The Dutch Know Bikes

The Dutch build bicycle lanes into the intersections to remove the need for the driver of a vehicle who wants to turn right from having to look over their shoulder.  A tricky maneuver for anyone driving, healthy neck or not. It is my take that the bike wanting to go "straight" maintains the right of way.   Its a really interesting concept and removes the need to widen the corner.  Check it out:


   

The Living Bridge

The narration is a bit over-the-top but it is still an amazing design and construction.

RE-Cycle

Using nine dollars worth of materials, bicycle enthusiast Izhar Gafni has created a fully functioning, water-resistant bicycle, made, from seat to spokes, entirely of recycled cardboard. The technology makes the environmentalist's choice mode of transportation even a bit greener if not easier on the wallet.   (1)

“It's going to be a game-changer in the bike world,” says Giora Kariv, an Israeli artist and a longtime friend of Gafni's who made a documentary about the project. “Like Henry Ford who made the car available to anybody, this bike is going to be cheap and available to any child in the world, including children in Africa who walk dozens of miles to school everyday.” (1)

Check out the documentary below if you want to know more!


Izhar cardboard bike project from Giora Kariv on Vimeo.


CITATION: (1) http://www.good.is/post/cycle-on-the-recycled-a-9-cardboard-bike-set-to-enter-production-in-israel/

Otro: A Glow-in-the-Dark Skate Park

In 2007, Korean-born (but Continental-living) Koo Jeong-a visited an island in the middle of France's Vassivière Lake for her exhibition, "Oussseux." Where a usual tourists might take a photo of the island's lighthouse and head back to land, the artist fell into a rapture over what she experienced as an "unreal, phantasmagoric and powerful dreamscape."

Don't listen to us, check out her artist statement:

"OTRO is an artwork made of bumps – the cradle – and hollows – bowls and tunnels. This work of Koo Jeong-A refers to both definitions of sculpture and representation: hollows and bumps, shadows and lights, soft or accentuated reliefs.

It is an art work to live, to experiment, not only from a sporting point of view but also from a sensorial, sensitive and artistic point of view. It establishes the link between the urban, practicable, sporting and playful aspect of the artwork as a skate park and the artwork from an artistic point of view as part of Koo Jeong-A’s world."

Koo Jeong-a worked with the Brussels-based L'Escaut Architectures and Belgium skate collectives Brusk and Barricade. It took about four years to complete, and has more than 2,000 square feet of surface area spread over several bowls and three tunnels.

If you are interested in glowing concrete, check out this article on Glowcrete and the product, Lumicrete.  Lumicrete claims to be environmentally friendly, but no such claim could be found on the Glowcrete product.

CITATION: 

(1) http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/08/glow-dark-skate-park-nocturnal-thrashing/2821/#.UBv8WNbZqDo.facebook

(2) All photos courtesy of L'Escaut Architectures.

Micro Intervention From The Past: Outdoor Baby Cage

  Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

We are not sure that these images and this very old practice of caging your baby outside a window sometimes several stories above terra firma necessarily fits in with the general ziteguiste of our blog, but it was so amazing we had to share.  The images themselves border on art by simply reflecting an extremely bad idea from the 1930s.


The photo above was taken in 1934 shows a wire cage which East Poplar borough council in London proposed to fix to the outside of their buildings. (1)

The patent was filed in 1922 by Emma Read, from Washington, and was granted the following year. According to The Northern Star, the description of the patent, said: 'It is well known that a great many difficulties rise in raising, and properly housing babies and small children in crowded cities, that is to say from the health viewpoint.(1)  So apparently the benefits would be fresh air for the child, room to play with toys and another place for children to sleep...sure that makes sense.

The patent went on:  'With these facts in view, it is the purpose of this invention to provide an article of manufacture for babies and young children, to be suspended upon the exterior of a building adjacent an open window, wherein the baby or young child may be placed.' (1)

The cages in the patent were also designed with a slanted, overlapping roof which was said to protect babies from snow or rain.(1)

  Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

  Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

CITATION: (1)  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178140/Baby-taking-room-Try-solution-1930s--window-CAGE-hanging-air-infant-crawl-in.html#ixzz22PRnoAza