You can buy all kinds of weird things from vending machines these days – from live crabs to blue jeans to gold bars – but this new iteration is more entertaining than most, and it’ll certainly keep you busy longer than a bag of Skittles. Peruse the covers of a curated selection of books through the glass of these BooksActually vending machines in Singapore for a new distraction on demand. If only this idea caught on everywhere, maybe we’d spend a bit less time standing around staring at our phones.

Two of the machines are now ready for reading enthusiasts in high-traffic areas, including the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Visitor Center. Fittingly for these locations, the selections appear to be Singapore-centric, including books by local authors as well as helpful guides for tourists. Each machine contains about 150 books with up to 22 titles, and the outsides of the machines are painted by local artists to indicate what’s inside.

“The whole idea is about accessibility and eyeballs,” says Kenny Leck, owner of BooksActually. “There are not enough bookstores in Singapore… these vending machines could be a visual touchpoint. You may not buy [a book] but we’ll let you know these exist. And from there, there could be more possibilities. We start with visual awareness: books where you see a local author’s name. The ultimate place we want to put them are at train stations.”

Of course, book vending machines aren’t entirely new, though they’re far more popular in Asia than they are stateside. The first book-dispensing machine, called the Penguincubator, was installed in London way back in 1937. An Irish company called ‘A Novel Idea’ installed a machine at London’s Heathrow airport, but went out of business. It’s kind of hard to pick out a book when you can’t even read the back cover, but the concept could work with highly recognizable beach-read-type titles that are about the equivalent of junk food for your brain, anyway.

The temporary nature of pop-up shops seems to inspire a bolder, braver, more experimental approach to retail design, encouraging architects to make use of unexpected materials and play with shoppers’ perception. The resulting spaces are undeniably dynamic and often interactive, grabbing our attention so effectively, it’s wonder we don’t often see permanent stores this creative.

Minimalist COS Shop by Bonsoir Paris

A simple framework system of joints and rods comes together into a geometric installation that serves both as racks for the clothing being sold, and a visual contrast within the stark space. The fuss-free yet graphic style by Bonsoir complements the simple lines of Swedish fashion label COS.

MOMO Recycled Pop-Up By Andy Tong

Made entirely from recycled and reclaimed materials like wood, windows, bubble wrap and mirrors, this pop-up by Andy Tong for MOMO attracts attention in the center of a Hong Kong mall. The designer wanted a temporary space that would stand out against the comparatively sterile corporate identities of the mall brands.

Modular Wood Pop-Up Shop for COS

A series of modular wooden elements come together to form a room-within-a-room reminiscent of studio apartment pods where everything you need is cleverly packed into one tiny space. Another creation for Swedish retailer COS, this pop-up for the Salone del Mobile furniture fair has a cozy feel, drawing in passersby without overshadowing the goods themselves.

Mirrored Philip Lim Pop-Up by Schemata Architects

Schemata Architects play with reflection and symmetry to create a disorienting environment where you’re not sure what’s real and what’s illusion. Designed for fashion label Philip Lim, the space features needle-like pendant lights dripping down from the ceiling, glass-topped illuminated plinths and large mirrors facing each other.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Hot Pop Up Shops 14 Imaginatively Risky Retail Designs

Whether you’re in need of some quick sidewalk psychotherapy, a spa treatment in a subway station, sandwich delivery via parachute or a bowl of sugary cereal with a side of technology-dependence guilt, there’s a pop-up concept waiting for you. These 13 off-the-wall pop-up shops offer some of the most unusual goods and services that you could ever expect to find in your path while going about your day in the city.

Pop-Up Psychotherapy

Need to talk to someone about your problems? You’d be lucky to pass by the Unhappiness Repairer in the street, a pop-up psychotherapy stand by artist Silvia Neretti that explores the connection between happiness, psychotherapy and design. Neretti asks – Is it possible to design happiness? Sure, she’s not a licensed therapist, but the idea of having such easy access to mental health services is an intriguing one.

Pop-Up Spa on a Subway Platform

The typically unpleasant sticky heat of the 34th Street subway platform in New York City was turned into a positive with The Subway Spa, a prank by performance group Improv Everywhere. Figuring you might as well enjoy yourself if you’re going to get sweaty, the group set up a steam room, massage tables, sauna benches and table proffering fluffy white towels. Most of the people who took off their clothes to don robes and relax on the platform benches were actors, but a few citizens actually joined in.

Remote Controlled Pop-Up Shop

The world’s smallest pop-up shop is no more than a tiny box with a red awning reading ‘SHOP’ on top, zipping around the streets of Tokyo all on its own. The shop is built on a tiny remote-controlled car that zooms up to passersby to hawk British designer Duncan Shotton’s tiny push-pin figures. That’s certainly one way to get your products noticed.

