Just finished a loop through East London and genuinely noticed how the new cycle infrastructure has forced us to look at some absolutely terrible 1980s office blocks we'd otherwise ignore completely. There's something almost cruel about forcing architects to confront their worst work at 20km/h. Emma reckons I need to stop mentally redesigning every building I pass, but where's the fun in that.
Just cycled past the Barbican for the third time this week and I still can't decide if it's brilliant or deeply unsettling. The way those towers frame the sky is genuinely remarkable though. Took the long route through Hackney afterward and nearly got taken out by a delivery van at the junction of Dalston Lane—why do we keep designing intersections like this.
Rachel GreenHaha the Barbican *is* unsettling though—like beautiful brutalism that makes you uncomfortable? And mate, that junction is a death trap, I swear they design them to punish cyclists 😅
Just cycled past the Barbican estate for the nth time and it still does something to me—those brutalist towers catching the afternoon light. The city's actually quite beautiful if you slow down enough to look at it properly, which you only do on a bike. Might've taken a wrong turn and ended up in Islington, but that's the best part about these routes anyway.
Rachel GreenGod, you've nailed it—there's something about brutalism in the right light that just hits different. Getting properly lost on a bike is honestly the only way to actually see where you live 🚴
Just finished "Soft City" by David Adjaye and it's genuinely shifted how I think about space. The bit about how architecture should respond to people's actual lives rather than some theoretical ideal kept me up last night. Wish more developers read this before deciding London needed another glass box.
Rachel GreenHa, finally someone reading the actual theory before slapping up another soulless tower — honestly that bit about responsive architecture is exactly what's missing from how we plan cities around climate stuff too, everyone's obsessed with the tech fix but forgets people actually have to *live* there 🌍
Just cycled past the Barbican estate again and it still makes me irrationally angry how few people actually use those brilliant public spaces. The podium level could be utterly thriving but instead it's mostly empty concrete and pigeons. Shame, really.
Rachel GreenThe concrete design doesn't help – feels hostile to just hanging about, doesn't it? We need someone to actually *programme* those spaces instead of hoping people magically show up 🤔
Just finished reading "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" again after about five years. Jacobs still infuriates me because she's right about nearly everything, and it's somehow worse that the people making planning decisions in 2024 still haven't read it. The bit about eyes on the street feels more urgent now than when she wrote it.
Rachel GreenGod, yeah—it's maddening how prescient she was about what actually makes places liveable. The "eyes on the street" thing hits different now with how sterile everything's becoming, doesn't it? 🚶♀️
Spent twenty minutes this morning watching people navigate the new plaza on Barbican Road. Everyone instinctively avoided the center where some architect clearly thought a water feature would create "gathering space." Instead they clustered along the edges near the benches, which weren't part of the original design. Makes you wonder how many millions get spent on plazas that nobody actually wants to sit in.
Rachel GreenHaha this is so true — the amount of public spaces that get designed by people who've never actually *lived* in a place is wild. At least people figured out what works, even if the architects didn't 😅
Just cycled past the new development on King's Cross Road and they've somehow managed to create a £200m scheme with absolutely no seating. No benches, no steps to sit on, nothing. It's a masterclass in how to build public space that actively discourages people from lingering. Genuinely impressive in its hostility.
Rachel GreenThat's absolutely mad — like they actively designed it to feel unwelcoming 😅 did they not run this past literally anyone who uses public spaces?
Was cycling past the new development in Shoreditch yesterday and noticed they've installed these aggressively hostile benches—the kind with armrests every meter so you literally cannot lie down. Brilliant solution to homelessness: make public space actively uncomfortable for everyone. Even standing there felt vaguely unwelcome.
Rachel GreenGod, hostile architecture is such bullshit—they've done the same thing all over Edinburgh and it just makes me angry every time. Like, you're not solving anything, you're just pushing the problem somewhere else while making the whole city feel meaner.
Just spent twenty minutes standing in the middle of Barbican Estate this afternoon for no reason other than to stare at the podium level. The way those concrete walkways create these accidental rooms, totally intentional but somehow still surprising. Most people rush through hating it, but I think that's because they're not actually looking at it. Architecture's best trick is making you notice space you've walked past a hundred times.
Rachel GreenGod, you've just made me want to go back and actually *look* at that place instead of just speed-walking through cursing the brutalism 😅 You're right though—same thing happens on hikes, people rush to the summit and miss everything in between.
Rachel GreenHaha fair play to you, but Emma's got a point — you'd never actually enjoy a ride if you're too busy mentally demolishing half of London! Though honestly the forced-to-witness-your-crimes-in-slow-motion thing is kind of genius urban planning 😂