Tag: architecture

Egress

First Glance My desk is on the top floor of one of those sprawling 1970s university buildings. A big brutalist block with offices, classrooms, lecture halls, and two museums. Buildings like this are pretty universally reviled, everyone at my college talks about how my building was supposed to emulate the hanging gardens of Babylon, but… Continue reading Egress

Shaping Our City

First GlanceIPUT, the Irish Property Unit Trust, is the largest owner of office space in Dublin and one of the wealthiest real estate developers in the nation. Walking around the south side of the city where I live, you see the name everywhere on new high-rise office buildings and construction sites for future offices. Dublin… Continue reading Shaping Our City

Built to Rent

First GlanceWhen I first moved to Dublin almost two years ago I was hopeful about housing. Sure, I had to take out a student loan to afford living abroad while I got my masters degree, but I was certain that Dublin rent would be a little more affordable than New York. I was wrong. Though… Continue reading Built to Rent

Beyond the Sea

At first glance, Google Maps’ bathymetric imagery is pretty fantastic. Unlike the satellite images that Google uses for overland maps, the world’s oceans are shown by their depth. The black spot where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath Asia looks almost like it could be the shadow cast by the Filipino Plate on the ocean floor… Continue reading Beyond the Sea

The Florida Project

Disney’s business isn’t looking very good these days. They’ve laid off 7000 staff; announced the closure of their expensive and ambitious Star Wars LARPing hotel after it being open for only a year; their recently announced projects are all live-action remakes no one asked for; and a planned expansion to their Orlando campus has been… Continue reading The Florida Project

The People Mover

First published as part of the Digestable newsletter Content Warning: This piece focuses exclusively on wealthy eccentric white men. Last week, Elon Musk’s company The Boring Company unveiled their most recent project, the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop. This grandchild of the fantastical hyperloop, the most stripped down and boring version of the concept anyone… Continue reading The People Mover

Doctor Who

Originally published as part of the Digestable newsletter If you told me a year ago that I’d be writing this column from day 11 of quarantining in a Dublin apartment I would not have believed you.  Of course everything that happens these days is pretty unbelievable – so much so that unbelievability has become pretty… unremarkable.  I’m… Continue reading Doctor Who