Buildings and cities

Architecture as public life.

Urban form

Street width, block size and mixed use determine how a place feels far more than individual buildings do. Car-centred planning changed cities more than any style.

Jane Jacobs argued for dense, mixed, walkable streets.
Zoning decisions shape housing cost decades later.

Sustainability

Operational energy is now joined by embodied carbon in materials. Reuse of existing structures is often the lower-impact choice, whatever a new design promises.