The Knap of Howar is a stunning piece of architecture. The oldest dwelling in Europe, older than the pyramids. The rafters were made from whale bones as there were no trees but there is decorative stone backing the shelf alcoves. An amazing legacy, both in its building and re-discovery

Last night was the launch event for architectscan.org NL's demolition atlas: www.sloopkaart.nl/kaart I may not entirely agree with their analysis but the map is crucial in tracking which buildings are under threat or lost here in the Netherlands. It should be an excellent tool!

Happily, today I saw this swan, partner and about 6 cygnets just up from their nesting site

Last night while walking the dog, I came across this by a playground. It's a doorbell that sends local parents an alert to let them know kids are playing there and would love for other kids to come join. A nice idea to help kids meet each other! openrotterdam.nl/kinderen-kun...

It's going to be fun seeing the UK discover, and then try to pronounce, wokkeltrappenhuizen

Incredibly gross to see the Dutch police wearing ICE style masks in Rotterdam. Everyone accepts Wilders has a right to objective police protection. The masks put you on Wilders' side. Protecting him doesn't require anonymity, being part of his intimidation racket does.

Given the amount of technology available now I often despair that we haven't solved this problem. Maybe it's simpler though: D-plates. If your driving has resulted in injury or you've been fined X number of times you have to drive with a L-plate style badge to show you are a danger to others

Living in a very wet country means wildlife often comes right into the heart of the city via the waterways. It's great to see Gemeente Rotterdam give these swans a little more protection amongst all the urban traffic.

The results of the neighbourhood council were only confirmed late last week and the radical right councillor has already been chucked out the party for using AI to spruce up her campaign photo and for lying about living in the area

My brother is a British Army reservist and I asked how they were training for drone warfare. He said he recently had to run around the range with a bluetooth speaker playing drone noises since they dont have any to practice against/with. I guess it was nice knowing him?!?

Always enjoy getting to vote in the Netherlands as I can only vote in local elections. The dog loves it too! #hondenbijstembureaus #dogsatpollingstations

🚨 Cool boat alert 🚨 from the office window in Rotterdam. The Canopee, a cargo ship that takes Ariane 6 rocket parts from Europe to Guinea and is partly powered by sail

Recently I saw NZ's Beehive parliament in the flesh, driven by curiosity after @cinemashoebox.bsky.social's twitter parliament culture war. Basil Spence's bit is cool by itself but the way it plays with the classical form it extends is exquisite. Those trads have no idea what they are missing!

In Wellington badly parked cars are given dunce caps

@flightradar24.com it's snowed again at Schipol but it looks like they have enough deicer today. PH-TFL is off to Bonaire, where I'm sure it will be a bit warmer!

This is intertwined with a lack of building density. You can't build pleasant density if you have to store all the cars, but you need the car if everything is distant.

Maybe we could give trump a large perspex 'ice' key to greenland and an ownership certificate like those ones that said you owned a bit of the moon?

A quarter of Geert Wilders' PVV party have broken away due to disagreements with his leadership. This could be concerning for the UK's radical right, but luckily for them it has no history of infighting or splits!

Edward Jenner, pioneer of vaccination, is not celebrated nearly enough IMO! Last week I visited the first vaccine clinic (aptly named the Temple of Vaccinia) and his tomb (under the blue card by the alter). The temple was recently put on the heritage at risk register but funding has now been found

We have a dog delighted to be heading overland from Rotterdam to the UK via metro and ferry

New game: What season is it? - anthropogenic climate change editon

Daft, the amount of times I hear about a significant death via a dumb joke like this

I asked my boss what the difference between gereformeerde and hervormde churches is and 15 minutes later he had drawn this diagram for me, starting around 500 ad and ending in madness

Stumbled across the express building today and was delighted by it. Hard to imagine what it must have been like seeing this go up in the 30s

I visited The Whitworth in Manchester yesterday, it's a marvelous gallery. The newish extension is excellent. I loved how kids have a space to play in the heart of the building surrounded by art. Personal highlights were the George Shaw curated exhibition on trees, and Turner's watercolours

When you get your Breugel the Elder mixed up with your Hieronymus Bosch

Many thanks to Matthew Cook for posting these up-to-the-minute pics of the Justus van Effen Estate. (I've added a few to the blogpost.)

