Block a highway, and you upend the economic life of a city, as well as the spatial logic that has long allowed people to pass through them without encountering their poverty or problems. Block a highway, and you command a lot more attention than would a rally outside a church or city hall — from traffic helicopters, immobile commuters, alarmed officials. — the Washington Post

Debates are rubbish. We've all been there: a panel of similar people with similar views taking it in turns to talk at length about their similar work - too polite, too deferential, too dull. At best they are lukewarm love-ins, critically impotent, elitist and stuffy. Turncoats is a shot in the arm. — Turncoats statement

Back in February, the Chinese central government demanded an end to all mainland construction of buildings that are “oversized”, “xenocentric” or “weird” and a move toward architecture that is “pleasing to the eye”.

Fast forward five months, and a 12-story toilet has been built in Henan province. — the Independent

The park’s centerpiece features three decks of exhibits explaining Answers in Genesis’ views of the biblical flood account..[It] also features a two-story restaurant, aerial zipline cables and the Ararat Ridge Zoo...

“...in a world that we see becoming very secularized before our eyes, it’s really time for Christians to do something of this size, of this quality, that competes with the Disneys and the Universals to get a message to the world.” — The Charlotte Observer

Brokers say the very top of the market — consisting of eight- and nine-figure homes — is faring the worst as slowing economies overseas and volatile stock markets have spooked buyers. The supply of homes for the rich exploded as builders aimed at the high end after the financial crisis. — NYT

An apartment building known as the “holy land of manga” due to its famous former tenants is to be rebuilt and opened as a museum of manga and anime in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward.

Tokiwaso, which was demolished more than 30 years ago, will be reconstructed in a park [...] Past occupants included “God of manga” Osamu Tezuka, the author of “Astro Boy,” who lived there in the 1950s; Fujiko Fujio of “Doraemon” fame; “Cyborg 009” creator Shotaro Ishinomori; and “Osomatsukun” artist Fujio Akatsuka. — asahi.com

The couple claims the firm Pereiras Architects Ubiquitous and property owners Daniella and Ari Schwartz accessed their exclusive plans in property records last August through the Lawrence buildings department — without their permission.

“There is no doubt that you have accessed and intentionally copied the plans of the Fortgang residence intending to create a replica of our clients’ home and distinctive exterior,” the Fortgang’s lawyer Steven Stern wrote in a cease-and-desist letter — nypost.com

The duo asked themselves the question if London will still be the capital of creativity, arts and crafts in 10 years time. Rising rents for residential and work spaces, combined with an increasingly unaffordable education system, are making the city less and less accessible. According to Boano and Prišmontas, London has always been a center for creativity, but the recent financial pressures have turned ‘creativity’ into an industry that can only be joined by people who are able to afford it. — popupcity.net

A top businessman has offered to help restore the home of [Thomas Blake Glover] a Scottish pioneer who became one of the most famous merchants in Japan [...]

If anything can be done to restore Glover House we will be prepared to do it and we have made an offer to contribute to the house reopening in his memory [...]

the building would be turned into an “ideas hub”, which could be used to strengthen business links with Japan - with a particular focus on the oil and gas industry. — The Scotsman

[...] during a visit some months before the Brexit vote, I armed myself with a detailed map and trolled all over South and Southeast London — a conglomeration of formerly independent villages, boroughs, towns and green spaces that have long since been incorporated into London

[...] the neighborhoods that make up the great London patchwork quilt are ephemeral, especially now, as the immigrant communities of London wonder what the post-Brexit future will bring. — The New York Times

Bowie hated it. Peep Show besmirched it. The London suburb may get a bad rap in popular culture, but now there is the chance to see a different side. [...]

Watson is helping to organise tours of Croydon taking in architectural highlights such as NLA House (now No 1 Croydon), sometimes known as the ‘threepenny bit’; [...]

The National Trust is turning to Croydon after its successful tours of London’s brutalist concrete buildings, places it argues should be cherished as much as Croydon’s towers. — The Guardian

The phenomenon is propelled largely by the same factors that are making it more difficult for artists themselves to live and work in the city: a concentration of global wealth with its eyes trained on real estate and luxury developers trying to stand out to attract a piece of that wealth. — NYT