Do you know of someone who might be interested in doing a #PhD on the urban, architectural and environmental history of the University of Liverpool? If so could you point them in my direction?

If you're not following Frans Saraste, it's time to take a hard look at your priorities and values. Or you could just follow him, I suppose.

Please join @barnabascalder.bsky.social and me for a talk next Wednesday, 18 March, 6 pm for the Academy of Urbanism in the office of Collective Architecture, at 13 Bath Street in Glasgow, www.theaou.org/events/autho...

Maize, rice, and wheat can be stored for up to a decade or more, and from those, cities are built. "Goliath's Curse" is great to read when paired with: www.architectsjournal.co.uk/practice/cul... by @barnabascalder.bsky.social

Two events next week for @florianurban.bsky.social and my book with @johnczulowskiburns.bsky.social, Form Follows Fuel. Come to a discussion with @jeremytill.bsky.social and Anthony Powis at U of Westminster on Tuesday, or our London book launch Wednesday 5pm at the Bartlett. Links follow:

Thank you so much - I'm glad it's proven useful.

I was on BBC R4 today talking about the beautiful South Bank Centre. Starts 19 mins in. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Here's me prompted by Matt Rendell to risk the opinion that perhaps the #winterolympics could be less #climatecrisis and ecosystem destructive: m.youtube.com/watch?v=sfhW...

Great to have @tim-waterman.co.uk speaking at Liverpool School of Architecture today. Masses of thought-provoking insights on our perceptions of our planet, and even some hopeful notes, which is quite a hard thing to achieve in January 2026.

The correct answer was:

Guess #whatbuilding:

Brilliant to see the BBC picking up Ranald Lawrence and Dean Hawkes' fabulously interesting and important #environmentalhumanities work on #HardwickHall. They measured solar gain to understand Elizabethan comfort tech. The original articles are hugely worth reading too. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Did anyone snap the Foster/Holcim Essential Homes prototype at the Venice Biennale 2023? If so might I be able to use your photo for an article? I'm not getting replies to my request for permission.

The wonderful @johnczulowskiburns.bsky.social has joined Bluesky! Do give him a follow. He's the architect who produced the digital models of our buildings for #FormFollowsFuel, which enabled us to calculate #embodiedenergy for each of them. Also the stunning cover image. @florianurban.bsky.social

Fav books '25 No particular order, just bangers, no prisoners taken. * Straw Bale Building Redefined strawbuildingbooks.com * Form Follows Fuel @barnabascalder.bsky.social @florianurban.bsky.social * Building for People @holz-bau.bsky.social * Die Exponentialgesellschaft @deutschmann.bsky.social

The great @milesglendinning.bsky.social has joined bluesky! Please follow him if you're interested in #housing, #heritage and #architecturalhistory.

Malcolm Fraser architect backs keeping Argyle House, Edinburgh. Redevelop don't demolish. #brutalist #architecture @barnabascalder.bsky.social #embodiedcarbon

@florianurban.bsky.social found for our book Form Follows Fuel that it's v hard to get #embodiedenergy figures for buildings today. #embodiedcarbon is widespread, yet it's much less clear, and more vulnerable to distortion. Here's our argument: www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/is-embo...

David wins some big bragging rights for this. Staggering!

A super-tough #whatbuilding for you.

This summary piece of Barnabas Calder's thinking about energy and architecture (in Dezeen, form 2023) is a blast of sense. There's mention too of Yasmeen Lari's important work. #architecture

I offered a dissenting voice in this article about "beauty" in #architecture, though little of it got in. Essentially, I can't see why style wars should wang on self-promotingly through a climate emergency. www.ft.com/content/fd8a... I put the case here too: www.dezeen.com/2023/01/12/a...

on the plane home from conferences on #sufficiency and #passivhaus I read "Form Follows Fuel" by Florian Urban and @barnabascalder.bsky.social. It has remarkable relevance to both, a brilliant book demonstrating that we cannot get a real grip on upfront carbon without embracing sufficiency.

This will be really interesting and fun if you can get to Chester this weekend: learning to build medieval gothic vaults from very accurate foam replicas. I can't wait! chestercathedral.com/events/event... #architecture #medievalarchitecture #vaulting #chester

In a slightly abstract twist, where were we yesterday?!

#architectureandenergy Thanks to the 100+ people who joined our book launch event last night at the Glasgow School of Art! Well done Chloe and Kieran @architectsdeclare.bsky.social for organising this event, and thanks to @barnabascalder.bsky.social and www.instagram.com/john_joseph_...

