"Drawing on Eliel Saarinen’s maxim “always design a thing in its next larger context,” Hill reflects on how materials, buildings, and cities are interconnected across scales—from the door handle to the nation" (Did this interview with Hanna Harris a year ago, at Paimio) poddtoppen.se/podcast/1717...

Please take a minute to scroll through this—and share it. It's the story of our time. The Authoritarian Stack: How Tech Billionaires Are Building a Post-Democratic American—And Why Europe Is Next. www.authoritarian-stack.info

(A piece I wrote ages ago on Aalto's Finlandia Hall, and making 'benign errors') medium.com/iamacamera/f...

“The village of Qayal…has been razed. Fifteen members of the Huwaitat tribe who protested against their eviction were sent to prison, some for up to 50 years, and three others were sentenced to death” (World’s biggest YIMBY project) ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

“A pilot scheme where students eat nutritious breakfasts using donated surplus food builds on the ‘folkhem’ welfare model to boost health and sustainability” (So nice to see this good report on the school food mission my colleagues and I led in Sweden) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“(Survey) found that strong sports fans were more likely to seek connections across political divides, to support democracy and to pursue a plethora of civic actions, such as giving to charity, donating blood and voting in local elections. Crucially…Fans have more friends.” on.ft.com/3JG0zyT

Ditto. But then… fs.blog/the-antilibr...

“The green movement needs to widen its focus beyond the carbon emissions issue…to a more holistic message about biodiversity. Biodiversity and global warming problems are tightly entwined” (To be fair, most of us are—but I suppose this can’t be said enough) giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Guilty as charged

“When all the data centers in New Carlisle are built, they will demand more power than two Atlantas”; “AI-related spending now contributes more to the nation’s GDP growth than all consumer spending combined” … www.theatlantic.com/technology/2...

so @matteowong.bsky.social & I wrote on data centers: arguably the most important buildings in the world & are, in a way, holding the economy hostage. Byzantine financial instruments, private equity, depreciating tech, hype, $trillion valuations. it’s all there. an ai crash prob starts here.

(Absurdity of this. When will governments here figure out that, in Australia’s market, private developers cannot make affordable housing, by definition. Only true public housing, or not-for-profit cooperatives, can be affordable) www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

“Today, as the conditions that shape how we live together rapidly shift, so do the frameworks within which artistic expression can exist” (This is incredibly interesting, and important) www.of-public-interest.com/opi-contribu...

“Some Australian architects are fantastic but that’s off their own back. What we’re trying to do with the roadmap is lift a whole sector. We’re using the language of regulation and policy deliberately because we want system change, not just a few great individuals” architectureau.com/articles/aus...

“Dan Hill and Gerard Reinmuth discuss the launch of the Australian Reduction Roadmap – a pathway of carbon emissions reduction based on the allocation of a strict carbon budget per new building – and what needs to happen to affect change” architectureau.com/articles/aus...

“Economist Richard Denniss, co-CEO at the Australia Institute, calls out the government’s myths around housing, and shares his thoughts on what’s holding us back from radically reshaping our housing culture” (Richard and I spoke at this together; he’s brilliant) architectureau.com/articles/ric...

“Why spend all this cash buying fossil fuels and trying to bury emissions when renewables are now so much cheaper, and the fuel is both infinite and free?” (We know the answer to that question. Do articles like this, here, help loose the grip of fossil fuels?) www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“The East Wing demolition is a parable of the Trump presidency” (Full YIMBY) economist.com/united-state...

“Even if U.S. companies and labs remain at the forefront of innovation, one recent report warned that China was 10 to 15 years ahead of the United States in its ability to deploy next-generation reactors widely” (Typical misunderstanding of innovation…) www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

"The Art of Building is chaos and beauty and beauty in chaos."—Leth & Gori lethgori.dk/wordpress/th...

"Academics at University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania have conducted the most comprehensive review of evidence on the effectiveness on carbon offsetting to date and concluded the practice is ineffective and riddled with “intractable” problems" www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/news/carbon-...

An important story. The UK built environment is not prepared for the climate changes we expect. To adapt, we will need to change the way we design and construct new buildings and upgrade the existing. We know how to do this, we choose not to 1/2 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Really good to see this House of Commons research briefing on Children, Young People & the Built Environment, by Louise Whitley, following the LUHC inquiry last year. It covers a huge of academic and policy evidence, from all sorts of angles, from the UK and beyond.