Pop-Up Sandwich Shop Delivers Food via Parachute

A pop-up sandwich shop called Jafflechutes delivers piping hot sandwiches from the 7th floor of an apartment building to the street below using parachutes. Customers pay via PayPal and wait on an ‘X’ marked on the street until their sandwich comes floating down.

Pop-Up Store Tool Kit to Transform Vacant Lots

Got an idea for your own pop-up? Made in the Lower East Side (miLES), a group promoting urban revitalization, offers a Storefront Transformer that makes it easy for anyone who wants to open their own shop in a vacant storefront with plug-and-play shelving, partitions, tables, seats, lighting, wifi, power strips and more. miLES also facilitates the short-term rental of these vacant spaces.

Stairway Cinema: Pop-Up Sidewalk Theater

Duck under a red awning and take in a film with ‘Stairway Cinema,’ a mobile pop-up movie theater by experimental design collective OH.NO.SUMO. Fitted with a movie screen and a projector, the theater can be grafted onto the steps of vacant buildings. The designers created it in response to the lack of interaction seen between huddles of people waiting at bus stops and outside launderettes on the corner.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Next Level Pop Ups 15 Creative Sidewalk Shops Services

Once the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989, many surrounding nations – including Bulgaria – began to escape the grip of communism. But the ability for Bulgarian people to start businesses of their own in the capital city of Sofia was hampered by the high rents of urban storefronts. That’s when these enterprising people began opening ‘klek’ shops – small pop-up stores organized around basement windows.

Artist Ivaylo Getov has documented many of these fascinating little storefronts in a series on DeviantArt. The photos depict a variety of cases displaying examples of the wares found inside, or simply posters printed with their images. Customers crouch to view the selection of drinks, snacks, cigarettes and other small items.

Twenty-three years after klek shops were borne of necessity, they’re beginning to disappear, remaining in small numbers mostly for the benefit of tourists. While visitors from other countries, including America, are likely accustomed to vendor carts and other sidewalk shops in their hometowns, the sight of these makeshift shops – which fold closed and lock like shutters when business hours are over – is still unusual and intriguing.

See the whole series at DeviantArt.

Do you ever get bored of your city’s culinary offerings? What if they switched out on a regular basis, providing a never-ending carousel of dining experiences? In many urban areas, food trucks have taken international cuisine on the go, but they aren’t the only game in town when it comes to temporary dining establishments. They appear in pop-up form, in transportable shipping container structures, or just temporarily taking over a space.

The Cardboard Cafe

(images via: design boom)

British interior architectural consultants B3 Designers stacked and hot-glued hundreds of cardboard boxes to create a temporary cafe in an alley beside their office during the London Design Festival. The boxes were slightly staggered and painted orange on either end to mimic the look of bricks. For opening night, the designers encouraged their guests to wear cardboard clothing as they enjoyed cocktails in cardboard cups.

MuvBox Shipping Container Restaurant, Montreal

(images via: inhabitat)

Tucked in a corner of the Old Port in Montreal is Müvbox, a portable restaurant powered with solar panels that unfolds from a sleek rectangular volume into a beautiful modern cafe with outdoor tables and a canopy. Owner Daniel Noiseux of Montreal’s Pizzalolle restaurants fitted a kitchen and seating for 28 guests into a standard 28-foot shipping container with a floor made from recycled tires. It serves fresh, local and gourmet foods including local specialties like Madeleine lobster and Brome Lake duck.

The Deptford Project Cafe, London

(images via: dezeen)

A 1960s commuter train carriage serves as an adorable, brightly-colored restaurant by graphic designer Morag Myerscough. The Deptford Project Cafe is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the railway yard of the Deptford area in south east London. Its bathroom is a garden shed made to look like a shrine to Elvis Presley.

Nomiya Temporary Rooftop Restaurant

(images via: dezeen)

Le Palais de Tokyo museum in Paris temporarily played host to a transportable pod restaurant called Nomiya in 2009. The work of Parisian architect Pascal Grasso, Nomiya featured a dining room for twelve with panoramic views of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower. At night, it was illuminated like a lantern, with purple lights shining through its glass cabin and perforated metal screen.

Studio East Dining, London

(images via: kuriositas)

London architects Carmody Groarke designed Studio East, a temporary restaurant built on a construction site overlooking the Olympic Park in London and constructed using materials borrowed from the building site like scaffolding and timber. Covered in walls made of plastic sheeting, the restaurant was opened between June 16th and July 4th of 2011 and hosted communal feasts prepared by the head chef of Bistroteque, Tom Collins.

