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).

“Do a Paris” I like that Save lives by “doing a Paris” bsky.app/profile/iruk...

Public via ferrata and a whale-shaped soccer pitch with Eiffel Tower views! There are so many little moments like this in Paris where you can tell the city is focused on a great resident experience. Also a huge upgrade from the highway it used to be (last pic).

The U.S. is such a crazy country. Constantly fighting reality in our policies and behaviors. It's a losing battle in the long term, and totally unnecessary.

To the naysayers, fossil fool and other nuclear useful idiots who say #renewables and the #energytransition are wasteful, expensive and woke unnecessary crap.

Can confirm this based on the last month in Paris: there can be hundred of people biking, walking, chatting on a fairly narrow old street and you can easily have a conversation with your companion. And then 1 car drives through and you have to hold your thought until it passes.

if you read my book you'd already know this cities aren't loud - cars are loud. SUVs are louder. and yes that includes EVs. want quieter cities? replace diesel trucks w/ EVs replace delivery vans w/ e-cargo bikes low traffic neighborhoods and modal filters everywhere

Church -> climbing gym + café is an adaptive reuse strategy I hadn't considered before, but seems to work really well. This is in Paris' 15th, near the Eiffel tower. Cool option for the church at Trent and Alabama in Durham. That parking lot would be a great outdoor patio. buff.ly/I0g06Kf

26 homes + 2 businesses on less than 3k sf. So cool!

More micro retail in France: ~150 square feet and a dream is all you need for an organic juice bar with both table and bar seating. Would love to see more opportunities (spaces!) like this for small-scale entrepreneurs back home.

2 parking spots -> doggie playground + bar patio I love walking by this little spot and seeing the clientele and vibe change throughout the day. These two small businesses are getting a ton of mileage out of this shared street space. Seems like losing a couple of parking spots was well worth it.

Got a new-to-us cargo bike today and I'm excited to bike 5 mins rather than walk 15 to drop the kids off at school. Even better was that I got to experience miles of the left bank Quai ___ bikeway. Granite curbs for protection, dedicated bike signals, and classic Paris views everywhere!

It is powerful to experience Paris' rues aux écoles in person. Not having to deal with cars removes a bunch of stress from the dropoff and pickup and provides more space for impromptu play or conversations between parents. Could imagine something similar in front of E.K. Powe on 9th St.

Build it and they will come! This kind of infrastructure would do so much for giving durhamites an alternative to cars.

South Bend is quietly showing how it should be done. Michael's feed is full of examples of a blue city in a red state actually doing the abundance thing. Wish more cities (ahem, Durham) would follow.

We took a train last last week from Rennes to Paris that was twice as fast as driving. This is TGV technology, over 40 years old. At this same speed, Raleigh to Charlotte would be 1:25 and Durham to Wilmington would be about 1:15 by train. (With Beijing-Shanghai trains these would be under 55 mins!)

This boulevard in a mid-sized French city is the local equivalent of a Fayetteville or N Roxboro in Durham. But look at all the amazing things you get here: grade-separated bike AND pedestrian infrastructure, each with their own dedicated crossings at the intersection. Signals set back...

500 square feet and a dream is all you need for an amazing neighborhood pizza parlor w/ patio! Not that it would be allowed in Durham, NC, but what a cool inspiration for little forgotten corners of a downtown.

I really like these planters that we saw in Avignon: simple + cheap materials, quick to install, allows for stormwater flow, slows traffic, and adds greenery to the streetscape. Would be great to have a bunch of these to cool and calm sun-baked 9th St in Durham.

The American mind cannot comprehend a 24sf kitchen/laundry nook. (From a lovely apartment in a ~200 year old building in Montpellier, France.) Definitely a single-occupancy space!

Wish I could say I was happier with this but I think this corridor presents a lot of issues. First, doing all these different one-directional pairs and loops will dramatically expand the needed right of way and utility relocations - the biggest costs in the project. 🧵