/115013) 1% (2226/297713). Open article.

Working 9 to 5, the global workforce is generating a day-night rhythm, as if the whole world would be a city.

2% (2150/115013) 1% (2150/297713). Open article.

Every bottle of water is a luxury product itself. Nevertheless global per capita consumption is on a sharp rise from 12.6 liters per person per year in 1996 to over 24.0 liters in 2004. In all of the countries with a high rate of bottled water consumption, the tap water does not taste any different. It’s just more convenient and some believe healthier to drink water from remote wells. However for the jet-set not every water does taste the same. Like wine, bottled water has terroir, or a sense of place and is now making the transition from being considered a commodity to being considered a luxury product with its own origin and label.

2% (2122/115013) 1% (2122/297713). Open article.

With the discovery of water on Mars it turns out to be feasible to erect human settlements on the Red Planet. But where, what and how?

3% (3300/115013) 1% (3300/297713). Open article.

SNOG that shows the occupation of the planets orbit by extraterrestrial architecture and their residues.

2% (2116/115013) 1% (2116/297713). Open article.

The investigation into the relationship between the size of a country and its prosperity shows that extreme dimensions are an advantage.

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Vrij Nederland issue Nr. 17/18; 2008 features a world map, which compares the top ten money streams of the Worldbank versus the top ten foreign direct investments of China.

2% (2328/115013) 1% (2328/297713). Open article.

With the Lack table, IKEA has kept Superstudio’s promise.

As part of Superstudio's Anti-Design Campaign, the Quaderna table formed a striking contrast to the pop design of the late 1960s, opposing all its curvy, colourful forms. Superstudio was convinced that there can be no renovation of design until ‘structural changes have occurred in society’, as Peter Lang and William Menking wrote in Superstudio – Life Without Objects. Thus they developed a matrix to generate objects for a new rational, social and cultural order.

2% (2443/115013) 1% (2443/297713). Open article.

Accelerated through the fear from the attacks of 9/11 and all what followed, the so called ‘Western Society’ is constructing the greatest wall ever build on this planet. On different building sites on all five inhabitable continents, walls, fences and high-tech border surveillance are under construction in order to secure the citizens and their high quality of life within this system. The fall of the Berlin Wall was described as the historical moment that marks the demolition of world’s last barrier between nation states. Yet it took the European Union only six years to create with the Schengen Agreement in 1995 a new division only 80km offset to the east of Berlin.

2% (2352/115013) 1% (2352/297713). Open article.

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world counting 250 million account holders. Skype allows users to make telephone calls from their computer to other Skype users free of charge, or to landlines and cell phones for a fee. These calls outside of the internet are called SkypeOut calls with different SkypeOut rates per country and in some cases even per city. What is remarkable of this rates is that the entire western world, already including China (and Estonia, because one of the founders is Estonian) is calling for € 0,02 per minute while the poorer inhabitants of the globe are paying up to almost 70 times more. For example to call East Timor (or call within the country), one has to pay € 1,345 per minute.

3% (2977/115013) 1% (2977/297713). Open article.

A city so vast and so beautiful.

While in 1950 10 of the world’s 30 largest cities were European, by 2015 only one – Paris – will remain. The metropolises of the earth’s most densely populated continent will soon cease to be of central importance to the global discourse on the city. In Asia, Africa, and South America where some cities continue to experience double-digit annual population growth, the definition of the metropolis is now being re-written.

2% (2208/115013) 1% (2208/297713). Open article.

The culture of Eutopia is thriving on cheapness.

While the European Union makes a huge effort to discover a common denominator of the European Culture, international operating companies are currently defining it through cheapness. Spoiled throughout the fat years after the war, Europeans got used to chic clothes, good food and two times vacation a year. Cuts in the social welfare throughout the 1990´s made it more and more difficult for the huge European middleclass to sustain its standard. The system had to adapt.

2% (2355/115013) 1% (2355/297713). Open article.