Electrolux Pop-Up Restaurant

(images via: fast co design)

Two pop-up restaurants by Swedish appliance brand Electrolux traveled across the world to perch atop famous buildings, monuments and cliffs including the arc of the Parc du Cinguantenaire in Brussels. The kitchens were equipped with Electrolux appliances, of course, and the name of the company was be emblazoned on the cubes’ exteriosr. The cubes themselves, designed by Italian architects Park Associati, featured a laser-cut aluminum skin and room for 18 to dine.

Bon Appetit Supper Club & Cafe

(images via: rockwell group)

For one week only in 2007 and again in 2008, Bon Appetit Magazine hosted a ‘Supper Club and Cafe’ in midtown Manhattan at 57th Street and Broadway. The temporary restaurant featured public demonstrations and book signings with big-name chefs like Mario Batali, Cat Cora and Giada de Laurentiis. The look in 2007, designed by Rockwell Group, featured hundreds of dangling mirror slivers reflecting the blue and purple LED lights.

Floating Plastic Dining Room

(images via: inhabitat)

A raft made of 1,672 2-liter plastic bottles plays host to a lovely floating restaurant in Vancouver. The Plastic Dining Room is sponsored by the School of Fish Foundation and catered by C Restaurant, moored at the False Creek Yacht Club. Guests seated inside the dining room not only enjoyed fine meals and views of the water, but also reclaimed pinewood interiors and recycled glass chandeliers.

Supersonic Masonique, London

(images via: fashion’s most wanted)

Imagine taking your supper in the grand foyer of a Masonic lodge that’s normally closed to the public. That’s what guests of the temporary Supersonic Masonique were able to do when this restaurant popped up at ANdaZ Hotel’s Grade I Listed Masonic Temple in London in 2009. Also headed up by the chefs at Bistroteque, Supersonic Masonique was a 50-seater, 3-night dining experience featuring such dishes as Kentucky Fried Quail, sushi & frozen cognac and pink champagne candy floss.

Greenhouse by Joost

(images via: inhabitat)

Shipping containers, straw bales, a rooftop garden, solar panels and even on-site water harvesting and recycling make Joost’s Greenhouse one of the most eco-friendly restaurants around. In fact, Joost Bakker’s traveling pop-up restaurant is entirely waste-free and produces some of its own herbs and vegetables. Used cooking oil powers the restaurant’s generator and all organic matter is composted for the restaurant’s garden. The menu changes according to what’s locally available at the restaurant’s latest location.

Singapore Takeout Restaurant

(images via: untapped cities paris)

Built in a shipping container, the custom-designed Singapore Takeout pop-up restaurant travels around the world to give patrons a taste of Singapore’s food and culture. The front of the shipping container folds down into a walk-up ramp where visitors can order Singaporean noodles, dumplings and other dishes.

Illy Unfolding Shipping Container

(images via: dear coffee)

Espresso producer Illy teamed up with architect Adam Kalkin to turn the latter’s Quik House – a shipping container that folds into a home – into a mobile cafe. The Illy Cafe looks like an entirely unremarkable, rusting, beaten-up shipping container when it’s closed up. But amazingly, at the push of a button, the sides of the container fold down to reveal benches, a table, shelves and an espresso bar.

LudoBites Guerrilla-Style ‘Touring’ Restaurant

(images via: ludo lefebvre)

Chef Ludo Lefebvre brings his cuisine to locations around the nation as part of his Sundance Channel show, ‘Ludo Bites America’. Each incarnation of LudoBites has overtaken an unused space, initially in the Los Angeles area, in guerrilla fashion (though not, of course, without the permission of the property owners.) Though perhaps more known for his buffalo hunting and eating thanks to the reality show, Lefebvre’s cuisine draws massive sell-out crowds to each temporary installment of the restaurant.

Absolut Vodka’s Ice Bars

(images via: notcot)

Absolut’s Icebar is a pop-up concept, showing up each holiday season in London. Inspired and sponsored by the Jukkasjarvi Ice Hotel in Sweden, the bar is brought back year after year, and proved so popular that London soon got its own permanent ice bar at ‘Below Zero‘, a restaurant and lounge made of ice.

Hel Yes! Temporary Warehouse Restaurant, London

(images via: elite choice)

Installed for London’s Design Week in 2010, Hel Yes! was a showcase of Finnish cuisine temporarily erected in a warehouse space. In addition to sampling Finnish delicacies, guests enjoyed the interior decor, which was designed by some of Finland’s top talent in areas like furniture and luxury textiles.