Design practice, town-builder, think tank. Master-planning, design codes, research, co-creating popular, beautiful, durable Gentle Density. @CreateStreetsFN
Joined December 2012
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14,564 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
31 Oct 2019
The best density is gentle .....
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What might the world be like if traffic modernism had never happened?
To visit Barcelona’s soaring Sagrada Família basilica writes @boys_nicholas in @Telegraph is to visit a parallel universe in which architectural modernism barely happened, symbolism and decoration remained acceptable and we kept creating places with joy, natural patterns and a whiff of the sacred…
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…”The 144-year-old construction site also offers a 21st-century glimpse of the medieval era, where whole lifetimes were spent in the shadow of great churches, towers and steeples inching slowly towards the heavens. Florence Cathedral took 140 years to build. Toledo’s took 267 years. La Sagrada Família, designed by the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, was started in 1882; 144 years later, they are still building it – a continuous bridge spanning our present with the lives of our great-great-grandparents.” Here is full article: paywall down. telegraph.co.uk/gift/da879f4…
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Jun 13
Building for the long term is true green not gizmo green
Jun 13
One of the core benefits of structural masonry is that it can endure long periods of neglect and be brought back to life.
Wood just can’t take abandonment on the chin.
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Jun 14
We don’t know if @JMilei plan will work or not but Buenos Aires is certainly a beautiful city which richly merits a renaissance
Jun 13
As Javier Milei swings his reform chainsaw through Argentina, his hope is that foreign investors and executives will flock to his freshly deregulated economy.
Our reporters break down Mileil's 'radical technofuturism' approach ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/business/202…
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Vernacular streets & buildings manage the climate so much better & more efficiently than traffic-modernism. Here street trees, deep balconies & external shutters moderate heat in the beautiful Bahamas.
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And a few more on how to keep cool without air conditioning.
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… and a few thoughts on using building design to keep cool from last summer: createstreets.com/old-walls-…
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The elections are over. How can new councillors and councils improve prosperity and productivity, health and happiness in their little slice of Britain? Here’s the good news. Despite everything, they can. Here are five suggestions which I wrote up today in @ConHome …
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Greening Up in Buenos Aires. Street trees improve cities.
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Greening Up in Camberwell. Next should be reopening the station. The home that the state inflicted upon the recently nationalised railway network in the 1960s was a strategic error but it can & should be reversed.
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The issue here is not prosperity but desire & design.
The Newsagent at Frith Street in Soho, London. The top photo was taken 70 years ago on 14th June 1956. Same corner, but what a difference.
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Terraced houses, mingled uses, trees, bicycles & beauty. Utrecht in high summer.
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Greening Up in Barcelona....
BEFORE AND AFTER. Barcelona transformed this car sewer in a declining industrial zone into a lush shared street, ready to welcome a new century of industry.
ALT Photo by Google
ALT Photo by me.
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Jun 13
Memo to all councils. Make places nicer. Win votes.
Jun 12
☀️ Weekend pedestrianisation is back on Northcote Road!
From 11 July, enjoy more space to stroll, shop & socialise ☕
✨ Expect outdoor dining, independent shops & a buzzing community vibe.
See you there ➡️ orlo.uk/G86bt
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Jun 12
There are a handful of places left on the much loved @CreateStreetsFN & @ADAMarchitectur Summer School - now back for it fourth year. Here are a few memories from 2025. You can find out more ....
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What a privilege to visit Nassau. Parts of the downtown are beautiful. The neighbourhoods that work, work for the same reason that places work around the world: lovely buildings, people-first, well-enclosed, urban greenery, sense of place …
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Bookshops are a great use of old buildings
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An important point. We call it the virtuous circle of place. Locations that people find attractive are normally aligned with good public health & social benefits. Trust the people. There is wisdom in crowds.
a weird general rule in urbanism is that the more aesthetic choice often delivers some enormous public benefit
narrow lane widths are not just picturesque; they're also associated with FAR LOWER pedestrian fatality rates
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