Can confirm that car-lite, mid-rise urbanism in France is awesome and it would be transformative back across the Atlantic.

I took advantage of the beautiful weather today and made an urbanist pilgrimage to the CNU Charter Award-winning Cité Jardins in Le Plessis-Robinson. The interior of the project is as advertised: beautiful, traditionally-styled buildings around gardens and the water feature. It was bucolic and

Love this quote from Mayor Hidalgo. And I'd love to see more U.S. mayors enacting these simple and relatively cheap changes. Super high ROI as far as quality of life!

This is essentially Italian gasoline pricing

Infill happens one building at a time. It is built by local tradespeople, directed by nonprofits, small developers, and homeowners. This is what PLACEMAKING looks like. #Raleigh #Durham #localdevelopment #urbanplanning

Really cool to see a Durham-area bio-based construction materials company find success! With the big DR Horton deal they just signed, hopefully we'll be seeing these panels all over soon. Thanks to Jed's Top Five for featuring this! www.axios.com/local/raleig...

I feel like I've made the big time here: that's my daughter with the blue backpack and me and my son just ahead on our way to school this morning! Still blows my mind how safe, car-free, quiet, and pleasant our daily rides are at the center of a 11-million person metroplis.

e-bikes solve this

From our front door to alpine ski slopes by public transit — no cars needed! The infrastructure in France really is incredible in this way. From our apartment, we grabbed a short metro to the Gare de Lyon, then a TGV straight to the mountains.

Wouldn't downtown Durham look great with a courtyard apartment building? There are acres and acres of parking lots just begging for something like this. This particular spot is over 2 acres and has been a parking lot for at least 30 years. Instead of housing cars and creating stormwater issues,

I strikes me that instead of building energy hungry data centres for AI, we could be building local factories to produce straw panels and actually help solve the climate crisis

I haven't thought about filling a gas tank since last summer. Same for oil changes, tuneups, car insurance, and parking. And I haven't paid a dime for those or any of the dozens of little extras that car ownership costs mosts Americans every month.

What's better than warm baguettes and fresh pastries from the local boulangerie? It's when the boulangerie is on the opposite corner of your block and your two elementary-school-aged kids can walk there and pick up the goods for you without ever leaving the sidewalk!

It's been fun to try out Alicia's new Courtyard Composer tool. Living in a courtyard apartment this year has been great and it would be amazing if these could become an option back in the U.S. There are a handful of places around central Durham that are essentially 1-2 acre parking lots...

It's been fun to try out Alicia's new Courtyard Composer tool. Living in a courtyard apartment this year has been great and it would be amazing if these could become an option back in the U.S. There are a handful of places around central Durham that are essentially 1-2 acre parking lots...

Raleigh and Durham are leading the nation in the construction of small homes. Recent policies passed by city councils have allowed duplexes, ADUs, and more to be built on lots in both cities 🏘️ Read the article by Payton Chung: 👉 https://loom.ly/JySIKWQ #raleigh #durham #yimby #nc

If you haven't been following me for long, you might be wondering why this always boils down to straw, wood, (plant) and earth construction. Shouldn't sustainable building be viewed more broadly? No. ... 1/2

I always learn from @aaronlubeck.bsky.social thoughts on our built environment and really loved this idea from his latest: a Citybuilding Academy in every state to train young people in locally-grounded, small-scale development. I wish there had been something like this in place when I was coming up

I always learn from @aaronlubeck.bsky.social thoughts on our built environment. I really loved this idea from his latest: a Citybuilding Academy in every state to train young people in locally-grounded, small-scale development. I wish there had been something like this in place when I was coming up.

Such a cool transformation. A downtown waterfront would be an amazing replacement for NC-147 in Durham.

Biking to school pickup is always great, but it's even better in the snow!

Cities are so much richer when they don't dedicate large swaths of space to cars. These pictures are all within a 1 minute walk: mysterious arcades as streets, romantic bridges, outdoor cafes, and a shopping district. And not a car in sight. In most U.S. cities, you would have to walk

I know some are STILL trying to argue that supply and demand do not apply to #housing, but during #COVID, 1) housing supply crashed, and then 2) prices skyrocketed. via St Louis Fed and @statista

Paris is full of beautiful old buildings, but it was a cool, new construction project that caught my eye while biking this morning. The mass timber is super cool, but this combines a number of additional things that we can't/don't do in the U.S: First, it's a series of (4?) single-stair buidings.

imo if we really want more housing for the 21st century... more legislators should read my book, Building For People point access blocks. mass timber. passivhaus. ecodistricts. better homes, in quieter and better neighborhoods. the good stuff. islandpress.org/books/buildi...

