In between downtown Amsterdam and a newly developed area to the east called IJburg is the island of Zeeburgereiland. Locals mainly think of Zeeburgereiland (loosely translated: “sea person island”) as an inhabitable island with a massive sewage-treatment plant. But not for long. The plant is being relocated, and Zeeburgereiland is becoming prime real estate. Three large silos once used for treating sewage will remain on the island; one of them has already been converted into office space. The city council recently held a competition to determine how to reuse the other two and, in April, announced the winning design: Arons En Gelauff Architects’ Annie MG Schmidt House, a cultural center named after Holland’s most celebrated children’s book author. But if we were running things, it would have gone to NL Architects’ proposal. Why? Look at these pictures.
     In their plan, one silo would be adapted into an indoor climbing center. Its walls taper toward the top and ingeniously end at a roof light. The firm envisioned the climbing silo also being used for weddings, birthday parties and church services.
(more…)

<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/opener3.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title="opener3"><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/opener3.thumbnail.jpg" alt="opener3" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-3416" /></a><div class="imagecaption">Street scene. Cairo, Egypt</div></div></div>
<!–more–>
<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa1.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title=""><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa1.thumbnail.jpg" alt="alexa1" width="830" height="356" class="attachment wp-att-3424" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><strong>LEFT</strong> Interior of Coptic home. Young girl at left pressing limes for cool drink. Cairo, Egypt <strong>RIGHT</strong> Soccer break before a storm. <em>Siam reap</em>, Cambodia</div></div></div>
<!–more–>
<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa2.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title=""><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa2.thumbnail.jpg" alt="alexa2" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-3429" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><strong>LEFT</strong> Our beloved neighbor Anita sings opera in her garden everyday. She passes our family kiwis and hydrangeas over the fence and often declares, &quot;Sono Forza!&quot; well into her 80&#039;s. Aviano, Italy <strong>RIGHT</strong> Soccer tournament at the local church. Aviano, Italy</div></div></div>
<!–more–>
<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa3.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title=""><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa3.thumbnail.jpg" alt="alexa3" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-3433" /></a><div class="imagecaption">Street scene. Cairo, Egypt</div></div></div>
<!–more–>
<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa4.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title=""><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa4.thumbnail.jpg" alt="alexa4" width="830" height="405" class="attachment wp-att-3435" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><strong>LEFT</strong> Cairo, Egypt <strong>RIGHT</strong> Coptic woman weeps in graditude after two young Korean missionaries sung a sweet hymn. Mokattam, Egypt</div></div></div>
<!–more–>
<div class="aligncenter"><div class="imageframe centered" style="width:830px;"><a href="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa51.jpg" rel="lightbox[pics3301]" title=""><img src="http://www.planet-mag.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/alexa51.thumbnail.jpg" alt="alexa51" width="830" height="356" class="attachment wp-att-3438" /></a><div class="imagecaption"><strong>LEFT</strong> Soccer tournament at the local church in my home town. Aviano, Italy <strong>RIGHT</strong> <em>Siam reap</em>, Cambodia</div></div></div>

Chattanooga

Last summer, PLANET writer Sarah Coleman covered Steidl’s re-release of Robert Frank’s The Americans to commemorate its 50th anniversary. This landmark collection of photographs was first released in France in 1958 — no American publisher would touch it — and only after its European success was it released Stateside in 1959.
     Fifty years later, three of the most respected art museums in the country are marking the anniversary of The Americans with a traveling exhibition. Like Frank’s original journey, funded by a Guggenheim grant, this museum show zig-zags across the country, starting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC and then moving on to San Francisco’s MoMA, where it’s currently showing, and heading back east to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in the fall. The show, which contains the original 83 photographs in the same order as they appear in the book, harks back to a country of segregated buses, drive-in movie theaters and mink stoles. Swiss-born Frank’s photos expose a culture deeply divided, from the devoutly religious South to the pioneer spirit of the West to the glittery socialites of Manhattan. In other words, not much has changed.

Looking In: Robert Frank’s “The Americans” runs through August 23rd at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and runs September 22–December 27, 2009 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

sfmoma.org
(more…)

Jana Kay

(more…)

Last year New Yorkers bid adieu to Philippe Starck’s Royalton presence, the former enfant terrible’s glass sconces shaped like ram’s horns, glitzy champagne bar that evoked the inside of a genie bottle, and three-legged chairs. And with that, flash was eclipsed by comfort, fantasy replaced with substance. But while New York only just stopped and smelled the classic design flowers — having allowed Philippe Starck to single-handedly razzle and dazzle the city for nearly 20 years — the British and Irish have always been weary of modernism, newfangled ‘starchitects’, and pop-star designers, and generally agree on the value of timeless, well-designed spaces.
     Case in point, my admiration and appreciation for this level of British (and Irish) design was only accentuated when on a recent visit to the newest refurb (as of April) of the Doyle Collection hotel group (formerly the Jurys Doyle Group) in London, The Kensington Hotel. Designed by Denis Looby from Dublin-based Sheehan & Barry Architects, its understated elegance — an eclectic mix of eastern antiques and vintage and repro Victorian furniture, vintage chandeliers and console tables, gorgeous Farrow & Ball wallpaper paints and Murano glass wall fittings — that makes you feel as if you’re a guest at a relative’s old Georgian home (i.e. a posh, long lost British uncle you just found).
(more…)

