Ørestad Boulevard
Since a few years Copenhagen is among the coolest destinations in Europe and perheps on the planet, always ranking at the top in the quality of life surveys. For leisure or business the Danish capital features the biggest, the newest, the most innovative, cosmopolitan and green population, business, food, technologies, buildings, design, lifestyle etc. Growing by 1000 inhabitants per month, investing in infrastructure, education, innovation and quality of life, expanding and connecting with the most dynamic realities in the world, Copenhagen is a living example of how, even in times of bitter crisis, opportunities are there.
I was in Copenhagen at the beginning of December for the URBACT Annual conference. This time I could not plan any random walk as I always try to do when travelling. My only walk around was a 3 hours guided tour (sic!). For the first time in my life I had the disturbing experience to visit a place – the Ørestad – entirely by bus. No way to put your feet on the ground.
This was the view from my hotel room at the DGI Byen, very comfortable urban location.
In the world capital of cycling, tough people cycle even by snow and ice.
The Ørestad is a striking example of urban planning and city marketing: a city expansion in the middle of nowhere, in a windy and rather unfriendly natural landscape, featuring excentric architecture, excellent infratsructure and mixed use. Above a picture of the so called Bella Center, where the UN Climate Change Cop 15 took place. Not really attractive to me, but have a look at their website to see how you can make it attractive.
The Ørestad is an interesting building site where you could see the most advanced building technologies at work, to realise world class architecture the Danish are very proud of and supportive. Here you can see the official presentation/advertising of this urban development: very attractive indeed. I still have not decided if I should believe to my eyes or to these dreams!. Bjarke Ingels calls it the “realistic utopia”, or something like that. Indeed it is a real challenge to dream in this cold and windy flatlands. 
On the left side, out of the picture, you should imagine the 8-House. 
Urban density is not really an issue here, not yet. Every building is a piece of urban fabric on its own.
This is not the best side of Bjarke Ingel’s (BIG) and Julien De Smedt (JDS) Mountain Dwellings, but you have to take a picture anyway! 
A view on the Ørestad Boulevard.
Again the Bella Center, from the other side of the loop.
In a few minutes we are back in the city. The difference between these neighbourhoods is bigger than the distance. 
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 30,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 7 Film Festivals
Hermes Retrofitting an Art Deco Swimming Pool in Paris
From time to time I come across the intriguing relationship between architecture and fashion. This time I like to share a few thoughts and pictures of the famous Hermes store opened last year in Rue de Sèvres in the fashionable Paris Saint Germain neighborhood.
The interior design has been celebrated in several articles – like this for instance – where you can find more information, better pictures than mine and even videos. I am not going to add anything about it, just a couple of nice surprises I had visiting the place.
The aura of having being an art deco swimming pool has been skillfully retained in the store, which has a very pleasantly relaxed atmosphere, in terms of space, materials, light and sound.
According to the laid back atmosphere the store is in fact very welcoming: the guards at the entrance are kindly discrete, you can enter and look around all over the place and even take pictures of the store without any permission (you are just kindly advised not to shoot Hermes items). You can really feel like a human being in a public space instead of a lousy consumer in a horribly expensive fashion store. 
The flooring in the lower ground, the level of the former swimming pool, is nicely composed by mix of mosaic stones in white, grey, green, blue, gold, silver etc. The borders seem to be the original pool edge in worn concrete. 
The wooden amphoras subdivide the space being no hindrance to the free movement of people and overall visual impact of the store. 
Thanks and congratulations to Hermes, architect Denis Montel, Director of RDAI agency and also the German engineers Bollinger und Grohmann.
Merry Christmas / Buon Natale
Enjoy Christmas Holidays at Pimpa and Armando’s place. A 26 minutes long beautiful cartoon by Altan.
Ai Weiwei’s Christmas screensaver: let his Door Gods protect your home
Ai Weiwei says: ‘Posters of the Door Gods are traditionally placed at the entrance to every Chinese family’s home to protect them from evil spirits. This includes details from art works I have made, such as Sunflower Seeds and Watermelon;
read the original article on the Guardian and click on image below to download screensaver
Well Designed and Built 