Social media, as we all know, isn’t all that real. Photos are cropped, edited, and distorted all the time. But that’s kind of how things work these days and it’s not just on social media. Back in 2014, it was revealed that about 75% of… Read More
Who needs to travel when you have, this? This, is a site called Drive & Listen, which allows you to drive around cities — well, watch vides of people driving around cities — while listening to local radio stations. It’s oddly fascinating in an I-spend-hours-on-Google-street-view… Read More
It has been well documented that Tokyo tends to build a lot of housing. And the argument goes that this has helped to maintain a certain level of housing affordability. The city is constantly building and rebuilding. It also has different views about housing. Now,… Read More
These sketches tell you everything you need to know about the recently completed Stairway House by Nendo Studio. The house is setback from its south property line as a result of the surrounding context. A south-facing green space is then introduced, preserving one of the… Read More
Before bed last night, I was was reading about a Tokyo-based real estate company called Spilytus. They have an apartment brand called Ququri (pronounced ku-ku-ri) that specializes in tiny apartments, which I suppose isn’t all that novel for Japan. Since the brand was launched in… Read More
The Financial Times has some of the best charts/graphics that I have seen on the coronavirus and its impact. They’re also free and regularly updated. Below is the cumulative number of deaths, by number of days since the 10th death (last updated March 23 at… Read More
Elon Musk recently posted this Twitter survey asking if we, the people, would like “super safe, Earthquake-proof tunnels under [our] cities to solve traffic.” It was leading in that the “no” response was, “No, I like traffic.” And it was initially vague in that it… Read More
This UN report (2018) on urbanization trends is a fascinating way to understand how our world is growing and changing. So today’s post is about some of my takeaways. If you have others, feel free to add them to the comment section below. But first,… Read More
Joshua Levine’s recent (WSJ Magazine) piece on John Pawson, — the architect who “elevated nothingness to an art” — is a good read. It’s mostly about the country retreat that he recently completed for himself and his wife in the English countryside, but there’s also… Read More
In commemoration of the company’s 100th anniversary, Japanese rail operator, Seibu, recently unveiled a new commuter train designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kazuyo Sejima. Sejima is a founding partner in the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, which has started branching out beyond buildings. She recently designed a… Read More
