De Stad Gespeeld

Artikel werd recent gepubliceerd in Citygraphy #02. Citygraphy #02 met teksten van Bart Verschaffel over het interieur als architecturaal principe, Annelies Cousserier over het Comité d’études du Vieux Bruxelles, Eveline Vanfraussen over Herman Teirlinck en zijn blik op Brussel, Steven Humblet over Fifth Avenue, Maaike Lauwaert over speelgoed en architectuur en met fotografie van Esther Eggermont en Lilo Bauer.

Playing the City: Public Participation in a Contested Suburban Area

Article published in The Journal of Urban Technology, Volume 16, August 2009.

Table of Contents:
From the Guest Editor: The Architecture of War and Peace by Ralf Brand
Polarization as a Socio-Material Phenomenon: A Bibliographical Review by Sara Fregonese & Ralf Brand
Urban Artifacts and Social Practices in a Contested City by Ralf Brand
Jerusalem and the Principles of Conflict Urbanism by Philipp Misselwitz & Tim Rieniets
Intervening in Politically Turbulent Cities: Spaces, Buildings, and Boundaries by Scott A. Bollens
Urban Technology, Conflict Education, and Disputed Space by Angela Stienen
Playing the City: Public Participation in a Contested Suburban Area by Maaike Lauwaert

Book + Bookstore

The Place of Play book launch party in Amsterdam

I created a separate blog for this presentation. It can be accessed here.

 

Here are some images from the presentation:

Research blog >< Canadian Centre for Architecture

I kept a research blog on my activities at the Canadian Centre for Architecture where I was a visiting scholar in the spring of 2009. You can access it here. It is all work in progress…

Upcoming: research period at The Canadian Centre for Architecture

I am very happy to be able to spend time at The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal this spring. I was granted a research stipend at their Research Centre and Visiting Scholars Program. The CCA has an amazing collection of architectural information, architectural toys and construction toys. I will be working on new media and architecture, with a special focus on SketchUp, analogue construction toys and Google Earth.

Playing outside the box

Abstract
This article deals with three major instances in the history of the LEGO Company. First, it investigates the transference from wood to plastics as the main material used in creating LEGO toys, and also the innovations in plastic molding machines that influenced the interlocking mechanism of the LEGO bricks. Second, this article deals with a rather unfortunate episode from the LEGO history, namely, the period between the late 1990s and the early twenty-first century when the LEGO Company felt the need to extend its brand image through diversifying its product range. Unfortunately, this led to a confusing, rather than a strong brand image and resulted in heavy financial losses in 2003 and 2004. Third, this article looks into recent attempts by the LEGO Company to bring the fans into the company in order to revive the LEGO brand and its products. This part focuses on Mindstorms 2.0 and Mindstorms NXT, especially, in order to illustrate the increase in user involvement in LEGO product development.

 

Keywords: LEGO; technological innovation; branding; product development; play; toys

Published in 2008 in History & Technology, Vol. 24, No. 3, 221-237.