The following Vox video details how the invention of a “Chinatown style”, that can be found in cities around the world, can be traced back to an earthquake in San Francisco in 1906 and the subsequent re-imaging/invention of a new style and culture.
Living in the Netherlands now for over two years I cannot begin to explain how amazing the cycling infrastructure is. It’s in the little things such as the traffic lights, as explained in the following video:
Fascinating video on the daily background maintenance and repair that is required to keep the city of Venice “working”. Check out the website of the project Venice Backstage as well.
What a wonderful short excerpt from BBC documentary about Venice from 1969. I learned something new as well about the creation of “ghettos” in Venice: “physically isolating a society of people [Jewish refugees] that it simultaneously despised and needed”. It also has some nice images of daily and more quiet life in Venice in winter that since then most likely has disappeared. Have a look at the BBC Archive footage on Twitter.
A victim of modernist urban planning and architecture in Brussels: lavish halls that were replaced by a bland parking, which itself is now demolished again. Read more about it here, including some impressive pictures.
Some people in Brussels are probably dreaming of this kind of changes to cycling infrastructure: “How Sevilla Became a Bicycle City in Just 18 Months”" Via @Kottke.