Tall buildings, street-based urban form, and (temporary) pedestrianisation in Bucharest. These have seldom been seen together since 1890s Manhattan, but the combination can be very spatially efficient and merits attention.

My most eccentric building of 2023: New Castle House, Nottingham. Classical architraves curiously suspended in a glass curtain wall; the richly ornamented entrance looks like it was transplanted from a different building. I thought it might be postmodern, but it is actually 1933.

Post Office Building, Belgrade, 1938. Do you find it oppressive or impressive? My own feeling is that it is deft as well as massive, and vigorous as well as heavy. But I can understand why one might feel differently.

A 'good ordinary' interwar mansion block, five storeys plus mansard and basement. Basically a brick-faced box, with big sash windows and minimal Wrenaissance details. Dense, attractive street architecture, achieved without exquisite materials, refined crafts, or genius designers.

An interesting corner of London, with these unusual 1930s flats (L) and offices (R). Huge buildings in no named style, slightly Manhattanesque. 7-8 storeys plus setbacks; steel frames faced in a good dark brown brick; large small-glazed windows. Forbidding or impressive?

Josefstadt, Vienna. 3-4 storeys, no setbacks, mixed use, narrow streets, mixed in greenery, little parking, cars 'as guests'. Rows of tall casement windows, simple facade pattern, cheap plaster ornament, pastel colours. A slight curve in the street generates a sense of enclosure.

We Northern Europeans are accustomed to complain about our long dark winters. But they have consolations, like the lovely pale slanting winter light, as here in Tallinn. One of the best lights for architecture, highlighting texture and ornament without obscuring it in glare.

Early C20 critics often complained that removing ground floor walls leaves masonry upper storeys looking precariously unsupported. This effect is so common nowadays that one rarely notices, but a particularly extreme case like this reminds me that perhaps it *does* look odd.

Narrow streets obviously yield more density, with the associated economic and environmental benefits. And is it obvious that they must be uglier or less liveable than their wider counterparts?

Offices for London laywers, c. 1700. An interesting example of how extremely repetitive gridded facades can still be pleasing if the elements that make up the grid are good enough.