I’ve been looking for an online guide to modern architecture when I travel around Europe. If I’m in Paris, I’d like to know where are the modern architectural gems, find them on a map and go. This is what MIMOA helps me accomplish.
Set up by two Dutch women, Mieke and Naomi, MIMOA is a user-generated database where people publish their projects, posts comments and ratings, store their personal favorites, etc. Here’s what they say about why they set up MIMOA:
MIMOA was born out of personal frustration. Never to be able to find the right addresses of the most recent Modern Architecture when you set out to choose and prepare a city-trip; hours of aimlessly flipping through hundreds of dusty architecture magazines that do not even include addresses in their glossy stories; inconsistent websites; no comprehensive, easy to compare, all in one glance overview of the latest developments in a certain city… Just imagine the struggle non-architects must have. So, in July 2006 we decided to make all this ourselves. In January 2007 we had the first page online.
They will be presenting on September 28 at PICNIC 07 this week in Amsterdam.
A very similar site, althought simpler, is Urbarama (http://www.urbarama.com) It's a Web 2.0 Atlas of Architecture and it's not restricted to Europe neither to 'modern' architecture. It comes with an API and projects come with an 'embed' feature to display projects in blogs or websites a la youtube.
Another example of a wikipedia style architecture community is Urbika (http://www.urbika.com). But next to the presentation of projects the site also has a Cities and a Companies section. Interesting for professionals in the construction industry and architecture fans from all over the world.