With a capacity to build 600 homes/year worth of wall panels, EcoCocon's new factory in Slovakia sounds incredible. Using robots, they are able to do this with only 3 ppl working on production (per shift, 2 shifts/day). Framers in the U.S. are blazing fast and amazing to watch, but 60,000 sq m

I got to take my kid to the doctor today to check on yet another viral infection. We've had a rough few weeks as the temperature has dropped here. Not fun. It's also been interesting to navigate France's healthcare system. Today's visit (w/ pediatrician, same day appt) was 9 EUR 🧵 My co-pay

Holy crap Also, why aren’t regional airlines getting into regional HSR? If I saw those numbers I’d be like we need to diversify our portfolio

Croft just put up the first panelized straw commercial building in the country! So cool. With our agricultural and forest resources, and huge housing shortage, there should be regional manufacturers of these panels all over the US. Per the map from The Last Straw's survey from 2024,

The world needs more Topher Thomases. Such an inspiration!

Still buzzing from @michaelburchert.bsky.social session Monday on how to build straw + timber wall panels. Great case studies, clever tool-free techniques (4 to the floor!) to easily get the right compression, and a wealth of knowledge transmitted. Thanks to Michael for sharing!

@scp-hughes.bsky.social 's essay in Works in Progress on "Making Architecture Easy" gives a great framework for understanding the recent study showing how people strongly prefer traditional architecture. I really like Samuel's framing of architecture as a "public art" and "background art".

I am a straw builder because it's fun and 1000% worth the effort. The future is right here and it's comfy and regenerative. I will share my knowledge about building passive house modules and retrofit #strawhouse panels on the 1. December. It's free. You can do this. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"vélogistique" 😚🤌

The Coulée Verte in Paris has been my go-to running spot the last few weeks. It's an abandoned elevated railway that runs ~3 km from the Bastille to the edge of town, with great greenery and views from the top and shops below. And it's twice as old as the NYC High Line!

Seattle (& beyond!) architecture and urbanism people - @michaelburchert.bsky.social has kindly offered to host a virtual presentation on prefab straw panel building + Q&A. Monday, Dec 1 at 11:00 am PST Please fill out the interest form if you'd like to attend!

In America, when we build a massive freeway, buy a bunch of cars, fill them with gas, crash them, repair them, and treat all of the injury and disease they cause…that adds to GDP. But does that make us rich?

Scenes from a car-lite city. It is incredible how many streets in our corner of Paris are de-facto pedestrian/bike streets simply because there are so few cars around. These pictures are from my normal "commute" dropping the kids off at school.

So want to build one of these in Durham. Zero concrete as well. Super cool.

It may be unrealistic to turn this .84 acre spot into Paris, but with how desperately we need more, and more affordable, housing in Durham, what else could we do? If we take the SFH footprint that was built there and let them "rub shoulders", we can get 3 more homes and have a bunch more greenspace.

Even in the USA! nothing technical stopping us from doing this, just deciding that we value people over cars.

Cool new wall section comparison tool from Isol'enPaille. I wish they would let you change the insulation layer to compare a conventional wall versus straw, but still lots variables to play around with here! www.isolenpaille.com/simulateur-p...

Making Michigan manufacturing great again! Crossroads Solar in South Bend, IN, is another piece of this puzzle and a great story: www.crossroads-solar.com

Go Durham!

An unused parcel of .84 acres in Old West Durham was transformed into housing recently. The development was considered scandalously dense by many. When I overlaid a Paris density of building, I found that you could fit nearly 6 courtyard blocks surrounded by apartment homes— housing 50+ families.

Wish DPS would have the vision to do this with DSA rather than the suburban replacement they clearcut acres of forest to build. Such an inspiring project!

Let's look inside. #biobased #renewablematerial #strawhouse #carbonstorage 🧵 1/ of a lot, be sure to like and share this post so others can see that climate adaptive building is in the pipeline for elderly people, child care and social housing e.g.

I finally got to see las Setas de Sevilla in person! Wild to look back 14 years and remember how excited I was about this as I was working on my Personal Statement in grad school. My aesthetic tastes have changed a lot since then, but the effect of looking up through the grid is still pretty cool.

Anyone want to build one of these with me in Durham, NC? Lot's of wood and straw and clay laying around!

Yesterday & today I was lucky to spend quality time with 2 friends from grad school after not seeing each other for 10+ years. Strange to feel simultaneously that: 1. no time has passed ("you haven't changed!") and 2. a whole lifetime has passed (we all got married, kids, 3-5 jobs down the road).