“It is literally against the law almost everywhere in the United States to build the kind of places that Americans themselves consider authentic and traditional.” — James Howard Kunstler

It might not be pretty, but it is real, live, human scaled urbanism in the largest city on Earth. How this happened ought to be the subject of learned conferences and grey haired scholars. #Tokyo #Harajuku

The railway is by far the mode of rural transport that is the least destructive towards both its destination and the country is passes through. #TrainTwitter #GoodAgrarianism

In medicine there is a word, Iatrogenic, relating to an illness that is made worse when it is treated. I suggest we use this word for architecture that solves none of the problems it was designed to solve, and at the same time creates a host of new ones: Iatrogenic Architecture.

Raw wool as insulation. Anyone who has handled rockwool will appreciate this photo. To insulate a roof of 150m² requires 1.5 tons of wool (10 kg per square meter, 25 cm thick). White wool costs €0.60/kg and black wool €0.25/kilo. That is €375 for whole roof. Not bad at all.

A newly constructed building in Poundbury Traditional architecture is truly making a comeback

Notre-Dame will be rebuilt. What happened tonight has made clear the love people feel for beautiful buildings. They are part of our shared global human identity. Let's not stop with Notre-Dame. Time to heal the scars and rebuild the beloved places destroyed in the past 100 years.

13 000 mature oaks with no particular use anymore... What say you, Dear #StatensFastighetsverk? #Sweden #NotreDame

Rebuild Penn Station enthusiastically supports the effort, announced by Emmanuel Macron, to reconstruct Notre Dame. The reconstruction ought to be done as faithfully as possible to what was destroyed. The skills and craftmanship to do so still exist. rebuildpennstation.org/rebuild-penn-s…

“The stone vaulting acted like a firewall and it kept the worst heat away [from the pulpit, pews, art, relics etc.]...” said the architect, Bernard Fonquernie. (NY Times)

I walk by this building on the way to work most days while I’m in Tuscaloosa. #LEED Platinum, built for less than most notable federal courthouses, and in less time. But it incenses those who love saying this can’t be done.

Here's an idea: how about a competition where anyone can submit an ideal town layout for a defined area (a brownfield somewhere, an abandoned mall, parking lot etc.), human scaled and walkable, and the winner gets to see a mockup in 3D, or a train model town or relief map.

I often get messages from real developers, there is a real need for some new to break through the car dominated, even transit dominated, developments that is all we see today. The winning project could be donated to any town that wanted to adopt it.

"When people talk about unspoiled landscape, they don't mean landscape without buildings, they mean landscape without modernist buildings." - Quinlan Terry CBE

The new / old houses on the old football ground are looking good. Love the colours and they are nicely spaced. New homes can be beautiful also.. createstreets Robert Kwolek #classicalarchitecture

The Degeneration of the Parisian Suburbs In 1965, the modernists commenced the destruction of Bobigny The traditional buildings were demolished, the church was replaced by a car park and this street was renamed 'Karl Marx Avenue'

Before and After photographs of the alley side of 23 Block Avenue in Downtown Fayetteville. Previous home J R's Lightbulb Club, now Pinpoint Pinball Bar with Lola's boutique on the upper floor.

The Olive Tree of Vouves: This ancient olive on the island of Crete is one of 7 olive trees in the Mediterranean thought to be at least 2000 to 3000 years old. Although its exact age can't be verified, it may be the oldest of all, at over 3000 years old. It still produces olives.

"It takes extraordinary wisdom and self-control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

My favorite part from Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s Nobel Lecture in 1970, quoting Dostoevsky: Beauty will save the world.