Zee Avi has not had breakfast. She has not had lunch. At twenty minutes to 6 p.m., she is wolfing down her first meal of the day. This is not a good start on the eve of a tour that is going to last until the end of summer. Sounding like Avi is 73 rather than 23, the Malaysian native’s self-titled debut has an old world jazz and lounge feel to it. Strums of acoustic guitar drive sparse songs showcasing Avi’s crackly vocals.
     Avi takes cues from all the music she has been exposed to over her limited years—from classic rock and oldies to hard rock to jazz. She also bears the influence of her various places of residence. Starting her life in Borneo, at 12 she moved to Kuala Lumpur, at 17 to London, and then at 22 to Southern California. While London may be an obvious musical reference point for Avi, the singer/songwriter circuit in Malaysia must not be discounted.
     “We get big acts back home, mainstream stuff, boy bands, pop bands,” says Avi. “But people underestimate the local music scene. We have an amazing local music scene, which quite surprised me when I first got into it. They are such amazing people and they make amazing music. They’re all different from each other, really unique. And they all ended up being my friends.”
(more…)

Dark Night of the Soul – the first collaboration and installation between Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse, and David Lynch – explores the idea of collective introspection. Now showing at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, the exhibit consists of a two-room installation streaming the album written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, accompanied by photos taken by Lynch. Inspired by the album, Lynch’s photo sets read like mini-storyboards, and resemble a series of film stills. The album features guest vocalists The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of The Super Furry Animals, Grandaddy’s Jason Lytle, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of The Pixies, Iggy Pop, James Mercer of The Shins, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, and Vic Chesnutt. The interplay between music and visuals in Dark Night of the Soul heighten and confuse the sensory experience, creating a myriad of emotions and responses.
     Hauntingly beautiful and grotesque, poignant and sometimes comical images accompany lyrics about revenge, war, pain, loss and hallucinatory states. From the opening track, The Flaming Lips’ “Revenge”, to David Lynch’s “Dark Night of the Soul”, we are taken on a disturbing and cerebral journey, one that moves increasingly from the tangible to the surreal. Each track is accompanied by a set of three or four images, which individually and collectively tell a story.
(more…)

Interesting things are happening in the south of Senegal a few miles northwest of Dakar. Edouard François, the architect known for his innovative green establishments, is rebuilding the old Les Almadies Club Med creating a sustainable holidaymakers paradise.
     The 250 rooms – made of clay, wheat and wood – are perhaps best described as wooden bird’s nests, or cocoons, as they rest above ground elevated by poles. The location of the resort is stunning with the North Atlantic Ocean on one side and a lagoon on the other. To provide the guests with a full view, each of the rooms have 360-degree windows.
“In our daily life we normally only have windows facing one way, maybe two, but never all the way round. A 360-degree view means that you are free”, he says.
     François has become known as one of the entrepreneurs of green architecture and the new Club Med is no exception.
     “With this place I want to do something that is very poetic and unusual and that also deals with ecology. We have a very high level of ecological ambition for the project and are aiming to become self-sufficient.”
(more…)

All Images © David Boureau

The recently unveiled Villas des Vignoles, in Paris, is the most charming public-housing complex in the world. Occupying one rectangular city block, the two- and three-story dwellings have many features most people don’t associate with the PJs: pitched roofs of varying heights, nooks designated for gardening and composting, vine-covered facades, and rabbit hutches. Yes, rabbit hutches. It’s also called Eden Bio, perhaps because when compared to most subsidized housing around the world, Vignoles is paradise. The rabbits here will likely live better than many people in the city’s less desirable housing projects — with apologies to those that end up as delicious lapin a la cocotte.
     Vignoles is getting a good deal of press in part because the bar for public housing is so low. Paris, like all large cities, has its fair share of unfortunate housing projects, and its reputation took a beating after the riots in October and November 2005. While the unrest in the city’s Clichy-sous-Boi neighborhood was reportedly a result of the lack of jobs available for the young, predominately Muslim residents, as well as police brutality, urban planners and other critics also blamed the buildings these kids called home: colonies of tall, concrete slabs which failed to provide residents the slightest feeling of warmth or security. The housing projects had a de-humanizing effect on the immigrants who were placed there and, perhaps even more so, on their children who’d never lived anywhere else.
(more…)