@barnabascalder.bsky.social @florianurban.bsky.social amazing job, this should be required reading for any history class!

if you only buy one book about architecture or history this year make sure it's form follows fuel! 14 buildings from 4 millennia show how energy has shaped human housing, sustainability and climate through history, and its topical and informative interdisciplinary approach make this a must read!

I love going by train. Recognise these roofs? #whatbuilding

St Agnes, Grade I, J L Pearson - Toxteth. We placed its Vicarage and Hall by Norman Shaw on our Top Ten Endangered Buildings list in 2024 - both have now been sold we believe. www.victoriansociety.org.uk/endangered-b... Thanks Barnabas.

just finished the pre-fossil chapters, very hard to put the book down for the night as it is both an extremely informative and entertaining read! great choice of examples too, serving the focus on energy and sustainability in architecture just wonderfully! fantastic book, highly recommended!

going in 🔥 @barnabascalder.bsky.social @florianurban.bsky.social very much hyped to finally have this

#WhatBuilding?

A real pleasure to hear my colleague in @liverpooluni.bsky.social's History of Architecture Research Cluster, Alex Buchanan, today as part of Heritage Open Days. Alex was talking about Rickman and early C19 gothic, in an iron church of 1815. Great talk, good audience, lots of appreciation.

BOOK LAUNCH: Edinburgh, 24th September. @florianurban.bsky.social and I will be discussing our new book quantifying the energy cost of architecture through history. Do come! The following night we're speaking about it in Glasgow, so see you at whichever suits. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshopla...

The weekend will be good. New book Form Follows Fuel arrived by @florianurban.bsky.social and @barnabascalder.bsky.social LOL @ multi-page embodied energy and embodied energy for materials tables per building ... How detailed is this please. 😄💪🏽

On BBC World Service this morning, talking about the joys of #Brutalism in architecture. @ddolzikova.bsky.social had me on after reading my book Raw Concrete. Don't worry: I mentioned that it's not a material for use in a climate crisis. Beginning at 43:30: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

More on Harrods Egyptian Hall Was William Mitchell responsible for throwing this shade on his client? Can it really be case that no one ever tipped off Al Fayed about the actual meaning of Ozymandias? @barnabascalder.bsky.social @c20society.bsky.social thesociologicalreview.org/magazine/mar...

In the meantime, watch a @barnabascalder.bsky.social lecture about unnatural materials: youtu.be/46SlQnwzk70?...

@florianurban.bsky.social and I have a new book out shortly, with superb drawings and calculations by John Joseph Burns. Launches in Edinburgh (24 Sept) and Glasgow (25 Sept). Available online in the usual places for £35.99/€39.50/USD39.50.

A wood by Seatoller in the Lake District this past week. It had an awful lot of dead and partially dead oak trees On the east-facing slope, whilst those on the north-facing side were looking pretty healthy. Does anyone know what is killing them? I was quite upset to see them.

Some actual good news: the ICJ have set out the ecological situation clearly and authoritatively, and confirmed that each country has a legal obligation to take effective climate action. Could we get on and do it, please? www-aljazeera-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.alja...

'...SHBT have united with the National Trust for Scotland and Bernat Klein Foundation as the Bernat Klein Studio Coalition aiming to buy and restore the building...' > this is very good news. www.shbt.org.uk/2025/07/savi... @c20society.bsky.social @barnabascalder.bsky.social

The Architecture Books that, step by step, changed my life.

“Copenhagen reported that 62% of its residents are now commuting to work or school by bike — an increase from 52% in 2015 & 36% in 2012, when the City Council launched a 14-year-plan to improve the quality, safety & comfort of cycling.” #Copenhagen chose. They keep choosing to go further each year.

Can anyone point me to a really good history of the urban effects of changing transportation in a case study non-"Western" city through the C19 and C20? I'm interested in things like employment and urban growth, but also in sociological effects (changing role of neighbourhood, etc.). Thank you!

If you have the funds and the vision, please buy and restore the stunning Bernat Klein Studio, Galashiels - guide price £18,000. auctions.savills.co.uk/auctions/30-...

Not to blow our own trumpets, but I reckon more academic books could do with disclaimers like that with which @florianurban.bsky.social and I begin our methodology section. #FormFollowsFuel #ArchitectureAndEnergy

Bless them - do you think they still pay humans to churn this stuff out, or do they have an Artificial Kneejerk LLM to produce it? Keep ranting at long-dead architects, right-wing journos - it's so much less uncomfortable than facing the ecological realities of contemporary architecture.