RT @DarrenMcLean_uk@twitter.com: A reminder that eaves are not architectural fluff. They actually serve an important function. That said, there’s no reason they can’t be decorative https://hell.twtr.plus/media/da8746db6934459cc2d94c187b89a12e86655dd8259931306ce27df6e6950dfe.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/2b3458e8ec0a7e755e95f1498023af3ab29723d2015bf7d9d664056fb8b9a3b1.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/7dbbe008958100697f69fa39eed050621c870c8b054f668ae6390309889444be.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/1ae46d90b82c310e7f7ee6c8bd420849072b50ce9d0316c7126e7c0a9507559f.file

“Cities and landscapes are illustrations of our spiritual and material worth. They not only express our values but give them a tangible reality. They determine the way in which we use or squander our energy, time, and land resources.” — Léon Krier, 1946-2025 https://hell.twtr.plus/media/860c28ac424ea6301c20fe6217829fa98b350fe3ea86c451ff5c64bd9055d0f4.file

The city of Modena has a long history of rejecting grandiose renovations and renewals, including snubbing starchitects and countless modernist "interventions." As they come, Piazza Matteotti isn't even in the top ten thousand of Awful European Piazza, so maybe it is for the best. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/07633e91ef7b0f6dbb76b81193f8d4fea3efbf30bd81cc8af8b3579d602f4028.file

The 2001 proposal to renew the Piazza Matteotti in the city of Modena, Italy, by Pier Carlo Bontempi (b. 1954) and Léon Krier (1946-2025). It would have been a vast improvement but ultimately rejected. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/666a986a47ffdf42e0558570de316a3ae56afd0044541955fd74c7049def6528.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/72f37c501676ea5567670f103dcdb4a9e6591ea2c1164289054dab5e335c1d73.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/f2a61d69223e8b96e25a182b4d4da34b67c7671ed47f38d739c92ed89344a57e.file

Enough of the pessimism. Here we are, with a bullhorn to the mightiest public fora in the history of mankind, and yet we whine! We have no weird ideology or purity identity to protect. We grew up bathed in their weird progressive ideology. They saw "a scary tweet by an online reactionary once." Their sad curses doesn't hurt us anymore. We are on the side of beauty, truth, health, roots, life. They are on the side of masks, self-mutilation, disease and denouncement. We are the side that builds cathedrals, plants orchards, learn the languages of our ancestors, make babies, lift weights, build homes. They build "housing", worships the bland box, plants weed not gardens, turn into mutes and stutterers so as not to offend, engage in endless mortification, mutilation and confession sessions. They declare us haters, so as to paint targets on our backs for every drugged up lunatic with a voice in his head, for what use is it to reason with someone who hates? We declare something lovely and lovable in order that it can grow lovelier and greater. Let's stop the whining and laugh in their faces. The counter-revolution starts now.

The "Five household system" was an ancient Japanese confucian inspired system of local administration and law enforcement only abolished in 1872. Both rural and urban populations were divided into groups of five, collectively responsible for taxes, reporting and monitoring criminal activities in their group as well as mutual aid. The five household leaders would also be responsible for their employees and tenants (in case they were numerous they would often be divided into sub-groups of five or ten). Failure to report criminal activity inside the group or member families or their dependents meant joint liability. Failure to pay taxes by individual members would have to be covered by the others, meaning administration was smooth and stable even with very limited resources. Thus members were encouraged to aid and take care of each other as needed. The five households included in each group would be revised once a year and anyone who left a group had to be registered with their new group or face legal penalties. The results of many centuries of this administrative system we can still see in Japanese society today.

Public and civil servants should by law be liable and responsible for decisions and conduct exercised in the name of their authority or office.

The Shinkansen trains in Japan have detachable seats. Relatively lightweight and robust, they make excellent shields against edged weapons. Other choices of improved defensive weapons are belts, briefcases, laptop computers, bottles and rolled up newspapers. Conductors and security guards also have access to sasumata, a sort of polearm to immobilize attackers while keeping them away. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/b507fed5d078e1fc253113f9669a01476c39c499ac80aad54a28b5511d13ab45.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/ffcc98fdec383961d0797c66ae2cb6810f3eb40a19f7c0afe8d8d32376916b03.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/4f9fd176b34a77eb16651e52dd726221cf9cde6b79260792490aca7ba2537e46.file https://hell.twtr.plus/media/0830b535be654a40aa8c0ee6e380c787b5e0b355edf41cb65b3fae6b512b5503.file

Chris (@Prep4Disasters) has written a book about how different people prepare for disasters. The text is more of a long form qualitative study and less pop-science. The subject he knows well, academically and practically. I read this a few months ago in pre-print and offered an endorsement (he might have used it): “Dr. Ellis does us remarkable service in reminding us of the paradox of disasters: awareness will likely inspire us into becoming better people, more courageous, more skilled, more confident, more grounded into the landscapes and cultures we inhabit, and ultimately the need for the long perspective. Preparation becomes stewardship of the cultures and places we love.”

RT @SCP_Hughes@twitter.com: This probably isn't what you imagine when someone says '1950s council offices', but that is what this is. Bristol City Hall, by the great civic architect Vincent Harris. The style is loosely Neo-Georgian, but the sweeping curve gives it some Baroque vitality, and the arched and domed portico has an ancient form ultimately related to Zoroastrian fire temples. Vincent Harris was regarded as contemptibly backwards by this period, and crowds of architecture students protested outside some of his later buildings, outraged by his use of non-modernist styles. On the other hand, in a visual preference survey we commissioned a few years ago, the British public rated Bristol City Hall higher than any other civic building in the sample. https://hell.twtr.plus/media/2adec941773d28fcc09bfcb5519012ebf6353f8c44c414f0b7d7e3ad0c738dd0.file