CANAL STREET CROSS-SECTION

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/canal-street-cross-section.html

"The problem," as he explains it, "was to make all that architecture work together and make sense visually. I was able to do that by having windows on the sides of the piece to accommodate the cross views. I gave the subway platform a sense of depth by using a carefully placed mirror at the far end. As with almost all of my projects, the sight lines were critical." The piece, we might say, required a kind of Piranesian optical correction so that all its cross-angles and counterviews could be spatially comprehensible.

Abandoned Skyscraper in Venezuela is the World’s Tallest Shanty Town

http://inhabitat.com/squatter-infested-skyscraper-in-venezuela-is-the-worlds-tallest-shanty-town/

"In the middle of downtown Caracas in Venezuela is an abandoned 45 story tower that has been reclaimed by squatters who have turned it into a thriving vertical shanty town. Built during the booming nineties when the real estate market was putting up ever larger edifices to the banking industry, the project, which is one of the tallest in Latin America, became a financial white elephant. Named after developer David Brillembourg, an estimated 2500 people now call the Tower of David home. After his death the government took possession, but seems to not have the stomach to change the status quo. Two decades later, the tower has become a symbol of the decline of Venezuela for some, but can also be viewed as a triumph of the spirit its occupants."

A plan from the 1920s to drain the Mediterranean Sea and create the nation of Atlantropa

http://io9.com/#!5794669/a-plan-from-the-1920s-to-drain-the-mediterranean-sea-and-create-the-nation-of-atlantropa

"His most spectacular contribution-incubated in the mid-1920's and still clinging by its fingertips as an idea among some current thinkers-was to put a dam across the straights of Gibraltar. The dam would generate electricity of course, but most importantly to Soergel, it would also empty an enormous amount of water (lowering the sea by 200 metres) from the Mediterranean leaving vast new expanses of land to be developed and colonized over generations into the future. The water of course would have to go somewhere, and that somewhere was the Sahara Desert, somehow in its wake creating farmable and productive lands. Soergel was creating a certain, very wide, fantastical future of uncertain monumental prospects . . ."

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."

A 240-Year-Old Map Is Reborn

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/01/17/nyregion/20110117-map-restoration.html

"In May 2010, a tattered and brittle map was discovered in storage at the Brooklyn Historical Society. Experts identified it as a rare item, a Bernard Ratzer “Plan of the City of New York” map in its 1770 state. Until then, only three copies were thought to exist. After a painstaking restoration to remove layers of shellac and grime and repair dozens of breaks, the map is now behind plexiglass and ready to be displayed to the public."

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. 

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."

Kowloon Walled City, 33,000+ Residents Lived Within 6.5 Acres

http://laughingsquid.com/kowloon-walled-city-33000-residents-lived-within-6-5-acres/

"Gutenberg, New Jersey is the densest United States town, with 56,000 people per square mile. Marine Division in Mumbai, India is currently the densest human inhabitance on earth, with ~300,000 people per square mile. Kowloon Walled City had a population density of 3.3 million people per square mile! Insane!"