This morning i went to the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam to 1. dilapidate the content of my bank account in their bookshop (i’m one of those people who start the visit of a museum by its shop.) 2. once that was achieved, visit the exhibitions.
I really liked some parts of Dynamicity, Tactics for a Changing Metropolis. Architects from Spain, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands showed new methods to intervene in the city’s dynamics.
My favourite scenarios were those of Atelier Bow-Wow (Japan)
The yatai is an open air mobile food stand. Atelier Bow Wow’s White limousine Yatai is a ten metre-long pub driven around the city. Of course when manoeuvring inside the city, the yatai would block traffic but at the same time, it made people smile. When the yatai stopped, its drivers served white food to people (rice, tofu, radish.) Images.
White banquet – Yatai travelling through the rice fields
Then there was the irresistible QR-Code patterned guest room (bed linnen, walpaper, etc) and yukata (a Japanese summer kimono). Both were printed with the QR-Code pattern, so a guest standing in his yukata in the room would totally blend with the wallpaper and disappear. Couldn’t help but think that there might be some amateurs for it out there ;-)
The Yucata – spot the guest
Atelier Bow-Wow also presented the manga-pod, a portable library and relaxing retreat to read your manga surrounded by tons of mangas; the weed house in which weeds are an important element of the architecture; the furnicycles: a trio of bicycles that can be used as furniture: one would become a coffee table, another one the chair and a last one is a kind of bed where you can lounge in the absence of nearby cafes.