The empire on which the sun never sets.

IKEA is a multinational empire that penetrates with a wide range of products from Alesund till Zorg (IKEA-language) the last corners of the countries it "conquered". Like the British Empire introduced its political system and its laws in all colonies in order to get control of governance, IKEA does the similar in its fight against global tastelessness in design and for higher profits. Where on earth IKEA appears the world turns blue and yellow and the start of the New Year shifts from 1st January to 1st of August, celebrating the release of the new IKEA catalogue, the only print medium with a larger circulation than the bible. IKEA is an empire that is very hard to resist, if one gets used to the power and convenience of its design it is hard to imagine a life before IKEA.

2% (2020/115013) 1% (2020/297713). Open article.

Low-cost airlines have revolutionized the air travel industry. In twenty years time air travel has become twenty times cheaper.

2% (2038/115013) 1% (2038/297713). Open article.

Buy off your dept to nature with cheques for planting a tree.

Vrij Nederland issue Nr. 16/2007 features a world map of TD, which visualizes the current carbon dioxide emissions by representing the yearly number of trees that each country would have to plant to compensate this pollution. The reference follows the current global remorse and the consequent outcome of a new market that offers 1:1 buy offs; e.g. passengers who want to offset the carbon dioxide emitted from their flights have the option of using a new carbon-offsetting website where they can pay to plant a tree.

2% (2034/115013) 1% (2034/297713). Open article.

China emitted 511.8 billion yuan (US$64 billion) worth of pollution in 2004, equivalent to 3.1% of GDP. Or 581 Shenzhou 6 space missions.
The estimated clean-up cost for this pollution was calculated at 287.4 billion yuan (US$36 billion), 1.8% of GDP. Or the same as the cost of 22 Beijing Olympics.

2% (2155/115013) 1% (2155/297713). Open article.

McDonald's sensitivity for local culture.

Out of all Fast food chains in the World, McDonalds is not only its synonym but also by far the largest, most successful and most criticised. McDonalds was founded 15th may 1940 in San Bernardino, California by Ray Kroc. Today McDonald's operates over 31,000 restaurants in more than 119 countries on six continents, employing more than 1.5 million people. Every day McDonald's serves more than 47 million customers around the world.

2% (2045/115013) 1% (2045/297713). Open article.

London and Beijing again and again.

For the first time in human history, one half of the world’s population will be urban. The United Nations division of population predicted that sometime in the year 2006 this historical change will take place and the human race, which started out as collectors and hunters, will turn into an urban species. Humans retreat from the given nature and move into their own creation, the city. From ancient Rome, World’s first ‘million-city’ in 5 BC it took almost 1800 years till it got with London and Beijing some successors at a time when industrialization gave the ultimate start signal for rapid urbanization. Today well served and perfectly organized city agglomerations in Europe reached the point of saturation and are loosing out on urban population (e.g. Vienna -55.000 inh./year) while the most underdeveloped and congested South Asian and African cities still experience a demographic explosion.

2% (1758/115013) 1% (1758/297713). Open article.

Google, the world’s largest search engine, has become the long envisioned global conscience. In the course of answering over 2,5 billion requests a day, Google provides a vision of community and identity: it tells us not only what is out there, but also who we are.

2% (2267/115013) 1% (2267/297713). Open article.

A contract for a new World-Order; either you are with the global climate change or against it.

The Kyoto protocol knows 147 countries as parties. 34 out of these nations are “Annex 1” countries which mean that they, by ratifying the protocol, are legally bound to meet quantitative targets for limiting their greenhouse gas emissions. Only three out of this group did not sign: the United States, Australia and Monaco.

2% (2205/115013) 1% (2205/297713). Open article.

An Alternative world map showing all freedom fighters and separatists and their territory - from Tibet to Bavaria.

