Articles in Architecture & Design
In Praise of the Pointless
Not everything should have to prove its market worth. We need places that serve no utilitarian function and exist only to be interesting.
What Can Minimalism Do For Us?
From Thoreau to Marie Kondo, there have periodically been movements encouraging us to make do with less. Is this a healthy rejection of consumerism or a demand for bleak austerity?
Hostile Architecture Is Evil and Should Be Banned
Attacking homeless people with spikes is morally tantamount to assault. Designers should not be permitted to incorporate the threat of pain into the built environment.
How To Build Beautiful Places
The late architectural theorist Christopher Alexander offered a vision for a livable future.
Why Doesn’t California Solve Its Housing Crisis By Building Some New Cities?
Around the world, when cities are overcrowded, governments have orchestrated the building of new cities. In the U.S., this seems absurd or utopian. Why?
The Need for a New Garden City Movement
In the early 1900s, a strange and wonderful planning fad caught on. It can still help us think about building livable places.
The Royal Dystopia of Poundbury
A town with no people is not a town, but a deathly museum.
When Is the Revolution in Architecture Coming?
We need to build places we can’t stop looking at. It will involve lots of plants.
Seize the Elevators
On the coming and necessary abolition of the tower.
The Only Thing Worse Than A NIMBY Is A YIMBY
Pro-development activists try to trick you into thinking it helps the poor to destroy neighborhoods to make way for luxury condos. We need a radically democratic preservationism.
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