Cityphilia

OK, at the risk of sounding like a member of the Old Wodehousians or something, I subscribe to the London Review of Books. This is not because I lack books to read, I now tell myself that the stack (tower would be more apt) of unread books I’ve accumulated are not in fact a waste …

Ch-ch-ch-changes

Read this headline about the Prestige case being tossed out as the judge did not feel she had jurisdiction, US court throws out Spain’s $1bn Prestige claim. Hearing about the Prestige again (and thinking about the prevaricating, bureaucratic bungling, responsibility dodging etc that went on during that disaster) it contrasted with the story I read …

Who’s on top?

I subscribe to an RSS feed for a blog known as the "New Economist", a fellow who posts on "New economic research, data, events and analysis.." A post he made back in November was called Who’s on top?, dealing with international competiveness and recent rankings by the Economist (the magazine not the author), World Economic …

Art Deco Madness

We recently returned from a visit to New Zealand. One of the places we spent a lot of time in was Napier on the north island. Napier is renowned as ground zero for Art Deco buildings. Almost the entire city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and as the city was  wholly rebuilt in …

Radiant City

I watched this documentary on a plane the other day, it was "oddly disturbing" as the promo says. What particularly struck me was the comment that 80% of structures that we inhabit were built in the last 50 years, ie that most of what we experience with buildings really has no history before the second …