All of this is being put out to placate the right wing press... In the meantime, it's causing fear & confusion. As I understand it: ● this only applies to some people on skilled visas ● it's not "A level English" it's something called SELT ● much the same requirement exists elsewhere in EU

"The typical worker in the UK today, for example, works about half the number of hours per week their counterparts in the mid-19th century did" (Sure, but as Hickel points out in 'Less is More', look back further again and there's a different picture 1/2) on.ft.com/4nQWvut

"This is one possibility for using the Roadmap; for instance, in asking us to stop and rethink in terms of emissions, we find an argument for prioritising carefully-designed and built public and community-led housing, producing social justice as well as climate justice." medium.com/dark-matter-...

“In Melbourne, where there are a lot of buildings that are sitting quite empty, we still haven’t really got that sort of traction yet,” Bakker says.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

NEW: Biofuels globally emit more than the fossil fuels they replace, our latest study shows. The first-of-a-kind study looks at global biofuels production today and the potential impacts of government biofuel targets. 🧵⤵️

“Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport… in cities that have made them mainstream, the idea of going back to car-clogged streets is considered ridiculous.” (Occasionally, like a stopped clock, they chance across a solid opinion. Didn’t even mention materials) economist.com/internationa...

"the private sector can do the heavy lifting when it comes to homebuilding." (How's that going then?) www.economist.com/finance-and-...

“Take it from me, a wearable maximalist: I am exhausted, running out of body parts, and feeling more cyborg than human with each passing day.” www.theverge.com/column/79793...

"Why mud walls, salvaged brick, and digital craft may define innovation more than glass towers and smart cities" criticalplayground.org/architecture...

"Architect Duncan Baker-Brown answers your questions on adaptive re-use" (very good ... including interesting insight on the impact of replacing cork in wine bottles with plastics, a decision increasingly being reversed, increasingly. Also, nice tiles.) youtu.be/3u5uZRuT1H4?...

“Aral Sea is a place where all the most urgent concerns of today come together. Soil, water, energy, food, textiles and air quality – it can be seen as the live laboratory of the future and can help us rethink what's possible for many generations to come” (V interesting) www.aralschool.uz

Fantastic day at Balam Balam Place in Melbourne, for Robin Boyd Foundation event ‘Living in Australia’. Great series of talks and discussions, expertly curated by @roryhyde.bsky.social of Melbourne School of Design, ending with great keynote by Elizabeth Timme of @officeofoffice.bsky.social

Incomplete City 2025 at Melbourne School of Design

“Where is all the housing for older people?” (Good article, useful references) on.ft.com/42soLeq

(I presented car-free cities and Monderman-style shared space to Dubai’s all-powerful Roads & Transport Authority 12 years ago and got utterly mystified looks, as if they were staring at videos of Mars rather than the Netherlands. Interesting to see how this goes …)

🎤 Directing Economic Growth: A Common Good Approach On October 6, IIPP Director @mazzucatom.bsky.social will deliver @christianaiduk.bsky.social’s Annual Lecture, exploring how a new economics of the common good can aid governments in addressing global issues. 🔗 Learn more here: buff.ly/Smnx1YI

The same in #Edinburgh. It invested in its public realm to increase walking and cycling and Mastercard reported a 20% increase in local spend. Many other benefits were also evidenced in the multi year study - despite predictions of disaster, the scheme was anything but.

From the top of my head (though not research in an academic context) newdesigncongress.org/en/pub/our-a...

maybe this sort of thing besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

“Together, the findings are a “pretty strong collection of evidence” that socioeconomic costs from disastrous wildfires are increasing, and that climate is a big part of the equation, Dr. Harvey said.” www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/c...

Wikihouse x First Call youtube.com/watch?v=kFeX...

"China’s new-build solar additions in the last six months are more than the US has installed in total ... two times Germany’s installed capacity... more than twice the new capacity installed by the entire rest of the world this year" (Astonishing) adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

Watching my son play ‘Ghosts of Yōtei’, set in Hokkaido (then Ezo) in 1603, and its startlingly beautiful depicted landscape, largely untainted by modern industry and ‘development’, am wondering who’s doing research on video games & shifted perceptions of nature? Renewed kinship or merely nostalgia?

Was in Shanghai last week, amazing as ever. Here, a typical street scene: man taking his robot for a walk, stopped by the cops, discussion, influencers gather. Nothing to see here. The city rolls on.

“This is the cost of being seen through an Orientalist lens. One-dimensional narratives are easier to tell than complex realities” (Very interesting) www.thisisanfield.com/2025/09/moha...

"The World Has Too Much Steel, but No One Wants to Stop Making It" #abundance www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/b...

“School meals, provided for free by governments around the world, could be used to curb global hunger and promote a sustainable global food system, finds a new study by UCL researchers” (I had a small hand in this report; we have a longer follow-up RE Swedish example) www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/se...