Charm Café is a youth focused creative centre located in Zhongshan Bei Lu, the creative street of Hangzhou. They provide a platform for Chinese artists and designers to present and sell their artwork. They also regularly host offline activities to encourage creative thinking amongst Chinese youth. Some of their main activities include the monthly West Lake Idea Mart (DIY Mart) and the weekly Charm Café creativity class and exhibition. Every October and May respectively they also help organize China Hangzhou Cultural & Creative Industry Expo and China International Cartoon and Animation Festival.

Designed by the Zurich-based firm of architects RAAFA, the 2016 Rio Olympic Tower will sit just a few miles off the coast. On the island of Cotonduba it’ll be perfectly visible along most of the Rio seafront and beyond. It will contain an amphitheatre, auditorium, cafeteria, library and even a bungee-jumping platform at the top that will truly turn it into a thing of beauty. Acting as a beacon, a “welcome to Rio” landmark, it will be 100% sustainable and capable of keeping itself and the Olympic Village going. By pumping seawater to the top of the tower it will not only create a truly spectacular cascade effect but also power turbines that will produce energy during the night. An extremely clever combination of solar panels and turbines makes all of this possible. It will be an engineering and architectural masterpiece and a thing of beauty that will add to the natural beauty of the city.

On the picture we see a poster located on the floor of the museum shop in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. It was put there as a floor mat during one of their modernism exhibitions ‘Cold War Modern’. It reads in four languages; “ You are entering the retail sector… ”. The rest of the text reads like an instruction one is not supposed to ignore. Most people will immediately make the connection with Checkpoint Charlie, but not all. “Checkpoint C” was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War. It was a symbol between East and West and symbolized power, fear and separation. Upon entering instructions such as these were also visible.

Workspring in Chicago has gone the holistic route with their offering of urban workspace. They are presenting an environment that engages you with the latest technologies and a staff that is there to be at your beck and call. When arriving you can receive your favorite cup of coffee or tea and your newspaper before you start working. It is located in a creative hotspot and thus you don’t only find people working there but also the latest book signings or presentations. The place is a veritable hidden oasis with its garden and for the Urban Nomad the perfect location to get away from the hustle bustle of quick and dirty working to something that is healthier.

Swedish clothing brand Elvine recently launched the Creators Inn by Elvine. They offer hotel-like accomodations for free to young creative people visiting cities like Gothenburg (where Elvine is based) and Stockholm (in the Scandic Hotel). Aim of the initiative is to promote the local area and give something back to travelling young talents like musicians, DJs, designers, artists, writers, etc whose presence can contribute to building up a more interesting cultural environment. Elvine is looking for partners supporting similar initiatives elsewhere.

25 students at the prestigious Seoul National University in Korea took to their university campus to promote global warming awareness. The Information and Multimedia Culture majors collaborated with D’Strict, a leading Interactive Design Firm, to create the exhibit “Scorching Tomorrow”. Together they turned the exterior wall of the Cultural Center of the university campus into a social message space. The building itself was used to show the effects of increasing temperatures and the ultimate submersion under the extra water generated by the melting of the poles. A sophisticated beam projector was used to display a series of realistic high resolution motion images of the walls deteriorating because of the weather conditions. This important academic institution allowed this in order to give the next generation and future leaders environmental awareness.

The disaster in the gulf of Mexico, caused by the drilling platform of British Petroleum (BP) blowing up, has been truly devastating for the area. But accidents happen. What truly has people up in arms is the manner in which this could have happened and what has been done since. Anger is rampant because once again we realize that a lovely and thoughtful slogan, Beyond Petrol, can be such a horrible lie. This anger has turned a lot of people creative. After seeing the creative backlash against BP it snowballed into Flickr groups and worldwide contests around the BP logo. Amateur photoshopping has come out of the kitschy shadows of the internet and into the mainstream.