Many thanks to Matthew Cook for posting these up-to-the-minute pics of the Justus van Effen Estate. (I've added a few to the blogpost.)

Many thanks to Matthew Cook for posting these up-to-the-minute pics of the Justus van Effen Estate. (I've added a few to the blogpost.)

🚨 New blog post: How Rotterdam Shaped Social Housing: Part I, the Justus van Effen Estate and ‘Streets in the Sky’ municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2025/11/11/h...

This is good news. Dutch house building has been too focused on big family homes. Meanwhile empty nesters have been stuck in family homes for lack of a nice apartment to move into. Building apartments creates extra family homes.

As a fellow 34 year old, of course Mamdani chose the location from the end of Men In Black for his announcement

My mate is at nice restaurant with his wife and there is a guy being an arsehole on the next table, apparently he sent his steak back for being cold after having ignored it for 5 minutes to look at his phone. Waiters are glaring. Anyway looks like it was toooby young

The museum closed for renovations in 2019! After 6 years of work they finally have a definitive design, which might be open 6 years from now. This project has been terrible for Rotterdam culture, a whole generation of school kids missing out

I don't get a vote but I did get to take a #dogsatpollingstatoions #hondenbijhetstembureau photo!

The Dutch ballot paper (this is a dummy ballot) might just be the largest in the world

Maybe it's anglocentrism but this headline is framed very oddly. The PVV could finish first but with 25% less seats and no viable coalition. The Dutch call that losing. Wilders also wants to claim that <20% vote share is a win and it's undemocratic he's not in power, but it's just trumpian nonsense

In the last decade a weird demographic crossover has begun, with the boomer generation's electoral dominance fading. They were never going gently into the night and still have electoral heft so I guess we have another decade plus of close, split, results like this

Dutch general elections are two weeks away and great fun for UK election nerds as it's basically the inverse of how the UK does it. These ad boards are up across the country listing all the parties running. Over a dozen of these could get seats. There are always new ones or ones I've not heard of.

Fun afternoon yesterday at the Groen Doeners Fesitvaal at Oase in Rotterdam. Nature isn't in some farmers field, it's in the cracks between us all

On Friday I saw Transmutation at AFFR, 50 minutes of limestone mining, quarrying and processing. It was essentially a @machinepix.bsky.social super cut which was perfect after a long week's work youtu.be/gV2O81SHJMU

Just last week, in Milan...

the phrase the Boris Wave has been going around a bit but I only just realised what it meant. I had thought it was boriswave and I was imagining clips of a mop haired Johnson overlaid with a VHS filter and dreamy music, nostalgic for 2019

Brits got a pretty easy ride in NL to get permanent residency post brexit, and it was still proper hard work to get it. The idea that ILR could be taken away from people who have made such a huge commitment to the UK is simply insulting.

My first memory of capital A Architecture is Grimshaw's RAC tower at the M5/M4 junction near Bristol. Seen from the back seat of a car it felt like the future. My appreciation for that building and all of Grimshaw's work has only grown over the years. Truly he was one of Britain's best architects.

Handig dat de oude Blokker waterkoker kapot gaat net nadat Blokker terug is

new business idea, dick and dom in da bungalow escape room

Exactly 10 years ago I moved to the Netherlands, I was not expecting to be here a whole decade later with a partner, a dog, and a whole life. It is freaking my nut!

I'm (finally) reading City of Quartz, and I'm not sure I could find a more suitable spot in the Netherlands to read it if I tried

Genoeg = genoeg.