Urban Recycling for the Locarno Film Festival

A new way to think architecture in our social and economic crisis times comes from AZPA (Alejandro Zaera-Polo Architecture). The London-Barcelona based practice has been announced as winner of an international competition aimed to establish a recognisable home for the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland. Breaking away from the starchitect notion of public architecture needing to make an “extravagant gesture”, AZPA’s innovative proposal partakes in an act of “urban recycling and sustainability performance” by reusing the pre-existent complex of the Palazzo Scolastico and the Piazza Remo Rossi. Both represents a great opportunity to encrust the Film Festival within an urban structure which has already deep affective relations to the Locarno citizens, and a significant presence in today’s cityscape.

There are two primary aims in AZPA's project:

- Economy of resources through urban recycling. With an estimated price tag of 28 million Swiss Francs, this renovation is said to be no more than the cost of a complete demolition.

- Consolidation and rebranding of the public identity of the "Palazzo del Cinema di Locarno".

As Architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo claims: “I do not want to redraw the city, but keep the city.” Beyond the preservation of the historical memory of Locarno, they believe that the Palazzo Scolastico is an adequate building that deserves to be preserved and recycled. The project aim to transform the building interior courtyard into three larger theaters. Additionally, a complimentary renovation will take place on the surrounding Piazza Remo Rossi, which will be repaved with red natural stone, will become the "Red Carpet Piazza" consolidating the presence of the Film Festival into Locarno’s structure of open spaces.

AZPA declere: “When conceiving our proposal for the Palazzo del Cinema di Locarno, we tried to avoid the dominant trend, prevalent during the last few decades, that public architecture needs to make extravagant gestures in order to curate our cities public realm. In the aftermath of the 2007 global financial crisis, rampant global warming, and perhaps the demise of “starchitecture” as a default procedure to build urban identity, our proposal is guided by principles of economy and the attempt to capitalize on the existing structure and the public affection for the Palazzo Scolastico – which was used to host the local schools and now hosts a variety of NGOs and community associations – to provide an architectural identity for the new cinema complex in Piazza Remo Rossi.”

More info:

www.azpa.com

Locarno International Film Festival

photo credits © AZPA (Alejandro Zaera-Polo Architecture)

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What can be Made from Recycled Cargo Straps? Bundubags!

Bundubags makes innovative, totally recycled bags with a core belief that lives can be changed by good design. Bundubags began with a creative idea, a love of contemporary African design and a desire to support African women.

Handwoven using traditional African weaving techniques, each bag is made from recycled cargo strapping made from PET, which is spun into long strips. One of the beach bags for examples, uses the equivalent of 6 to 8 pieces of 1.5L PET bottle , so more PET recycled bags means less waste in our daily life .

They also collect offcuts, unused strapping bales as well as used strips, that they sort and clean and re-use in the production of each bag. So it is twice recycled!

The project is based in the Alexandra township on the outskirts of Johannesburg South Africa, and it now employs 40 women, all of whom earn a sustainable income.

More info

www.bundubags.wordpress.com

Photo credit © bundubags

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Temporary Fire Shelter in Copenaghen, by Shjworks

The project Fire Shelter by Danish firm Shjworks consist of a built structure, located in Sydhavnstippen - Copenhagen, and an open letter.

"The starting point for the design emerged from a fascination of the place. It´s a temporary project and a design experiment that wish to celebrate the place. The project has public access, and it establishes experiences of spatial and social character. In the creation of it nobody has been asked of advice, neither has it been possible for anyone to tell his or her opinion. It is simply thought of as a gift."

Sydhavnstippen is an amazing place by a 20-minute bike ride from the city center. After the second world war it became landfilled with building materials, until 1973. Today it is a habitat for a variety of animals, since the landfill plants, bushes and trees have taken over the area. The “wild” appearance of the nature on top of the building materials, which are visible some places, makes you think of a “post-apocalyptic” nature.

Fire Shelter was totally constructed and conceived by Shjworks and the people that helped, that wished to act independently. If bureaucracy had been taken into account, the project probably wouldn’t have happened.

The shelter is a unique and specific project. It is realized with plywood floor, polycarbonate structure and all the different parts are fabricated using CNC technology. Inside is a fire place surrounded by a bench filled with building materials found on the site. It´s about being in the company of good friends, in a fantastic place, around a fire during the dark time of the year.

The design influenced by the vernacular buldings of ethnic and nomadic people, consisting in a shape stretching around the sky, one hole in the top and two openings at the bottom create a flow of ventilation. After dusk the light from the fire will shine through to the exterior, alluding to old time lighthouses.

Hopefully the shelter can stand for a year.

More info

Simon Hjermind Jensen

photo credit Simon Hjermind Jensen and Christian Bøcker Sørensen

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Tunnel of Love: the interaction between man and nature in Kevlan, Ukraine

A tunnel where nature and man-made infrastructure and blend together to create a unique spectacle. Many call it the "Tunnel of Love" - Тоннель любви in Ukrainian - and is located on the outskirts of a small town called Klevan, Ukraine, not far from the Ukrainian regional center Rivne.