In 1986 there were 159 countries in the United Nations, today there are 191, thanks mainly to the breakup of federations in Europe plus the adhesion of microstates like Liechtenstein, Micronesia and Tuvalu. Yet, worldwide there are more than 200 unrecognized regions and people which carry the seed of separation from their current nation and all of them are more or less possible candidates for becoming a new nation-state. Similar to the way how our society is individualizing at a rapid speed, people tend to do the same by seeking their hope in total or at least partly independence in economic, political and cultural terms.

2% (1948/115013) 1% (1948/297713). Open article.

From signs to symbols to sameness.

Las Vegas was founded on May 15, 1905, when 110 acres of desert were auctioned off in a single day. In the following 20 years the city essentially thrived because of the railroad. In 1931, three events occurred in the State of Nevada that would forever change the face of Las Vegas: gambling was legalized, divorce laws were liberalized and the construction of Hoover Dam started. What followed was the fastest building and population boom a city faced in the 20th century.

2% (2062/115013) 1% (2062/297713). Open article.

The territories of presidential speeches.

In his State of the Union address, held before both houses of Congress, the president of the United States of America takes the opportunity to review his achievements up to the present and to put forward the goals of the government in the coming period. Usually this speech is held at the beginning of the January meeting period of the legislature.

2% (2346/115013) 1% (2346/297713). Open article.

Out of worlds 192 countries, 85 possess a building higher than 100 meter. Lining up the highest buildings of these nation-states, according to their geographical proximity, creates an impressive skyline.

2% (2153/115013) 1% (2153/297713). Open article.

The (un)reality of statistics

The definition of an urban population varies widely from country to country. Of the 228 countries for which the United Nations compiles data, roughly half use administrative considerations, 51 distinguish urban populations based on the size or density, 39 rely on functional characteristics, 22 have no definition of ‘urban’ at all and 8 countries define all (e.g. Singapore) or none (several countries in Polynesia) of their populations as living in urban areas. Within Europe the differences are as extreme. While for example in Norway urban substance is defined by 200 and more inhabitants, in Italy a locality needs at least 10.000 people to be recognized as urban area. If Italy would apply Norwegian standards it would be suddenly inhabited by millions of new urban dwellers.

2% (2142/115013) 1% (2142/297713). Open article.

Religion and politics have always been dangerous bedfellows. As far apart as the EU and US seem to be in terms geo-politics, there is one common thread in their political agendas: the secularisation of Islamic countries. While the EU tries to asserts political pressure on Turkey’s government, the US uses brute force in Iraq. There is another less publicised and seemingly conflicting movement quietly pushing at the doors of power on five continents. Opus Dei (Work of God), the controversial organisation at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, is seeking to recreate an alliance between the spiritual and secular worlds, last attempted only with catastrophic results during the century.

2% (2218/115013) 1% (2218/297713). Open article.

Pope John Paul II not only welcomed high ranking guest from all over the world, he also liked to visit his disciples where they are living. In 104 apostolic voyages John Paul II travelled 1.2 kilometres; that equals 29 times the journey around the world or three times to the moon. The pope spent 582 days or in other words, one year and seven months on world tour, yet he never left the papal throne abandoned longer than 13 days.

2% (2473/115013) 1% (2473/297713). Open article.

The Netherlands, world's largest onion exporter.

2% (2197/115013) 1% (2197/297713). Open article.

0% (88/44696) 0% (88/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger held a lecture on the Global Expansion of Interiors at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague on 13 January 2012.

1% (316/44696) 0% (316/297713). Open article.

The Architecture of the Real Estate Market
This theme investigates the connection between architectural production, spatial development and the financial markets. In the 1980s, a transformation has set in away from investing in immobile capital, i.e. land, and towards investing in liquid assets that can be transferred across national borders in the form of funds and portfolios. Thus ownership has been decoupled to a hitherto unknown extent from the location of the assets. A new international ‘financial market architecture’ has emerged, which spawns speculative building projects, but even more so asset structures, in which even the project financing risk has become the object of a pyramid selling type of speculation. It was the American suburbia’s foreclosure crisis in which hundreds of mortgage borrowers lost their homes that ultimately uncovered the fragility of the financial markets.
The researched data and information will be translated into maps and diagrams visualizing the complex relationships and nexus between infrastructures, financial flows, ation, actor-networks and institutions. The results of the mapping workshop will be integrated in the existing working exhibition.

