Zoku: hotel – office – living
19-5-2015
Zoku will be facilitating global living and working, it’s a home-office hybrid with the services of a hotel and the social buzz of a thriving neighbourhood. The first Zoku will open this fall in Amsterdam.
Zoku is announced as the end of the traditional hotel room. This new hotel concept is a hotel, office and residential space in one. This way they will meet the needs of global nomads, for who working internationally is an essential part of their lives. The Zoku Loft will offer them an efficient workspace that also provides a comfortable and cozy feeling of home at inspiring places.
L’Avant-Comptoir – an ode to French cuisine
15-5-2015
Leonie van Spronsen, lives and works in Paris and recently dined at a tapas bar / wine bar L’Avant Comptoir.
“Last week I had the chance to visit the ‘tapasbar/winebar’ L’Avant-Comptoir in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This is the place where chef Yves Camdeborde serves traditional French dishes, products and delicacies in a different, Spanish-feeling way.
You walk into a very small bar, with a wall of beautiful wine fridges behind the bar and a ceiling covered in cards with small dishes, their names and their prices on it. There is only place to stand and the bar is filled with gorgeous fresh bread and delicous salty butter. Every little dish is between 4 and 10 euros and can be shared and needs to be savoured. We’re talking lemon macarons with fresh foie gras pate in between, a cheese dish created as an apple crumble, blood sausage on a béarnaise macaron and many, many more. Did this get you ready? Imagine a vast array of beautiful wines to compliment these beauties.
Tip for when you’re in Paris: Apero at L’Avant Comptoir
And after this beautiful experience, you expect a hefty bill (as you would after eating foie gras) but none of this, everything is moderately priced and an elaborate apero (what the French call pre-dinner drinks) is already enjoyed for 17 euros!
L’Avant Comptoir, an absolute must-visit in Paris.”
Shadow Wi-Fi system
13-5-2015
The premier Shadow Wi-Fi System, developed by Happiness Brussels, launched with the support of the Peruvian League Against Cancer. The president of the Liga Contra el Cáncer, Adolfo Dammert Ludowieg about the system: “Shadow Wi-Fi has changed sun-worshipers’ behavior and educated them about the value of becoming shadow-worshipers at the most harmful hours of the day, between 12 and 4pm.”
We want the Shadow Wi-Fi system at the Dutch beaches as well this summer
With the summer ahead we could use some inspirational warnings against the harmful sun at the beaches in the Netherlands as well. It’s a new call for being extra careful while sunbathing especially directed at our youngsters. Check the video to see how it works, a little bit more info: a directional antenna ensures that the Wi-Fi is only delivered to the shadow area. A sensor tracks the movements of the sun throughout the day, changing the rotation of the Wi-Fi antenna. The system allows for more than 250 users to connect to the network at once. Once users log on to the network, they also received an email from the Peruvian Leage Against Cancer. According to our source the towers have been wildly successful in Lima (Peru) and will be scheduled to be rolled out in San Francisco and New Zealand as well.
Shadow Wi-Fi’s developer, Happiness, has released access to the software for non-profit use. Cancer foundations around the world can set up the system, without ICT knowledge.
The chefs of restaurant IDRW will be cooking from a vintage outdoor kitchen on location
13-5-2015
A culinary twist to the trend of outdoor cooking. Marcel Zomeren and Justin van den Berg, chef-owner and chef from the restaurant In Den Rustwat (IDRW) in Rotterdam will be cooking on various location this summer with only the basic essentials. They will use a wood-burning vintage field kitchen from 1944, complete with army tent.
Vintage outdoor kitchen
The chefs from restaurant In Den Rustwat (with a Bib Gourmand rating by Michelin) are available to cook underneath the starry sky at all kinds of parties and events. The outdoor kitchen is part of a new joint initiative called ‘Your Personal Chefs’. At www.yourpersonalchefs.nl you can hire the chefs for a culinary feast on location. The culinary duo is for hire with or without the tough field kitchen. The vintage outdoor kitchen will be pulled by a DAF army vehicle from 1955. Anyone that wants to extend their style can rent the army tent as well.