The tunnel, which is one of the main natural attractions of Ukraine, is born from the interaction between man and nature as the landscape has been shaped by the applicant passage of a train, with cargo for use in a steel factory, through the forest. During the warm months of the year thanks to pruning and the regular passage of trains through the track, Mother Nature makes peace with man by growing trees branches over the track to form a tunnel of vegetation and greenery which the locals call the "Tunnel of Love".

The tunnel along one kilometer long section of the railway, is very popular among lovers who like to make a wish and kiss there. The natives believe that when two people who really love cross the tunnel, holding hands, both dreams become reality. Fantastic, no?

Photo credit Gleb Garanich / Reuters

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The Daily Talk describes a hopeful Liberia in the process of renewal

The Daily Talk is an English-language news medium published daily on a blackboard on Tubman Boulevard a main thoroughfare in the center of the Liberian capital Monrovia.

It is "the most widely read report" in Monrovia, a city where radios and televisions are luxuries most people cannot afford, and so many Monrovians lack the access to the conventional mass media.

The founder, managing editor and sole employee of the Daily Talk is Alfred J. Sirleaf, who founded his blackboard newspaper in 2000, in the middle of Liberia’s fourteen-year-long civil war, because of his belief that a well-informed citizenry is the key to the rebirth of Liberia after years of civil war. In post-war Liberia, Sirleaf sees access to information as the key to peace. He compiles his stories daily from newspaper reports and messages from volunteer correspondents. The Daily Talk is free to read and is funded by occasional gifts of cash and pre-paid cellphone cards. It even has its own suggestion box for readers and followers.

Once he has decided what he wants to post, he goes into a little shack he calls the “newsroom” and writes neatly on the blackboards, a meticulous process that can take a couple of hours. To reach those who cannot read, Sirleaf has devised a series of pictures and objects to symbolize the news, including a blue helmet for the UN and its peacekeeping force, a white handkerchief for Obama, and a hubcap for President Sirleaf, known as the Iron Lady of politics. In place of photographs he uses old campaign posters and other free handouts.

During the rule of Charles Taylor it was destroyed by government soldiers after The Daily Talk published criticism of the Taylor regime, and Sirleaf was briefly jailed, and he finally fled into "exile" in Ghana. When peace returned he arrived back and with help from his fellow Monrovians, Sirleaf rebuilt it a week before the 2005 election of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (not a close relation) and resumed publication of the Daily Talk.

Today it is one of the most read News Sources in the capital with thousands everyday taking the time to stop as they walk or drive by to get the breaking news.

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Wicker-Covered Car by Ojo Obaniyi, an ingenius way to advertise a business

A sustainable good idea of marketing comes from Ibadan the capital city of Oyo State and the third largest metropolitan area, by population, in Nigeria. Here there are a lot of raffia palm cane weavers, but one of them has managed to attract the global attention of the whole internet, after pictures of his unique advertisement-on-wheels were published by major news sites.

Local artisan Ojo Obaniyi has applied his skill in weaving in an unusually creative and ingenius way to advertise his business, his raffia palm cane weaving services. Obaniyi, who has practiced the craft for 20 years, has covered the inside and outside of his Volkswagen pickup in the natural material including the entire car body, the wheel caps, chairs, steering wheel and dashboard in an effort to attract attention from passersby.

Obaniyi says of his handiwork: "I wanted to prove a point that it is not only the educated elite that can make positive changes in society. We, the artisans also have talents to effect a change and make a positive impact in the society. That is why I decided that I too must do something that will make people to recognize me and know me across the whole world and by extension prove to the world that african and indeed the entire black race have very talented people." This just goes to show you creative ideas and talent don’t need big advertising budgets to be effective.

Photo credits © reuters/akintunde akinleye

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With Promised Land fracking arrives in Hollywood

The begining is 2010, when was realized the documentary Gasland. The movie portrayed the devastating effects of a method of drilling into shale gas formations called hydraulic fracturing colloquially known as "fracking", in rural american communities. It garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics and newspapers but also negative responses by fracking lobbyists. They answer with the production of a movie titled TruthLand, by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, concerned with listing false information propagated in Gasland and showing a different view on fracking.

The new film Promised Land reflected a trend about fracking since the release of Gasland, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary. Promised Land, released in December 2012, directed by Gus van Sant starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski and Frances McDormand. The screenplay was based on a story by Dave Eggers. It is the first Hollywood treatment of fracking, much to the displeasure of the oil and gas industry which have yet again launched an almost targeted campaign to discredit the movie even before its release, they said: "Promised Land will increase unfounded concerns about fracking."

The film is set to have its international premiere at the 63th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2013.

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