May 2012
79 posts
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“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the...”
– CHRISTOPHER MCCANDLESS
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WatchThe concept of re-claiming carparks is great but especially love the idea of re-mixing existing road signage stencils to create ‘a new language’ for the park.
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Understanding software in the creation of a city →
In this commentary piece by Rob Kitchin titled “The Programmable City” , one is introduced to the era of ‘programmable urbanism’ and the need for us, creators and thinkers of the urban environment, to think deeper and broader about software in the creation of our cities.
He puts forth a series of questions that are worthy of a lot more in-depth research.
...
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Making a case for writing long sentences →
” The long sentence opens the very doors that a short sentence simply slams shut. “
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Curating the city →
It was after I discovered David van Der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies at Guggenheim Museum that I knew I could carve a career as an architecture curator.
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Reconciling India's slums →
Mukta Naik, Consulting Urban Planner for micro Home Solutions in New Delhi writes about the experience of attempting to introduce change and improvements into the slums of India. The gap between idea and implementation makes a huge difference to everything.
Our biggest learning during the project, though, was that our perceptions-that of the architect, urban designer, planner, policymaker-are...
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The Dark Side of Creativity — PsyBlog →
Creative people are liars, twisted and possibly crazy.
Listen
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We don't need as much as we think we do →
Yeoh Lam Keong, once chief economist of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation comments on Singapore’s social policies and shares his thoughts about today’s consumer culture.
To his mind, he is not under- consuming. Others are over-consuming.
Stop wanting stupid shit.
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Words of wisdom for creatives - Behance's 99%... →
Great writeup of key takeaways from all the speakers at the Conference. Very useful words that can continually be referred to when inspiration is needed.
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Jamie xx Essential Mix. Broadcasted on BBC Radio...
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“In suburbia or new cities like Irvine, California, Suntec City Singapore, and...”
– Ellen Lou/ Singapore Sessions | EDB (via ahundredjarsofsky)
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“HDB thinks if we provide in one neighbourhood, we have to provide in the whole...”
– Chua Beng Huat | Reclaim Land (via ahundredjarsofsky)
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If everything is a coffeeshop, what will schools... →
This article on Speculist suggests that everything including education is turning, or have already turned, into a ‘coffeeshop’.
Every education would be ad hoc. It would be student-directed toward the job market she’s aiming for. - Stephen Gordon
So let’s take that assumption and project how we design the schools of the future. Do we still need lecture halls in our schools...
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The Joy of Quiet - NYTimes →
Perhaps man’s problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
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Humanity of the Defensive Midfielder →
Possibly the best writing that aptly describes and pays homage to what a good midfielder should be.
In Spanish, a defensive midfielder is often called ‘volante de contencion’ or ‘volante de salida’. The former refers to the ball-winning duties of the defensive midfielder and the latter to providing an outlet for under-pressure teammates. The terms themselves are more...
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Work/life/work balance →
It’s time to say “Enough!”
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“Some people meet the way the sky meets the earth, inevitably, and there is no...”
– Louise Erdrich (via kari-shma)
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“So many businesses get worried about looking like they might make a mistake,...”
– Mark Zuckerberg
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Nothing is sacred in Singapore. Not even the... →
One of the most interesting people I know, artist, Debbie Ding writes on her blog about the planned diversion of the Singapore River into a bow-shaped canal to facilitate construction of the MRT Downtown Line.
It’s already been shown that here in Singapore there are no sacred cows: there are no monuments, no heritage sites, no geographical features, and no buildings here that cannot be...
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Urbanizing Technology →
Great reading on Audi’s Urban Future Initiative site exploring technology and its relationship with our cities. It suggests that by looking at technology through the lenses of a city, technologists get a completely new way of understanding problems and implementing solutions including planning for their obsolescence.
One core assumption in my work on urbanizing technology is that the...
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“The notion that ‘no one knows what good architecture is, is intellectuals’...”
– Alain De Botton
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Liveable v lovable cities - FT.com →
“We need to ask, what makes a city great? If your idea of a great city is restful, orderly, clean, then that’s fine. You can go live in a gated community. These kinds of cities are what is called ‘productive resorts’. Descartes, writing about 17th-century Amsterdam, said that a great city should be ‘an inventory of the possible’. I like that description.” - Joel Kotkin, a professor of urban...
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Learning from 'hip cities' →
NY Times profiles some ‘hip cities’ and only one Asian city made it into the list: Shanghai.
All the cities profiled have a mix of good urban planning, interesting culture (people, music, food), nature (parks, beaches, sustainable energies, bicycles) and a relatively low cost of living.
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Creating Great Community Places →
Many have tried and less have succeeded in creating great public places for the community. Project for Public Spaces (PPS) compiled some guiding principles that might be useful for anyone who might be working on such projects.
Look for partners: Partners are critical to the future success and image of a public space improvement project.
Money Is Not the Issue:This statement can apply in a...
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“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
– Henry Miller
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The role of newspapers and editors in the future →
“People can choose to build their own news sources for instance on Twitter. But nothing replaces a good editor, and I would add, a good visual editor, creating the news for the reader so that it makes enjoyable and interesting reading.”
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Smarter taxi rides →
Imagine an app that takes your existing location and then tell you where’s the best place to hail a cab (it might simply be a street down),takes real-time traffic data and charts out the fastest route for the cab to take, the cheapest route to take or perhaps the most scenic route to take. Think about how all of these could re-create the way we travel through our cities.
“Love is long-suffering and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not...”
– Cori 13:4-8
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“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be...”
– Max Ehrmann (via arreter)
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Hypervisual aesthetic aphasia
Aphasia : an impairment of language ability
Hypervisual Aesthetic Aphasia - Also known as bad visual design taste. Applies to colours, fonts and proportions.
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WatchTrade school arrives in Singapore. Barter things for lessons. I hope this will take off in a big way in the local community.
WatchAn old one but still relevant. What if you actually visited all your friends on Facebook?