Дали ја загуби сребрената?
“Не!“, рече збунето тој,
“ја закопав далеку во минатото“

Полниот месецот се разлеа
под шумата, и тој погледна наоколу.
Сенките на дрвата се разбегаа
и ветерот се стиши.
Дали ја најде виолетовата?
“Престанав да барам!“, рече тој,
“И таа е закопана“, рече тажно,
“помеѓу другите бои“

Дали се скри повторно вчера?
“Да, секогаш успевам да се скријам!“,
шепна тој тивко,
“Позади моите бои“, се присети,
“сребро и срцето што гори“.

И чекори во шумата сонувајќи,
заслепен од полниот месец,
Заборавајќи на
кутијата со слики,
кутијата со ѕвезди,
виолетовата и сребрената.

Исполнети денови во
кутија со слики,
кутија со ѕвезди,
виолетова и сребрена.

Дали ја слушна пролетта?
“Погледнав“, рече тој,
“беше позади сликите,
во кутијата,
покриена со снег,
виолетова и сребрена.“

Дали се скри?
“Да, позади месецот се скрив“,
шепна тој тивко,
“додека заводливо
тонеше во асфалтот“,
разлевајќи магепсна
виолетова и сребрена.

A mosaic of frozen leafs
scratches the asphalt.
‘Such a sad day!’,
‘I am so sad!’, he closed his eyes.

‘Boys don’t cry!’, he remembered,
trying to stop the tears.
A tear slipped his eye lashes
vaporising into a drop of ice.

‘Boys don’t cry!’, he said,
‘Keep your eyes closed!’, he whispered,
‘Please wear orange!’

Did you lost your silver?
‘I did not!’, he said,
‘I buried it in my past!’

The full moon diffused
under the forest, as he looked around.
The shadows of trees skattered
and the wind stopped.
Did you find your purple?
‘I stopped looking!’, he said,
‘I buried it in my past!’, he said,
‘hiding it behind my technicolor’.

Did you hide again?
‘I always do!’, he whispered,
‘Under my colorful shirts,’ he remembered,
‘melting silver cools my heart’.

Dreaming in the forest,
Forgetting blinded by the moon,
a box of pictures,
a box of stars,
purple and silver.

Cassini has completed its mission at Saturn. The spacecraft lost contact with Earth today. The probe Huygens brought amazing photos from a carbon rich moon Titan. It rains H2O on Earth and CH4 Titan. A methane rainstorm must be a cool sight.

Why do not we have permanent spacecrafts circling around all the planets in the Solar systems? Always good to dream a bit about traveling in space. 🙂

Today’s space technology seems profoundly inspired by science fiction novels. The endeavor of deep space exploration is based on speed and rocketry. Many try to design and produce space vessels which will travel with very high speeds, because science fiction writers always describe travel between stars at high speeds. A typical space ship is furthermore aerodynamic (usually flying saucers) and equipped with life supporting systems which recycle oxygen and other excretes. The typical spaceship is modelled to provide all the ecosystem services (breathing air, water, food, etc.).

If you design space ships like the planet Earth, they are doomed to very short voyages. Secondly, the typical spaceship does not provide a very important extraterrestrial ecosystem service, that is sunlight. Sunshine is a prerequisite for healthy human life. A design of a space vessels needs to include artificial sun by considering circadian rhythms. The artificial sun as technology will allow for multigenerational journeys in deep space. It is a design and technological challenge that is not explored yet. The Earth is a spaceship and closed system (biosphere), but without the Sun most of life will disappear in matter of weeks.

Sometimes you hear the thoughts
Before the words are spoken.

Hiding under the clouds,
When the full moon is above.

Published originally December 11, 2011 @ 1:43 am.

Slussen is inevitable one of the strangest places in Stockholm. It is a major traffic node and public space where you used to end up on the New Years Day. It is Stockholm’s awkward Times Square. In the underground there is a terminal of the buses from south-east Stockholm and the Saltsjöbana that feed the Tunnelbana. On the ground it is a multilevel interchange and roundabout that elegantly curves to gradually climb to Södermalm from the lower Gamlastan.

Slussen is literally a monument of the car predicting the emergence of the motor society, but on the most humane level even in its brutalist appearance. It is the only interchange in Sweden that is inhabited by people. In Slussen it is safe to walk and cycle because it is impossible to drive fast in the curves. There are even some pockets where you can party or chill.

Slussen is also an architectural monument of the mainstreaming modernism of its time. It looks crude and non-appealing, especially to the tourist eye. Very few tourists will climb the slope of the interchange and even fewer will walk in the sketchy tunnels. The wrecked lemonish ceramics glazed walls and seemingly always closed shops always add to the uncomfortable feeling in the underground passages. Slussen concrete architecture stops the flows of tourists from Gamlastan and protects the urban life of Södermalm from the average tourist gaze.

The debate about rebuilding Slussen started with a competition over two visions: to rebuild the existing multilevel interchange and roundabout as it is or to build New Slussen or Nya Slussen in Swedish. The second vision won and since there is debate how should New Slussen look like. One argument was that Slussen was flat before 1920s and it should be flattened today. The flattened New Slussen was dominant image since. In 2008 there was an exhibition of four solutions of New Slussen and none of them had the charm and bizarre thoughtfulness of the existing one. Until today there was not really a consensus on the looks of the future Slussen.

In my work on future cities I pursued vision of hybrid cities that interweave the green city in the compact historical cores of the traditional European cities. I use sustainable cityscaping to describe this process of upgrading the dense urban cores into intensive contained ecosystems. I used my previous inspirations to sketch an image of New Slussen one summer day in 2009. I was sitting on the Gamlastan’s planks envisioning an interconnected network of skyscrapers of pure brutality and postmodernism-(neo)classicism in front of me.

I made sketches how Slussen would look like if the circular buildings and squares grow into round hybrid (green city in compact city) skyscrapers. The existing interchange and roundabout will climb to Gondolen and Mosebacke square with series of bridges connecting (neo)classical skyscrapers (even a postmodern-(neo)classical sky-high reflection of Gamlastan and existing Slussen). New Slussen will turn into more complex multilevel structure, more intensive, more brutal, more humane and more environmental friendly. In my vision the skyscrapers are agglomerations of chaotically organized (neo)classical apartments with interwoven hanging gardens. The hanging gardens will partly supply for food and energy and partly clean water and waste .

Growing skyscrapers in New Slussen is definitely a crazy idea. But I was wondering is it better to discuss crazy then mediocre ideas. Do we need more crazy ideas in the debate about New Slussen?

He pulled the old trick
That brings an awkward silence,
He pulled the best trick
To conceal his poetry.

A lovely dance,
Whirling under,
He is dancing
On the edge of the conscience.

In his tenacious dizziness,
Without words
Falling gently,
In a lovely summer day.

The meaningful days in
a box of pictures,
a box of stars,
purple and silver.

Did you hear the spring?
‘I looked’, he said,
it was behind the pictures,
in the box,
all covered with snow,
purple and silver.

Did you hide?
‘Under the moon I did’,
he whispered,
‘as it seductively
drowned in the asphalt’,
purple and silver.