It is time for a thread on traditional urbanism, or town planning 13th century style. I will dispel some myths of modern dis-urbanism.
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Wrath Of Gnon
@wrathofgnon
Joined August 2014
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“Study finds parallels between Asian colobines’ social, environmental and genetic evolution: colobines living in colder regions experienced genetic changes and alterations to their ancient social structure that likely enhanced their ability to survive.”
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If you still haven't ditched plastic cutting boards, this might bring you over to right side of the block: "Cutting Boards: An Overlooked Source of Microplastics in Human Food?"
pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.102
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Where's all the sand gone?
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The—“It never used to flood like this in our town, never! It must be climate change! Guess it can't be helped until we all drive EVs to work”—explanation gif.
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'Hey Anon, by 2100 A.D., "global warming" will cause the disappearance of 70% of the beaches in California so please drive electric cars from now on, ok? Meanwhile look at this map showing every single (ah, actually... there is only one) undammed major river in the entire state.'
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Are there any infrastructure projects undertaken today that will still be useful 1,700 years from now? I can't think of a single one. On the other hand, the relics of modernity that will make life difficult for our descendants are everywhere.
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“Studying 176 healthy Japanese centenarians, the researchers learned that the combination of intestinal bacteria and bacterial viruses of these people is quite unique.”
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“This as yet unique identification of Moluccan watercraft offers evidence of obscure encounters between the Aboriginal people of northern Australia and people from island Southeast Asia.”
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Parking minimums kill small business so that big business is left holding the field.
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this is why we can't have nice things: dmagazine.com/frontburner/20
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I like that some cities have formalized the office of Night Mayor, an official to look after the night. Article from 2016, is there anything newer to tell us how things are going in Amsterdam, the pioneer of this style of governance?
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Back in the old days Hanoi architecture was fine tuned to keep heat and sun out. Large canals and parks, rice paddies right up to the city border, ample parks, cooled things down naturally. Now it is all sprawl and concrete and modern architecture.
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That beautiful moment when you realize the Gothic building is newer than the grey contemporary box next door
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The old university quarters in Copenhagen is one of the finest examples of Northern Urbanism in the world. In a sane world every architecture department from Vancouver to Vladivostok should send their students there to study placemaking.
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Why not study forestry and landscape at the University of Copenhagen? One of the most beautiful forestry department buildings in the world.
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Ecosystem engineers: “To maintain their ponds and keep them from filling in with vegetation, alligators use their snouts, claws and tails to move sediment and nutrients around, with alligator ponds showing higher nutrient levels than surrounding marshes.”
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A village built to the human scale in the middle of an American town. Dan Camp's extraordinary Cotton District proves it can be done. Buying underdeveloped land in Starkville Miss. Dan started building the the kind of village he thought university students wanted to live in...
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And so ends day 3 of the second week of our Elizabethan plastering course here in the Scottish highlands. Twig armatures have been collected from the garden on which we are hanging Thistles in Limecote by #bestoflime
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The 1976 Marubiru in Osaka will be torn down in 2023. It lasted 47 years, which is not too bad for buildings of this size (on average they last 41 years). But it is all going to the landfill. A lot of materials, embodied energy, effort, and human memories that will be wasted.
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The Machine doesn't want Forgiveness or Salvation. Because forgiving requires justice and justice is hated by the Wicked. The Machine reserves for itself only Punishment without Justice. For it is "every man for himself and may the Devil take the hindmost."
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The Machine doesn't want you to put down roots, roots makes for attachment and attachment becomes love. Love for neighbors, love for place. It wants you to zip along sanctioned highways in cars, alone and isolated to better make you depend on its products, its oil, its News.
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The Machine doesn't want you to build and maintain a home, hearth, not even with the help of hired men. It wants a product, made in a factory, with a mortgage (a "death pledge"), and you certainly shan't leave it to your descendants. No gratitude to your ancestors, nor the mason.
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They don't want the family. The family does things for each other in the name of love. They make babies, they care for and nurse and teach and clothe and finally bury each other. There is no money in this. Therefore, the Machine wants the family destroyed by negation.
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The machine, modernity, hates the sacrifice because it can't be commodified. The sacrifice is the enemy of the modern world. It is the home toiled and cared for versus "Housing". It is personal charity versus public welfare. It is the thing that lasts versus the product.
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“When men are ready to make sacrifices for their idea of duty, then their generation can expect significant things from them."
— James Joseph Walsh, 1865-1942.
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Professor Ronald Hutton on a happier, less divisive, Merrier, England:
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There really was a Merry England: proof found in a unique, recently discovered 1480s stand up comedy/minstrel show script.
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“Architecture is a unique form of culture in that it cannot be chosen or rejected. The built environment constitutes our common living space and must therefore of absolute necessity be designed as beautiful as possible by as many people as possible.” — Peter Tomtlund, 2023
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For decades, cities have *required* that much of their surface area be used only for parking cars. This is incredibly wasteful. Paris and New York have begun to let people use public space more sensibly. I argue in that we should follow suit.
bdonline.co.uk/opinion/its-ti
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“Creating flood models ahead of time may allow planners to identify key zones along the river that are exposed to this hazard. They can then put in measures that will reduce the impact of the flooding, such as levees.”
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"The beaches will be gone soon Anon, and it is all your fault for living in a car dependent development (yeah we made traditional towns illegal/uninhabitable but never mind the details) and not driving our Latest Electric Vehicle Model. Do you even believe in The Latest Thing?"
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"In a century where the media publish endless stupidities, the cultured man is defined not by what he knows but by what he ignores." —Dávila
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Reading yet another news article about beach erosion with Pearl Harbor sized headlines and just feeling dumber and dumber from the constant onslaught of activism, nonsense and pseudoscience.
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The idea of pterosaurs (and other dinosaurs) migrating over the antarctic circle of Australia to enjoy the midnight sun is charming.
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I have so many questions about this: “Researchers have identified three 4,000-year-old British cases of Yersinia pestis, the bacteria causing the plague—the oldest evidence of the plague in Britain to date.”
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In Nevada, a legal fight over the water rights to the leakage from an old irrigation canal. Desert communities need to figure out in advance how to handle population growth and water scarcity.
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Designs for a summer house by traditional Syrian architect M. Hosam Jiroudy. mhjiroudy.com/about.html
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The Temple of Garni (built ca 77 A.D.) was famously the only greco-roman building in the Soviet Union. It stood through disasters, wars, Christianity, but finally fell to an earthquake in 1679. It was completely restored by Prof. Alexander Sahinian (1910-1982) during 1966-1975.
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How long after are we "allowed" to rebuild ruins? The old castle in Grodno, today Belarus was destroyed during the Great Northern war by Swedish forces. Due to historic curcomstances it was not rebuilt until now (2017-->) 300 years later. Not the only example in Eastern Europe!
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NYC is slowly sinking under its own weight, some parts a little faster than others though. On average 1-2mm per year.
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