Category Archives: Rethinking Design

COMING SOON: HELSINKI BEYOND DREAMS

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 25/10/2011


For the past year or so, we have been busy with our forthcoming book.

Titled Helsinki Beyond Dreams, the book is about emerging local cultures and how they make a difference. We’ve invited a culturally varied group of urban activists, theorists and designers to share their views around the theme. We can’t wait to get all the inspiring stories and the rich photography out and published!

The book will be available in the spring 2012. It is also part of the official program of World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. Stay alert, more information will follow.

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COOKING UNDER THE SUN

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 17/08/2011

Photography: Johannes Romppanen

Last weekend, we drove our bicycles to Kalasatama to test the Solar Kitchen – an exceptional travelling restaurant concept by Catalan designer Martí Guixe and Finnish chef Antto Melasniemi.

The two visionaries both have a history of experimenting with food – Martí from the designer’s point of view and Antto as a chef of several fine-dining restaurants. Solar cooking offers a whole new way of approaching a restaurant. The texture and taste of the food is different, as the heat radiates from different angles. (more…)

Also posted in Events / Exhibitions, Helsinki Beyond Dreams, Kalasatama Temporary, Unfinished City | Tagged | Leave a comment

JUGAAD – PRACTICE OF MAKING DO

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 03/05/2011

Jugaad canopy by Sanjeev Shankar. Photograph by Sundeep Bali

Recently, I have been collecting information about low-resource innovations in developing countries. During my stay in New York, I ran across a very insightful exhibition at the AIA center for architecture: “Jugaad Urbanism”. The show presents creative strategies of making do  - solutions to survival with a lack of resources by people living in the big cities of India. (more…)

Also posted in Brief Notes from New York, Community, DIY, Events / Exhibitions, Sustainability | Leave a comment

ARCHITECTURAL SURGERY

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 25/04/2011

Haus 6 in Leinefelde - after the transformation

Haus 6 - before the transformation

The latest issue of Mark magazine features a very interesting article about ingenious transformation of social housing blocks, many of them in the town of Leinefelde in former East Germany. Architect Stefan Forster has dedicated about ten years to developing creative ideas on how to totally rebuild the architecture of poorly performing pre-fab concrete housing blocks – which are an increasingly greater problem in many countries throughout Europe. Having just a week ago read in Helsingin Sanomat about the plans to demolish two housing blocks in the northern Helsinki suburb of Jakomäki, makes one curious about the other potential alternatives to demolition. (more…)

Also posted in Sustainability, Unfinished City | Tagged | Leave a comment

WINTER AT THE HIGH LINE

By Hella Hernberg | Published: 05/03/2011

During the early 2011, Urban Dream Management has been busy exploring and writing less. In February, I had the chance to spend a month flâneuring the streets of New York, where spring was making its first attempts to beat the cold weather.

Among the first things on my list in New York, was a long-anticipated visit to the High Line, a public park built on an abandoned elevated railroad stretching from the Meatpacking District to the Hudson Rail Yards in Manhattan. I saw the park in its quiet, snow-covered winter mood and returned there on a sunny afternoon at the end of the month, when it was packed with people spending their weekend. The park design features an integrated landscape, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Field Operations. It combines meandering concrete pathways with naturalistic plantings that draws its inspiration from the beauty of the original biodiversity that took over after the railroad fell into a ruin. (more…)

Also posted in Brief Notes from New York, Community, Slow, Sustainability, Unfinished City | Tagged , | Leave a comment

  • Urban Dream Management explores (con)temporary urban phenomena, innovative uses of space and new collective ways for creating more attractive and inspiring environments.

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