public
On Latex
The geography and logistics of pre-industrial rubber production.…
Feature
Long-form, original writing on the built environment.
21 posts
public
public
Paved Paradises
How Parking Lots Shape Our Cities for the Worse…
public
On Chindogu
The near-universal comedy of technological failure
The story goes that Thomas Edison ran thousands of failed experiments before landing on…
public
Local Neon
The quiet crackling sound of a lamp turning on gives way to the hazy but articulated glow of neon, which…
public
On Baltic Birch
We’ve recently been admiring photos of a friend’s new kitchen. The cabinets and drawers are pale, clear-coated plywood,…
public
On Flight Decks
A deep dive into the complicated controls inside commercial aircraft.
When boarding a commercial flight, passengers often get the chance…
public
Solarjunk
A new life for old landfills
On a brisk spring day in April, I walked across the vast expanse of…
public
Manufacturing an Ecosystem
Revisiting Vaclav Smil's Made in the USA
Following the 2008 financial crisis, manufacturing output in the United States dropped by…
public
On Stretch Wrap
The diaphanous material that holds together the containerized world.
To look at a container ship is to see the world…
public
Remittance by the Barrel
Each year, millions of barrels are shipped from NYC to the Caribbean. Here's why, how, and the economics behind it.…
public
In Case of Emergency
A brief history of just-in-time manufacture
The pandemic has brought not one crisis, but many. Supply disruptions have meant that…
public
Anyone Can Build a House
The Segal method and the UK's self-build movement
In 1962, the German-born architect Walter Segal was living in Highgate, north…
