Rotterdam Stadskantoor to be Designed by OMA

Rotterdam Stadskantoor to be Designed by OMA

Rotterdam Stadskantoor to be Designed by OMA

OMA wins competition for Rotterdam’s Stadskantoor

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in collaboration with Werner Sobek and engineers ABT, has won the competition for Rotterdam’s Stadskantoor, a new building for the city hall that will accommodate municipal services, offices, and residential units. The winner was announced this morning by city alderman Hamit Karakus.

Via Dezeen

Nominated for the Dutch Bloggies with Two Blogs!

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Because I’m writing my blogs in the English Language – the Dutch Bloggies site is entirely in the Dutch Language – and only about 7% of the readers of Happy Hotelier originate from the Netherlands, I never anticipated any ranking in the Dutch Bloggies Award.

So you can imagine that I’m quite amazed (and a bit proud) the Dutch Bloggies jury has deemed it worthy to nominate not only this blog, but also my significant other blog Chair Blog among 300 blogs for the public voting round of the Dutch Bloggies Award.

As of the moment of publishing this there are only 11 more hours before the public voting round of this week closes and 20 of the 300 nominated blogs will enter the final round.

If you like you can vote here.

Time permitting I will be covering the Award Ceremony as that will take place in The Hague, The Hague being an official Sponsor of the venue.

Motorboating around with an outboard propelled table

Table Motor Boat

I love this picture. It is part of a video by the name “Under Discussion” by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla that fetched a whopping £ 39,650 ($ 64,550) at a Christie’s sale in London, today:
A simple dream of mine – Just motor-boating the inland canals, rivers and lakes all year long – in its most simplified form.

Via Christie’s

Last edited by GJE on March 11, 2012 at 4:33 pm

Burning Man – Must See Festival

Burning-Man-Unicorn

A magnificent unicorn struggles to emerge from the cracking dust-covered playa

Burning-Man-Flames

Rotating installation that breathes four hot streams of fire into the air at night.

Sand(wo)man made out of metal bowls celebrates the universe with outstretched arms, a fertile womb and dancing feet.

Over 200 feet long and 50 feet high, this awe-inspiring Conexus Cathedral, built in 2006, was a hallowed place that inspired both reflection and dancing.

Burning Man

Never knew what it was. Now I know … a bit.

Freelance Journalist Meredith Price describes the magic of the Burning Man Project, held yearly in the Nevada desert, with the help of some truly amazing photos.

Every year, over 40,000 people come together in a Utopian experiment showing the most stunning artwork, grandiose costumes and outlandish art cars and there is some fire too.

Held in Black Rock City, Nevada, the festival is named Burning Man after the ritualistic burning of a wooden effigy in the shape of a man.

Via the Tripbase Blog

The 10 Burning Man Principles are:

  1. Radical Inclusion
    Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.
  2. Gifting
    Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
  3. Decommodification
    In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
  4. Radical Self-reliance
    Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
  5. Radical Self-expression
    Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
  6. Communal Effort
    Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
  7. Civic Responsibility
    We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.
  8. Leaving No Trace
    Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
  9. Participation
    Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
  10. Immediacy
    Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.