1% (294/44696) 0% (294/297713). Open article.

Ideally, an academy is a point a connection, a place where disciplines, cultures, ideologies, and idiosyncrasies collect and confront one another. Strelka is a new institution with wide ambitions and a heterogeneous body of students and instructors, each with her or his own expertise and ambitions. The Institute offers them a means to expand their territory, to incorporate unexpected influences and express themselves through new media. To take best advantage of these resources, it is necessary for Strelka's students to consider and communicate them. That is the purpose of this workshop.

2% (765/44696) 0% (765/297713). Open article.

Learning to Provoke is the second of seven podium discussions in the 2011 series 'Design and Politics: The Next Phase', initiated by ANCB in collaboration with Henk Ovink, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and in cooperation with the Dutch Embassy in Berlin. It questions the responsibilities, skills and agendas necessary for an urban architecture practice that is effective in tackling the challenges facing our cities in their ongoing urbanisation.

3% (1513/44696) 1% (1513/297713). Open article.

INDESEM
2011 INternational DEsign SEMinar in DELFT

LOSING GROUND, a unique "cooperation between students of different nationalities and renowned archtiect and theorists" will seem to center the issues of social technologies affect on traditional social space. This focus is often neglected as the usual reaction to the ubqiquitous social media applications of the day is the study/research of virtual space; as opposed to digital-social-network's reverberation of change in our actual space. ArchitectureEV will continue to follow this event.

4% (1688/44696) 1% (1688/297713). Open article.

International Summer School 2011: Energy Landscapes 3.0 The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation presents six theses on life in a postfossil civilization. They are a part of the exhibition Energy Landscapes 3.0 on the Festival Über Lebenskunst in Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The "Dessau Theses" are the outcome of a couple of projects on the field of climate and energy research initiated by the foundation. Amongst others this includes the International summer school Energy Landscapes 3.0 in July 2011 with participants of various disciplines coming from 25 countries all over the world.

3% (1537/44696) 1% (1537/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger presents an updated version of the International The Hague study at the 4th ADHD lecture in The Hague. The evening's theme is "the image of the international city" and lectures will start at 20.00 at the Gember cafe in The Hague.
[http://actueeldenhaagdebat.wordpress.com/] ADHD [/url]

4% (1832/44696) 1% (1832/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger was asked to give a lecture followed by a workshop at the brand new Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow.

5% (2080/44696) 1% (2080/297713). Open article.

Seminal questions are: how do we get unique information from the street, process it and put it back onto the street in a newly organized way: suck – direct – release. SUCK information from the streets; DIRECT it, order it and rearrange it and finally RELEASE it again on the streets. Piet Zwart Institute

4% (1926/44696) 1% (1926/297713). Open article.

Introduction by the Rotterdam-based architect and urban mapping expert Theo Deutinger.

5% (2070/44696) 1% (2070/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger was lecturing at the ETH in Zurich on March 15, 2010

4% (1892/44696) 1% (1892/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger is lecturing at the HKU in Utrecht on behalf of the 25 years anniversary of the urban design department.

start lecture 12:00

address: Faculteit Beeldende Kunst en Vormgeving
Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht
Ina Boudier-Bakkerlaan 50
3582 VA Utrecht

4% (1972/44696) 1% (1972/297713). Open article.

On the last day of ‘Stadtstaat. A Scenario for Merging Cities’, a project by Metahaven at Casco, a public forum with international thinkers and practitioners is organized in order to further discuss the issues prompted by the project: urban governance and politics in the light of network power and the thrust of participation and the role of design.

