As part of his ongoing Buildings series, German street artist EVOL was invited to create this Rural City installation for the MS Dockville Music Festival in Hamburg. I wish I could have seen it in person to live out my Godzilla fantasies!

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Russian Elisabeth Alekseevna Bukanova is a photo agent from London who is currently based in Hamburg. As soon as she gets some time off and has a sketchbook, or even a pencil at her fingertips, she draws, inspired by Dadaism, art and music.

From the very clever folks that brought us gold and silver food spray paint and garage-style brandy bottles, comes a brand spanking new creation: The Deli Garage Vodka series. Designed by Hamburg-based Korefe, these intricately illustrated and indisputably imaginative silver flasks are home to blackberry and espresso, mint and melon, and ginger and coriander-infused vodkas.

The drawings that take center stage vary with the flavors, but all seem to involve some sort of monster versus the villagers scenario. There’s the blackberry ogre being wrangled in by some islanders, the gigantic ginger munching on trees, and the massive beast made of mint leaves. Well, whatever the scene, the hip design is as a sweet and fresh as the ice-cold fruit infused drink within. Cheers to that.

The striking new building that houses the Unilever Headquarters for Northern Europe in Hamburg, Germany, is an attempt by the company to put sustainability at the forefront of their identity. The structure, designed by Benisch Architekten, consumes less than 100 Kwh/a m² of energy, and features a transparent “outer skin” to minimize heat gain from the sun and wind effect from the adjoining river.

The layout of the building aims to be like a stacked, ‘vertical village’ with various distinct paths that converge on town center-like meeting areas, bridges, and food courts, encouraging employees to interact in the open, spacious interior. Still, one wonders how a company whose primary line of products includes petroleum jelly and other synthetic substances packaged in plastic, can claim to take sustainability seriously.

Video projection on architecture is an obsession of mine. Building facades are rarely considered flexible canvasses, but with the art direction of Daniel Rossa, UrbanScreen were able to come up with this captivating project in Hamburg called, 555 Cubik. The concept of which was entitled, How It Would Be, If A House Was Dreaming. It’ll make you say, ‘Woooo, Ahhh’.

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Nicolas Arnold comes from a small village in northern Germany, where he spent 19 years of his life. After he graduated from school he moved to Hamburg, where he currently resides. He had an apprenticeship at a multimedia studio until 2005 when he started studying at the Hamburg Academy of Arts. He now works as a motion designer and photographs for a motion graphics studio.

Built in 1969, the Spiegel Publishing House in Hamburg is one of the most remarkable interiors you’ll ever see. Designed by Verner Panton, the building includes a courtyard, lobby, canteen, bar areas, and a stunning looking swimming pool [above] in the basement, among other distinct additions: ‘All designs were his own — lamps, textiles and wall claddings, only the furniture had to be ordered from Knoll International according to his contracts. The specially designed mirror lighting used on walls and ceilings was of major importance. While the swimming pool area was destroyed soon afterwards by a fire and the entry and lobby saw major redesign in the 90s, the canteen has so far remained in the original version and today represents a unique and valuable historic document’.

Fitting Forward is a new Hamburg based Concept-Store which shows what simmers secretly behind the scenes. Every two months a new headstrong theme world will evolve out of a composition of fashion, product, accessories and illustration. The platform of the shop is a deep black lacquered room-in-room installation. A three dimensional walk-in sketchbook provides space for different artists and illustrators to draw themes onto the walls, ceiling and floor. The shop has a partnership with Edding, the pencil company, so they can change the styles easily to suit the themes. Aforestdesign joined Fitting Forward in its first theme: The TalenTierT – The Zoo Of Uniqueness, which was launched at the beginning of December. The first theme is about weird creatures, wondrous animals and bewildering absurdity. In the zoo of uniqueness you will find elephant-jumpers, parrot-jackets, lonely-wolf-lamps and bunny-mask-broochs, all gathered under the absurd-species-protection-program.

Since the beginning, architects have been faced by the challenge of housing the ever unpinnable idea of music. The challenge here is the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg, Germany. Basel-based architects, Herzog and de Meuron have created an ephemeral glass tent-like structure perched on top of an existing heavy modernist abandoned warehouse. The warehouse will be composed mainly of parking and back of house, while the glass structure incorporates concert halls, restaurants, bars, apartments and a luxury hotel. Clearly, this is a tremendously exciting alteration and addition to an existing site and building, with this new ice sculpture reflecting the surrounding changing environment and the soaring notes within. Completion is scheduled for 2010.

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