Last month, a giant 4K digital cat was installed on a billboard near Shinjuku station in Tokyo. See above tweet. It was created using a 26 x 62 foot LED display, and the resulting effect is very much a trompe-l'œil. The cat looks like it's sitting on a ledge that is carved into the side of a building.
The cat doesn't have a name. But the New York Times has reported that locals have started to call it "Shinjuku east exit cat" because of where it is situated relative to the station. I am going to assume that this name sounds a little more endearing in Japanese.
Having spent a fair bit of time in Asia in my twenties -- mainly Taipei, Tokyo, and Hong Kong -- I've always been impressed by how playful Asian cities are with their buildings, billboards, signage, and lighting. It can make us feel overly conservative. A trip to Tokyo can be like a trip to the future.
I appreciate that most people don't want their cities to be overrun with advertising, and that's what billboards are usually for. It can get tacky. I get it. But sometimes it just makes sense to stick a massive 3D cat on the side of your building. It's fun and it captures people's attention.
Last month, a giant 4K digital cat was installed on a billboard near Shinjuku station in Tokyo. See above tweet. It was created using a 26 x 62 foot LED display, and the resulting effect is very much a trompe-l'œil. The cat looks like it's sitting on a ledge that is carved into the side of a building.
The cat doesn't have a name. But the New York Times has reported that locals have started to call it "Shinjuku east exit cat" because of where it is situated relative to the station. I am going to assume that this name sounds a little more endearing in Japanese.
Having spent a fair bit of time in Asia in my twenties -- mainly Taipei, Tokyo, and Hong Kong -- I've always been impressed by how playful Asian cities are with their buildings, billboards, signage, and lighting. It can make us feel overly conservative. A trip to Tokyo can be like a trip to the future.
I appreciate that most people don't want their cities to be overrun with advertising, and that's what billboards are usually for. It can get tacky. I get it. But sometimes it just makes sense to stick a massive 3D cat on the side of your building. It's fun and it captures people's attention.
shows driving, walking, and transit mobility for 12 cities during this pandemic. The data source is Apple's mobility index, which is based on travel queries within its app. So this isn't going to capture how everyone is moving about, but presumably it is somewhat indicative. Although I couldn't tell you the last time I used an app to tell me where to walk. Maybe that's just me though.
A few things are worth point out. As we have seen before on this blog, Seattleites (do people actually use this demonym?) stopped using transit at a faster rate than most other cities in the US. And according to the above chart, they have also been slower to return to it. This has me continuing to wonder, "why is Seattle such an outlier?" Generally though, these graphs do seem to suggest that people are shying away from transit.
Taipei looks to have fared the best out of this subset of cities, which is consistent with what has been publicly reported about its handling of the pandemic. Taipei has turned out to be an exemplar city during all of this. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that it remembers SARS and knew what to do -- the least of which was to simply take it seriously at the outset.
was selected for "small interior of the year." Designed by the Taiwanese studio
A Little Design
, the space features a 3.4m ceiling height and a queen-size sleeping loft. The design is very well done.
But as I was looking through the photos, I couldn't help but think, "This is about the size of a parking spot in Toronto." Typically, the minimum dimensions for a parking space are 2.6m wide by 5.6m long. If either side is obstructed or the drive aisle is substandard, these dimensions need to be increased.
So we're not far off.
Some of you will interpret this to mean that the apartment is too small; whereas some of you will interpret this to mean that the spaces we dedicate to cars are too big. It's a matter of perspective. But what is clear is that there is a market for small urban spaces. Here are some other examples from São Paulo, Beirut, and Moscow.
shows driving, walking, and transit mobility for 12 cities during this pandemic. The data source is Apple's mobility index, which is based on travel queries within its app. So this isn't going to capture how everyone is moving about, but presumably it is somewhat indicative. Although I couldn't tell you the last time I used an app to tell me where to walk. Maybe that's just me though.
A few things are worth point out. As we have seen before on this blog, Seattleites (do people actually use this demonym?) stopped using transit at a faster rate than most other cities in the US. And according to the above chart, they have also been slower to return to it. This has me continuing to wonder, "why is Seattle such an outlier?" Generally though, these graphs do seem to suggest that people are shying away from transit.
Taipei looks to have fared the best out of this subset of cities, which is consistent with what has been publicly reported about its handling of the pandemic. Taipei has turned out to be an exemplar city during all of this. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that it remembers SARS and knew what to do -- the least of which was to simply take it seriously at the outset.
was selected for "small interior of the year." Designed by the Taiwanese studio
A Little Design
, the space features a 3.4m ceiling height and a queen-size sleeping loft. The design is very well done.
But as I was looking through the photos, I couldn't help but think, "This is about the size of a parking spot in Toronto." Typically, the minimum dimensions for a parking space are 2.6m wide by 5.6m long. If either side is obstructed or the drive aisle is substandard, these dimensions need to be increased.
So we're not far off.
Some of you will interpret this to mean that the apartment is too small; whereas some of you will interpret this to mean that the spaces we dedicate to cars are too big. It's a matter of perspective. But what is clear is that there is a market for small urban spaces. Here are some other examples from São Paulo, Beirut, and Moscow.
