Coby

It's a hopeful work about our ability to create places today that are as good as have ever existed. Our best days are not behind us. All it takes is a little bit of Optimism to get started! Check out the link on Amazon below!! shorturl.at/2sOW0

This, as much as any other reason, is why housing is expensive and bad. Our codes have grown far more than our homes. Giles has done really good work here.

@berkie1 Were we all a bit more spiteful!

@Cobylefko We have something similar in Boston’s North End. But it’s a spite house… which is just very on brand for Boston. npr.org/2021/09/21/103…

The Japanese have perfected maximizing the amount of compelling space per square foot of available land. So, so good.

@Aetheron I adore it!

Another excellent example of space optimization is undoubtedly the O House. Designed by Hideyuki Nakayama Architecture and completed in 2009 in Kyoto, Japan, the O House sits on an extremely narrow plot of just 83.33 m². The architect, Hideyuki Nakayama, based in Tokyo, is known for his experimental and minimalist houses. He has described this project as a personal exploration of spatial boundaries. The main concept was to blur the lines between interior and exterior while creating a surprising sense of spaciousness in a minimal footprint. The name “O House” comes from the circular or “O”-shaped visual experience generated from certain angles as you move around the house. The O House proves that even on a site only about 2 meters wide, it’s possible to create a vibrant, luminous, and poetic home. A true masterpiece of clever, poetic minimalism!

@hitsamty I'll always value a recommendation from you, thank you man! I also happen to be a fan of the Oranje, so this is great!

@Cobylefko Read this, right up your alley and this concept (not really about football)

By Kimura Matsumoto Architects thisispaper.com/mag/house-s-sh…

House S/Shop B is a live/work building in Kyoto that takes up hardly two parking spaces worth of land. Yet it does more in this area than most buildings do with an order of greater space. It magically beckons passersby in!

Can't think of many better Lifetime Achievements than being honored by a local burrito shop. Small businesses are the best

Must watch. Rent control is bad because it: 1) makes housing more expensive by reducing the supply 2) existentially threatens social programs, as it reduces tax receipts by lowering the value of housing 3) is a transfer from the young and poor to the well off and old.

HSTPA stabilized apartments in buildings with 6+ units built before 1974, this is roughly half of the units in the city. Very few of them will go back on the traditional listing market. They'll be passed among family & friends, not hitting StreetEasy, etc. This has the effect of cutting the universe of potential apartments in half

@Cobylefko There are +2.32 million rentable housing units in NYC. There are +40,000-50,000 vacant, rent-stabilized apartments due to the 2019 rent laws that restrict rent increases. 50,000 is only 2.15% of 2.32 million. Where are you getting half from?

This is what happens when a city takes half its homes off the rental market

@WingsEcosse @IsadoraClarus Could you share the building? Would love to see it!

@Cobylefko @IsadoraClarus There’s a new build (20 years ago) hotel on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. It’s built of stone to resemble an Edinburgh tenement of old. It blends in very well. As you say, it can be done.

Almost everything in this image was built in the last 30 years. Building beautiful cities is a choice, one that so many places have curiously shunned

Respectfully, I completely disagree. The Colosseum's (and the nearby Forum's) current state of decay is entirely arbitrary, based on when a small group decided it should be preserved. Not only is this completely ahistoric, it promotes further decay until there's no heritage, as one can't touch authentic history falling down!! This is nonsense to me

The Colosseum in Rome: stunning as it is, you could technically repair it and rebuilt it, yet it's not done. Why? Most likely because it's accepted that it's better to have an authentic piece of history (as imperfect or incomplete as it may be) over a hodge-podge of techniques to restore it.

@aussieflya I will raise heartily on your behalf!

@Cobylefko If I ever have the budget, building something like this... x.com/i/status/16855…

@mattyglesias Welcome to the Optimistic way of seeing the Built Environment! buildingoptimism.substack.com/p/deciding-to-…

I think we should say “five over ones are fine, and we should try to make them more attractive by encouraging builders to give them more traditional-looking façades rather than the current design standards that strike most people as ugly.”

@DkALLLDay Bad architecture, institutionalized retail (if it even exists) by imperative (you have to lease to a chain as small businesses are credit risks), and few trees. The greatest sin, however, is likely the scale. Totally overwhelming and spurns human engagement

@Cobylefko That would be great, unfortunately this is what we get instead:

Unbeatable city building and tourism strategy: Create beautiful architecture, develop a strong cafe culture, and plant tree lined streets everywhere

It may sound counterintuitive, though I hope not insensitive, but I think cities have to build out from the core or else sporadic interventions get lost to the wind. There's nowhere for the roots to take hold. For cities like Jackson, MS or St. Louis, many attempts have been made to redress historic iniquities in redlined / segregated neighborhoods, but they don't take hold because there's no strong foundation for them to be a part of. Contrast that with New York, where over time places like Hell's Kitchen, Williamsburg, and now Bed Stuy have been reinvested in with durable change, all because of the strength of Manhattan. This didn't happen in the post-war period when we built large scale projects and community centers in the furthest stretches of the city, they just remain isolated and incapable of sustained management because they're not tethered to more robust economic productivity. If the core isn't prosperous, there's no chance the peripheral marginalized neighborhoods will be. The best way to mobilize marginalized communities is to make the cores fundamentally attractive, which will attract people, capital, jobs, etc, which will grow to encompass those communities. We have much historic record of this. We have precious little evidence that sporadic interventions can sustain themselves

@Cobylefko Coby what’s your take on the notion that improvements should be in many areas for equity’s sake? Many US cities are racially and class segregated, so focusing on core sections with best urban bones leaves many out on the growth. Still need to read your book!!

@queensnative123 Mexico City!

@Cobylefko Where is this? Is it Europe or Asia?