Happy 2010 !

Tonight it will be full moon again. A 'perfect timing' for celebrating cycles. All the best for next orbit!

Book.

Asterios Polyp is the first graphic novel by David Mazzucchelli. He has been making comics his whole life. A super beautiful book.

The main character in the story is an architect. During his life his aim for simplicity / reduction is confronted with a holistic way of going.
In the book a figurative graphical style (like movie stills showing a situation) is mixed with a diagrammatic graphical style (like a presentation explaining a situation).

(see for more info about David Mazzucchelli: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mazzucchelli)

Accessoire.

This advertisement card was dropped into our letterbox this week. Sale strategies in the housing commerce seem to become more close to car business where accessories form an important tool in convincing buyers. Free Radio's. New model of rimes for half the price. An extra line of striping on the car it's body.
In the advertisement of this new housing project (all ready build) is stated in the red box:"Uitbouw Gratis!" which means more or less: "Free annex!".

In the fashion industry it seems more natural to accomplish a design with accessories. Wikipedia says about 'Fashion accessory': Accessories add color, style and class to an outfit, and create a certain look, but they may also have practical functions. Handbags are for carrying, hats gloves protect the face from weather.
Maybe windows, balconies, chimneys and skylights should be seen more as accessories after all? Maybe architects do this all ready, but are buyers aware of this? Try your style in the nice cleaned up project below!

Detail.

Each white spot in this photo is a filled hole in the tooth. They seem to appear often where two teeth are (just) touching each other. A super beautiful detail.

1:25

Madurodam is a huge model (build in scale 1:25) composed out of existing Dutch iconic fragments, organised in an imaginary urban plan.
A new context. The Rijksmuseum is directly connected to the Paleis op de Dam. And the Rietveld Schröderhuis seems to be reversed enclosed by historic city center development.

Information http://www.madurodam.nl/

I see you up in the air!

A beautiful website showing flight movements around the airport Schiphol.
This program is invented by the Amsterdam based company: Frontier. The program is called "Casper". The data is coming from an ADS-B receiver on the roof of their office, enriched with public data from the Internet. This data is made visible with the help of Google Maps.
See http://casper.frontier.nl/

The layout is clear with a thrilling moment when opening the site. Can't wait for the same information in section!

Book

Jan Rothuizen (Dutch Artist) made this beautiful subjective atlas of Amsterdam, in which he translated his personal experience of a spot into a spatial scheme using words and lines.
Watch out: the "drawings" are only in Dutch.
See more at: http://www.janrothuizen.nl/