Nieuwekade 213-215
3511 RW Utrecht, The Netherlands
T/F: +31 (0)30 231 9995
info@cascoprojects.org

5% (2138/44696) 1% (2138/297713). Open article.

In "The Slow Web," just like in the Slow Food movement, the Web is slowed down and its features rediscovered. In the "It's About Time" program, Impakt Online invited artists to develop projects reflecting on the new notions of time on the Internet.

5% (2074/44696) 1% (2074/297713). Open article.

According to the ‘Out Of Africa’ theory a small group of approximately 150 people left Africa some 70.000 years ago in order to populate the rest of the world. At this time it is assumed that the human tribe counted 5.000 members, a small enough group to imagine that at this moment we all knew each other. In a way we all are descendents from a local village in Africa.

5% (2154/44696) 1% (2154/297713). Open article.

International Design Seminar, shortly indesem, is held every two years at the faculty of Architecture of the TU Delft, the Netherlands. It consists of a workshop, during a week for 80 international students, combined with lectures, excursions, exhibitions, debates, documentaries and more. Since its founding in 1962, indesem has had the honor of hosting internationally acclaimed architects and theorists, such as Aldo van Eijck, Adriaan Geuze, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Michael Speaks and Ben van Berkel. In the past, Indesem was supervised by Wiek Röling, Herman Hertzberger and Winy Maas. In the coming edition Indesem will combine forces with Michiel Riedijk.

5% (2125/44696) 1% (2125/297713). Open article.

Andreas Kofler and Theo Deutinger were invited to give a workshop about 'Beauty'. The overall theme of ADSL 2009 was serendipity, generally understood as ‘the art of finding the pleasantly unexpected by chance or sagacity.’

5% (2061/44696) 1% (2061/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger gives a short lecture at the 'Architeure Slam' workshop of Lukas Feireiss.

5% (2110/44696) 1% (2110/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger gives a lecture at the Higher Institute of Architectural Sciences Henry van de Velde, Antwerp

5% (2078/44696) 1% (2078/297713). Open article.

The work 'Eutopia' is present at the Archilab Europe 2008 exhibition in Orléans from 25th October 2008 to 23rd December 2008. Archilab Europe 2008

4% (1978/44696) 1% (1978/297713). Open article.

Lecture at the design atelier of Stefan Rettich

4% (1834/44696) 1% (1834/297713). Open article.

Lecture at the Colloquium 7
Designer and developer as cultural agents Multiplicity & Visual Identities

5% (2034/44696) 1% (2034/297713). Open article.

derdiedas BTU Cottbus

5% (2046/44696) 1% (2046/297713). Open article.

Antipodal to the seemingly unstoppable ever accelerating hurricane of globalization there is the sluggishly changing.

We, the inhabitants of the 'West' experience birth only as transition from one to another well tempered high security comfort zone; in fact, we are the inhabitants and co-designer of an gigantic palace. The workshop 'MyPalace' is investigating this immense comfort zone from the participants viewpoint. 'MyPalace'is an investigation in personal affiliation to products, emotions, movements, ideologies - the spaces they inhabit and an interpretation of the space they deserve.

4% (1977/44696) 1% (1977/297713). Open article.

5% (2114/44696) 1% (2114/297713). Open article.

8% (1775/22164) 1% (1775/297713). Open article.

Theo Deutinger contributed to the magazine New Geographies #4 Scales of the Earth - Harvard Design School by the Harvard Design School with the article Living Room Geography. Editor-in-Chief EL HADI JAZAIR.

Living Room Geography - The Art of Imitation

This article describes how earth imitation, the fundament of world maps, was displaced by a new earth imitation project, the Internet.

Gerardus Mercator, the famous cartographer who introduced the word ‘atlas’ for a compilation of maps, describes his work as an ‘imitator’ of the earth. His contemporary Abraham Ortelius, the publisher of world’s first map compilation in book form, called his work a “Theater of the World” (“Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”) . World maps, as their origins reveal, are explicit simulations of not just geogrphical formations but also of reality.

download her the full article

9% (2073/22164) 1% (2073/297713). Open article.

