The city of tomorrow may be built on water

The city of tomorrow may be built on water

The New York Times quoted me when they recently published an article about architect Koen Olthuis this November. The reference derives from my article for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad from 2009 which is also recently translated.

The work of Dutch architect Koen Olthuis is still relevant because it is progressive and genuine at the same time. Olthuis envisions entire cities being built on water in the (near) future. ‘Save the world, build on water’ is Olthuis’ philosophy in a nutshell.

Read the article…

Two kinds of smiles

Two kinds of smiles

When the American swimmer Ryan Lochte won gold at the London Olympics this week, his smile was bigger news than his medal. He was wearing a $25,000 dollar ‘dental grill’ made of diamonds in the Stars & Strips pattern of the flag. Right next to his picture in the Fashion & Style section of the New York Times was an ad for a very different kind of smile: a child with a harelip. The ad was for a charity called SmileTrain that collects money for operations on harelips. I can’t help wondering how many harelips can be repaired – i.e., people be given a life – for that $25,000? And isn’t a flag-smile a political statement that should disqualify Lochte? And now that I’m on a rant anyway, what’s a whitey doing with a rapper fashion now a decade old?

I’ll bet the NYT did it on purpose.