Bureau for Unstable Urbanism is proposed as a trans-national network of individuals and groups involved in a variety of practices that engage in different ways with contemporary urban space, actually or conceptually. The project was initiated in Bergen (Norway) but is not specific to any country or city. The notion of “unstable urbanism” is an undefined yet resonant term to describe ways of thinking about or acting upon changing urban phenomena.
The story is a part of a sequence developed in response to a brief from Bureau Coordinator Jeremy J. Welsh. There is no resemblance intended between the Bureau described in the work of fiction and any other Bureau, including this one. Please do not call your attorneys. Thank you for reading this announcement.
Just outside the Botanical Gardens in Oslo Circus Merano are preparing for their annual show. I had the pleasure of walking past the site for a couple of days on my way to rehearsals at Black Box Theatre, and while there is a lot to be said about keeping animals in captivity I have to say that the camels seem to enjoy their mobile lifestyle.
They travel in style - with their own personnel to take care of their daily hygiene and massage needs, after which they have morning hay together, and all out in the fresh air.
An announcement from a JG Ballard mailing list, forwarded by Paul A. Green:
With the current housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the future of suburbia looks bleak. Suburban communities in central California, Arizona and Florida are desolate and decaying, with for sale and foreclosure signs dotting many lawns. According to the US Census, about 90% of all metropolitan growth occurred in suburban communities in the last ten years. Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise. In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision! Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers: Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb- grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you’d design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration—the wilder the better!
The 20 finalists are now on show and open to public voting - http://www.re-burbia.com/finalists/ - sadly, none demonstrate great Ballardian insight. But the suburban airships are cool.
The next BUU event is a screening of artists' film and video work to take place at an outdoor location in the back yard of a house in a former industrial area of Cologne on Saturday 29th. August. The event is programmed by Synne Bull and Jeremy Welsh and is hosted by Doris Frohnapfel and Kjubh Kunstverein an independent association of artists and curators. The event will feature short video works by HC Gilje, Amanda Steggel, Ivar Smedstad, Farhad Kalantary, Kaia Hugin, Camilla Haukedal, Bull Miletic, Jeremy Welsh & Robert Worby. Full details of time/place and programme to follow!
Amsterdam in Letters is a photo book by Dutch photographer Maarten Helle, documenting typography on buildings throughout the city of Amsterdam. In particular, the book concentrates on typography that is integrated with the architecture, and it is divided into sections that deal with lettering realized in metal, stone and ceramics. The book covers both historical and contemporary sites and is in part an archeological project, looking at the remnants of businesses or institutions that are no longer, but that are remembered through the signs and slogans that remain. The site changes identity, the text remains, the relationship between building and text becomes destabilised, mysterious, maybe even unintentionally ironic.
The book includes an introduction/contextual essay by Willem Ellenbroek, in both Dutch and English. It is visually rich and is an interesting contribution to the ongoing research into urban environments.
More information on Maarten Helle's work can be seen at his website, and there is a short video on the same subject (in Dutch, but it's also quite visual) on You Tube.
SILLY WALK COLOGNE 19.7.2009, from DOMPLATTE to FRITZ-SCHRAMMA-HALLE, here at the corner of the Dom (Cathedrale), Museum Ludwig and Römisch-Germanisches Museum, than 1. lecture at RHEINHALLEN (Old Trade Fair) and 2. lecture at ZOOBRÜCKE, Deutz-Mühlheimer Hafen. http://www.koelnerkomment.de
Leipzig Fockeberg is an artificial mount in the city built with the rubble of WWII destroyed houses. Many towns have such hills, they are "renatureated", used as parks.
