Loosetalk
Joop de Boer
Writer of The Pop-Up City and Partner at Golfstromen
Amsterdam, NL
What led you to start The Pop-Up City?
The Pop-Up City started in April 2008 as a project by Golfstromen, an urban concept office by me and Jeroen Beekmans. At the Pop-Up City we want to explore new concepts, strategies, and methods for a dynamic and flexible interpretation of contemporary urban life. Our aim is to search for creative solutions regarding flexible urbanism and architecture.
In your opinion, what city has done the best (and most intelligent) job adjusting to contemporary, urban life?
We like to refer to Darwin’s famous words, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Cities like Tokyo, London, and New York City do a great job of following trends and embracing change.
What’s your favorite way to explore a new city?
I like to find a person or a group of people who look like they’re going out on the town and follow them to see where they end up. It often brings me to interesting places that I never would have found myself.
Are there any architects that you’re particularly fond of at the moment?
We like to say we’re the biggest architecture blog that doesn’t write about architecture. That said, we like Office of Subversive Architecture (OSA), Raumlabor, and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
Do you think we’ll ever have actual pop-up cities or temporary cities that move locations every so often?
I can imagine that we’ll soon have parts of cities with specific functions that can travel all over the world. Take the Olympics, for example. Every four years, countries spend billions and billions of dollars on facilities to house the Olympic Games only to have them go unused immediately after. Think about how cool it would be to have a flexible Olympic Village that can be set up in whatever city is hosting that year.