The chefs can also be used without the vintage kitchen, at any location. The dishes are prepared in camping style, but on a very culinary touch. Think of a perfectly prepared cote de boeuf, grilled tuna, stew or duck. Or flammkuchen, the Alsatian version of a pizza.
Pair music with food and activate the fifth sense
12-5-2015
Former chef Barbara Werner wrote a book about pairing music with food and runs Musical Pairing pop-ups. She shows you how to create the perfect bite by combining all 5 senses: sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
Only BYOH at this event where they pair music with food
(BYOH) Bring Your Own Headset and Barbara Werner will teach you the essentials in assigning a numerical value to the food (FPN – Food Pairing Number) based on a mathematical formula. FPN is based on the primary ingredient (protein), the richness of the sauce, the weight (cooking method) and the heat index. You then find an equal numerical value in a musical piece (MPN – Musical Pairing Number), which is based on the following: primary instruments (musical family), beat, tempo and genre category.
What do you get when FPN = MPN?
For example: hot and spicy Mac & Cheese with as music: Coolio Gangsta Paradise. Vanilla ice cream with Pachelbel’s ‘Canon’. Tuna ahi with The Go Go’s or filet mignon with Pavarotti. Just BYOH to Barbara’s pop-up and enjoy all five senses. There’s also an app and a book on this subjet. A video of a pop-up get-together is to be seen here.
Spotted at a list of pop-up restaurants at the website of Fodor.
Bathing pond art installation opens at London’s King’s Cross
11-5-2015
The King’s Cross Pond Club, a naturally filtered outdoor swimming pool, is part of the redevelopment of King’s Cross in London. Soil and Water (the name of the project), will be the UK’s first man-made bathing pond that’s filtered using natural processes.
The pool is designed by studio Ooze Architects (Rotterdam) and Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč. The pool is built two metres above ground level, with salvaged bricks and stones used to create a basin that measures 40 by 10 metres. The pool is both an art installation and a public facility and will be cleaned using wetland flora and submerged plants rather than chemicals or machinery. The local community participated in key aspects of the planting.
Swimming pool is located at London’s King’s Cross
It is located within the new Lewis Cubitt Park, close to the campus of design school Central Saint Martins, which forms part of the 27-hectare redevelopment of the area behind King’s Cross station. The swimming pool will open in May 2015.
“The project is an attempt to capture the dynamicity conveyed by the changes within the area, a moment in time where new possibilities and possible futures arise,” said architect Eva Pfannes, who co-founded Ooze with Sylvain Hartenberg. Architects Ooze and artist Potrč have been collaborating on projects since 2008. Ooze’s projects are of a participative and multidisciplinary nature. “The project is a small-scale enclaved environment, a living laboratory to test balance and to question a self-sustaining system including one natural cycle – water, land and the human body. The aim is communication with visitors, describing the balance of man with nature, and the balance of living in a sustainable city,” she continued.
The King’s Cross Pond Club is engineered and built by Europe’s leading natural pool designer BIOTOP and its UK partner, Kingcombe Aquacare Ltd. The pond will be operated as a swimming club by Fusion Lifestyle.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ by KFC
7-5-2015
KFC in the UK has unveiled the first edible coffee cup. It’s called the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’. The cups are currently under development but most probably available from this summer onwards.
The ‘Scoff-ee Cup’ is made from biscuit, wrapped in sugar paper and lined with a layer of white chocolate. The chocolate keeps the coffee hot and the cup crispy. The biscuit slowly softens as the chocolate melts which it does in the mouth and not in the hand. The ‘Scoff-ee Cups’ will mark the launch of KFC’s Seattle’s Best Coffee (made from fairtrade Arabica beans) across England. We did spot edible coffee cups before, like the milk & cookie shots by Dominique Ansel.
Food scientist created the ‘Scoff-ee Cup’
Food scientists The Robin Collective created the edible cup in partnership with KFC. The cups are also infused with different scents (Coconut sun cream, freshly cut grass and wild flowers), that are known to improve your mood. And that together with a great coffee, there’s no better way to start your day!
