Check Out Helsinki’s Underground Shadow City

http://www.grist.org/article/2011-02-23-check-out-helsinkis-underground-shadow-city

"Helsinki, Finland's capital, has decided to defeat sprawl by building down instead of out. Incised into the city's bedrock are a swimming pool, a shopping area, a church, a hockey rink, and a data center, not to mention "parking caverns" and a bunch of the city's necessary municipal doodads."

Word of the Day: Cataphile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataphile

"Cataphiles are urban explorers who illegally tour the Paris "catacombs", the term popularly used to describe a series of underground tunnels that were formerly a network of stone mines."

Project Iceworm

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/project-iceworm.html

"A fully-functioning "underground city," Camp Century even had its own mobile nuclear reactor—an "Alco PM-2A"—that kept the whole thing lit up and running during the Cold War."

Exploring Urban Exploring

Urban Explorers: Quests for Myth, Mystery and Meaning from Bradley L. Garrett on Vimeo.

This video is a 30-minute introduction to the practice of urban exploration. Constructed as a video article for the journal Geography Compass, the article uses footage from the author's own explorations in California, Las Vegas and London to visually depict a theoretical unpacking of the practice by 5 academic geographers. 

Undercity

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.

After dodging trains, security guards, climbing the Williamsburg Bridge, and making us all extremely nervous, Andrew Wonder and Steve Duncan have compiled a short of their NYC adventures. "Guerrila historian" Duncan does a pretty excellent job summing up each scenario.

Demolition of the Paris Metro

http://www.sleepycity.net/posts/252/Demolition_of_the_Paris_Metro

"The Paris Metro and the service it provides are deeply intertwined into the fabric of the city. As the 4.5 million Parisians who ride it every day will probably attest it's the quickest way around whether it's for work, for play or both. The metro's distinctive art-nouveau style is unmistakable and the plant like green wrought iron entrances topped with the orange orbs and Metropolitan signage designed by Hector Guimard which sprout up all over the city lead one down to the gleaming white tiled platforms to be whisked away all over the city. On my first trip to Paris I arrived into Gare du Nord and entered the dense maze that is the metro. Despite the crowds, the noise and the distinct odour of piss, I was in love. The kind of love which inspires one to risk life, limb and deportation to get up close and personal."