Inspiring City

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An ordinary phone booth was transformed into an aquarium by artists Benoit Deseille and Benedetto Bufalino as part of the Lyon Light Festival in France.

As the designers stated:

“With the advent of the mobile telephone, telephone booths lie unused. We rediscover this glass cage transformed into an aquarium, full of exotically coloured fish; an invitation to escape and travel.“

[theoriginalchingy-blog]

Dance, Dance Revolution to Come to Life in Boston - ““The Decentralized Dance Party is a portable, battery-powered Party system… It started with one boombox, and an idea, to transmit to hundreds more.”

They are currently trying to fund the Boston date of their American tour with a Kickstarter page. The party isn’t until April 30… The Portable Dance Party “roams the night, generating complete awesomeness, street by street and block by block, onto buses and subways, into public fountains and beyond. Inevitably interfacing with the public.””  Mark your calendars, Boston!

via BostInno.

[indrosphere]

Cash as fuel!

Every year Hungary recycles approximately $1 billion worth of worn out forints, and converts the used currency into bricks. These bricks are sent to several charities, so they can burn them as heating fuel. The program allows the organization to cover up to a third of their annual heating costs. Banknotes undergo a quality check at the logistics centre of the National Bank of Hungary in Budapest. Once they are taken out of circulation, the bank notes are recycled for fuel, and a few charities each year get 20-30 tonnes of paper bricks each. Banknotes shredded and compressed into heating fuel in the shape of bricks.

As per Reuters, Hungary is the only country to recycle its worn cash for fuel each year.

[inspiringcity]

Sustainable NE Seattle has organized a community skills fair for the city for the low cost of $15 ($20 at the door).  Classes offered include everything from resume improvement to basic electricity repair to cheese making.

[urbnist]

Guerrilla wayfinding in Raleigh, NC posted by activism group Walk Raleigh. Read the full article on Atlantic Cities.

[intergalacticprimate]

Bus-Tops is a collaborative public art installation across 20 London boroughs. There are 30 red and black LED screens dotted around London, on the roofs of bus shelters. Absolutely anyone in the world can create artwork for them, creating a new exhibition space for the public, and Public Art.

The one above is “Look Down” by Benjamin Blundell.

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Payphones have become more then just something we use to make a phone call on. 

[inspiringcity]

According to In Defense of Animals, approximately 5 million family pets go missing each year. No wonder, then, that a pet “locker” has popped up outside a Norwegian grocery store, offering dog owners a way to keep their canine companions safe and dry while they get their shopping done.

[nanookofnewyork]

The piano of ‘magical merriment’ is the best spontaneous way to make & share & create art, me thinks. I lurve this.

[inspiringcity]

Sing for Hope placed 88 artist-decorated pianos in public parks throughout New York City.  Once the installation ended, the pianos were donated to various schools, hospitals and community organizations. 

[urbanbricolage]

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Ideas for cities? Book sharing in public space.

公共空間的書籍分享構想。

[inspiringcity]

An urbanist group in Indianapolis called People for Urban Progress has undertaken multiple initiatives to re-purpose seats from shuttered stadiums in the area for bus shelters.

[stephansplatz-blog]

Before I Die by Candy Dang (New Orleans)

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you. With help from friends and neighbors, Candy turned the side of an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans into a giant chalkboard where residents can write on the wall and remember what is important to them. Before I Die is an interactive public art project that invites people to share their hopes and dreams in public space.

[ajmilanes]

Colourful underground car park, Sydney - Craig & Karl

The immersive mural, executed with their trademark eye-popping use of colour, occupies the underground car park of an award-winning residence in Sydney, Australia’s darling point by architects Marsh Cashman Koolloos (MCK).   ‘The objective of the project was to breathe new life into the space which, having been rendered in concrete with little inlet of natural light, felt quite dark and heavy. working closely with the owners, who possess a keen design sensibility, it was decided that the mural would cover all surfaces in a blanket of bright color. There was also a request that the larger wall surfaces be left blank with an eye towards potentially introducing additional, individually commissioned works at a future date. Nevertheless it was vital that the installation feel and function as a complete work in its own right. The resulting design is a dynamic mix of overlapping geometric forms that mirror and respond to the angularity of the architecture. The whole piece is tied together by a winding, ribbon-style device which, acting as a central axis, leads in from the driveway, through the space and out to the garden beyond.’ - craig & karl

[inspiringcity]

When you usually think of public restrooms in a city, you think of precarious shed-like structures with limited supplies, sporadically working fixtures, and a non-existent cleaning schedule.  Portland Loos has managed to make the urban public restroom into something safely usable and even celebrated by the residents of Portland.

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Urbanflow Aims To Turn Cities Into Playgrounds For Interactive Infographic

“Ever find yourself wandering around a new city (or even one you’re familiar with), and approach one of those handy urban info-kiosks only to find that it’s completely inadequate to the task of telling you where you are, where you might want to go, and what is going on around you? Urbanscale has the same frustration, which is why they teamed up with designers at Nordkapp to design a set of updated public signage called Urbanflow that’s as connected and interactive as the smartphone in your pocket. Here’s their concept video…”

[inspiringcity]

The Swap-o-matic is a vending machine that encourages users to trade rather than buy! It playfully reminds us that reusing and recycling can be just as fun as buying something new.

The basic rules of use for the Swap-O-Matic are simple. Though each item in the machine (donated by another user) will not cost the recipient any money, it will require “credits”. A credit is earned when the user donates to the system, and a credit is required to retrieve an item from the machine. New users receive 3 credits to start. Users can donate, receive, or swap using the touch screen interface on the front of the machine. Other features, such as a user flag system, have been developed and implemented to prevent misuse or stalemate of the system.

[inspiringcity]

26 Life-Size Versions of Popular Board Games 

A list featuring jumbo variations of board games throughout the world - from San Diego to Australia; from Scrabble to Mousetrap.