Dominique Ansel’s answer to what’s next
6-5-2015
Dominique Ansel opened his second bakery and concept, the Dominique Ansel KITCHEN on 29 April. As we already wrote in February, Dominique Ansel KITCHEN will not be serving the Cronut™ pastry nor many of the items that are most popular at the original Soho flagship Bakery. So if you’re visiting NYC and want to taste some of the other delicacies by Dominique Ansel, you don’t have to wait in line at his bakery, although we think it might be a problem to get a reservation at his KITCHEN as well.
At Dominique Ansel KITCHEN time is an ingredient
More than 70% of the menu will be made, finished, or assembled to order. Chef Dominique and his team have changed the operations of a traditional bakery, fusing it with a restaurant service kitchen, to bring “à la minute” capabilities to some of your best loved baked goods.
In the fully opened kitchens, guests will see the cooks cut fresh vanilla beans and scrape the seeds directly onto your ice cream rather than have it mixed in and slowly lose the intensity of its flavor in the fridge. They fold the chocolate mousse to order so it doesn’t have to harden for hours in the fridge, and guests can even choose the intensity of the chocolate. The ham and cheese croissant is wrapped in premium freshly sliced ham when the order is placed. And they aim to have everything done in the same amount of time it takes to get a latte. If people will wait for a fresh pulled espresso, why not also for a pastry?
GPS-Bottles leads finders to the Heineken experience
6-5-2015
Amsterdam’s Heineken Experience has littered GPS-enabled beer bottles through the city which can lead curious residents and tourists to the beer museum.
Anyone picking up one of the bottles around Amsterdam will feel the bottle vibrate and see the cap light up as it activates. The in-built compass and rotating cap will then guide the finder through the city directly to the Heineken Experience.
GPS-bottles instead of flyers
The idea is to boost the visitors to the branded museum, which saw 730,000 visitors last year. Heineken teamed up with JWT Amsterdam to attract more visitors to their brewery. The custom-made Heineken bottles had an integrated GPS system designed to lead people who picked them up back to the Heineken Experience brewery.
Dirk Lubbers, manager of the Heineken Experience, said: “Handing out flyers is not very Heineken, so we wanted to play on the brand’s famous inventiveness, wit and pioneering spirit and create something that stands out for potential visitors. Our key differentiator is that we invite each visitor on a cultural and historical journey, enabling them to interact with the brand. This initiative is a great representation of our approach: innovative, dynamic, surprising, and always leave you with unforgettable memories.”
On-Air will be a new iconic building in Amsterdam
29-4-2015
Real estate developer COD, architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis agency OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the NH Hotel Group and sustainable developer ‘Being Development’ have joined forces and came up with the ‘On-Air’ building as new icon for Amsterdam. It was the winning concept of the tender the municipality of Amsterdam and the RAI Convention Centre issued for the location in the south of the city.
About the alliance
COD developed two hotels in Amsterdam in 2015, Motel One at the Europa Boulevard (320 rooms) and Generator (168 rooms) at the Mauritskade. The recent projects of the OMA agency include the new headquarters for G-Star in Amsterdam (2014) and the towers of The Rotterdam (2013). The NH Hotel Group will implement the nhow-label at ‘On-Air’ with 650 rooms hotel. Being Development is a young and innovative company that develops the sustainable real estate from the end user’s perspective.
On-Air
The On-Air hotel is designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas. It will include a restaurant, a TV studio, a spa / gym, shops and a sculpture garden. The sustainability ambition for the building will be ‘BREEAM outstanding’ and it will be carbon neutral. With 650 rooms nhow Amsterdam RAI will be the largest hotel of the Benelux. The start of the construction of this 91 meter high hotel is planned for midst 2016. The location is triangle bounded by the Europa Boulevard, the A10 and the Amsterdam RAI Convention Centre.
Prestigious landmark
The municipality of Amsterdam aims for a larger and more varied hotel offer and better spreading across the city. The new hotel and its facilities can be of great value to the city at this location on the south side of the city and the surrounding business district.