Redefining the meaning of homeland in the global age.

An exhibition and publication documenting the visual-textual dialogue between German photographer Heidi Specker and Austrian writer and architect Theo Deutinger. HELP ME , I AM BLIND explores the meaning of homeland in the global age.

The book HELP ME , I AM BLIND will soon be available in selected book stores.

9% (2070/22164) 1% (2070/297713). Open article.

The book “Different Repetitions - Buildings & Projects 1999-2009” by Medic & Puljiz was released in September 2009. Project stories by Theo Deutinger; designed by Mevis & Van Deursen; published by 010 Publishers.

9% (2037/22164) 1% (2037/297713). Open article.

Firewall, an essay by Theo Deutinger on the possibilities for a solidarity between buildings, is published in Volume 21 .

download: The Firewall

9% (2005/22164) 1% (2005/297713). Open article.

‘The Hague International’ is a proposal for a long term, integral planning process which includes ideas about an international zone as well as all of The Hague’s inhabitants and businesses. It shows a city that could become the first exclusively international area where all nationalities are equally welcomed and regarded as enrichment to the city. Where different cultures are not oppressed but asked to flourish, where the city stages differences around every corner that all together create The Hague.

10% (2174/22164) 1% (2174/297713). Open article.

The North of the Netherlands is seen different to the rest. While the center is clearly defined as Randstad, North Netherlands (NN = Nomen Nescio) has even a mistakable name with North Holland, a part of the Randstad; while the rest of the Netherlands is loaded with international meaning highly connected with each other and with its neighbours, NN is left aside. And the cities of NN, like Groningen (the secret capital of NN), are floating island in a swamp of indifference that try to hook itself up to the flagship called Randstad.

9% (1933/22164) 1% (1933/297713). Open article.

This article is largely based on my own experience as neighbour. Being grown up in the Austrian alps and confronted with guests form all over Europe there was one group that dominated the scene and therefore my youth, "the Germans". After exchanging the snowy hills of Austria with the sandy dunes of Holland I found myself, to my own surprise, again in the company of this very familiar group again.

9% (1982/22164) 1% (1982/297713). Open article.

Today, 82 % of EU Europe is urbanized, which means that 364 million of the 455 million people in the EU live in urban areas. Europe is a city, or better yet: Europe is a modern city with a functional structure. The Alpine arc region (as defined by CIPRA) has proven to be a motor of regeneration in this context and managed, very early on, to define its position as Europe's retreat. With close to 11.0 million inhabitants, who live in innumerable villages and small towns - only Grenoble and Innsbruck have over 100,000 inhabitants - the Alps stand for the ideal image of country life - an idyll.

9% (1998/22164) 1% (1998/297713). Open article.

This essay about the three essential periods of European modernity, with Germany as its case study, should contribute to a better understanding of spatial transformation and planning in Europe. Germany is Europe under a magnifying glass; all triumphs and disasters the continent went through in the last century happened to have their highest peaks and lowest valleys in Germany.
The following article shows the unfolding of the mythical stages of Germany's - and therefore Europe's - modernization, from Adi's projective Third Reich to the Wirtschaftswunder to the triumph of cheapness.

9% (2054/22164) 1% (2054/297713). Open article.

A revolution is taking place in Europe: The European society is re-formatting itself at an unprecedented speed, aiming to become a cultural community. It is a unification process by means of consumerism where the inescapable allurement of cheapness of products grasps the masses of the European population and is leading to the long envisioned trans-national citizen � the European. Along with its citizens, the cities as the places of maximum concentration of the community's power and culture are changing, as well. This article tries to unveil the tremendous power and influence of Europe's low-cost companies on decision making, on the Europeans itself and on the appearance of our cities. more

9% (2063/22164) 1% (2063/297713). Open article.