Blog

• artificial intelligence and urban planning | thinkthinkthink #26 — Nov 14, 2025
  can AI enable the deconstruction of complex systems
• planning as a platform | thinkthinkthink #25 — May 23, 2025
  on how AI-powered data ingestion at scale will transform urban planning
• layer | thinkthinkthink #24 — Jan 29, 2024
  on the reason behind this newsletter's long silence
• reimagining community infrastructure | thinkthinkthink #23 — Nov 15, 2021
  web3 might redesign the governance infrastructure of cities and communities
• the future of governance | thinkthinkthink #22 — Jul 09, 2021
  on-chain community organization and the remote-first agora
• the future of work | thinkthinkthink #21 — Feb 09, 2021
  on-demand services, labor inequality and remote work
• the stock market of housing | thinkthinkthink #20 — Feb 02, 2021
  $GME & the financialization of housing
• urban accretion | thinkthinkthink #19 — Jan 26, 2021
  grit in architecture and cities
• algorithms as urban planning companions | thinkthinkthink #18 — Jan 19, 2021
  How to start employing the fascinating innovations in Machine Learning to plan better cities.
• the exponential growth paradigm | thinkthinkthink #17 — Jan 12, 2021
  a foray into the complex future of economic growth
• financial instruments in development & planning part 2 | thinkthinkthink #16 — Jan 05, 2021
  the second and last issue on sustainably financing the future of cities
• financial instruments in development & planning | thinkthinkthink #15 — Dec 29, 2020
  the first of two issues on sustainably financing the future of cities
• informal pop culture aesthetics | thinkthinkthink #14 — Dec 22, 2020
  a brief foray on the informal aesthetics of Rose Island
• Scale by Geoffrey West | thinkthinkthink #13 — Dec 15, 2020
  A deep dive summary into on of the most interesting books I read this year.
• urban inequality | thinkthinkthink #12 — Dec 08, 2020
  cities as ladder of opportunity, labor's decreasing share of national income & inter-regional versus intra-regional inequality
• lever points | thinkthinkthink #11 — Dec 01, 2020
  on small actions leading to outsized consequences
• feedback loops | thinkthinkthink #10 — Nov 24, 2020
  positive & negative feedback loops + circuit breakers & response thresholds
• self-similarity | thinkthinkthink #9 — Nov 17, 2020
  modularity, iteration & recursion generate complexity
• resilience | thinkthinkthink #8 — Nov 10, 2020
  redundancy & adaptability in complex systems.
• To build better cities, urban planners need to grow out of their masterplans — Nov 06, 2020
  *[This piece](https://apolitical.co/en/solution_article/build-better-cities) was originally published on [Apolitical](http://apolitical.co/).*
• emergence | thinkthinkthink #7 — Nov 03, 2020
  Cities exhibit emergence: this means that the behavior of the city as a whole is more complex than the sum of all individual actions and transactions.
• urban military baroque | thinkthinkthink #6 — Oct 27, 2020
  21st century cities need to adopt guerilla tactics
• The informal sublime | thinkthinkthink #5 — Oct 22, 2020
  How informal processes are vital to designed systems.
• Boundaries are critical to diversity | thinkthinkthink #4 — Oct 13, 2020
  Preserving diversity and guaranteeing resiliency through separation.
• Mobility is counter-intuitive | thinkthinkthink #3 — Oct 07, 2020
  On William Stanley Jevons, induced demand and Braess' paradox
• The “post-modern sublime” and Smithson’s impact in post-modernist thought — Oct 04, 2020
  The multitude of philosophy, literature, art and architectural theories and concepts produced to oppose strict modernist formalism, were seminal in allowing a modern re-interpretation of the sublime in the early seventies.
• Terragni and La Casa del Fascio: Rationalism and Fascism — Oct 03, 2020
  Giuseppe Terragni is a world renowned Italian architect who practiced mostly in the city of Como from the 1920s to the 1940s. The combination of the period and the place where Terragni worked is unique for two principal reasons: modernism and Fascism.
• The 15-minute city | thinkthinkthink #2 — Oct 01, 2020
  Grounding the latest trend in a long history of cold efficiency versus polycentrism.
• Cities & DNA | thinkthinkthink #1 — Sep 24, 2020
  DNA is not a blueprint - how can we leverage that fact to build better cities + an amazing book on the history of Rome and three articles on evolution, Wuhan, and bitcoin.
• Tirana on the Sustainable Cities Podcast — Sep 10, 2020
  I had a fantastic conversation with Jarret Fisher on her awesome podcast regarding cities and the sustainable development goals: tune in to hear about Tirana, urban planning and complex systems. If you like what you hear, Jarret's got more fantastic stories from Accra, Bristol, Quito, New York, Barcelona, Melbourne, Lagos! Click read more for links and a full transcript of our conversation.
• Kuaj, Hitite, dhe Histori — Jan 10, 2020
  Më shumë se 4000 vjet përpara përhapjes së Europianëve në të gjithë kontinentet e tjera, kishte një shtrirje të mëhershme brënda për brënda Europës dhe Azisë perëndimore e cila i dha jetë shumicës së gjuhëve që fliten sot në këtë hapësirë. Edhe pse këto pushtues të mëhershëm ishin analfabetë, shume element të gjuhës dhe kulturës së tyre mund të rindërtohen nga rrënjët e fjalëve të ruajtura nga gjuhet modern Indo-Europiane. Pushtimi i shumicës së Euroazisë nga to, si dhe ekspansioni i mëvonshëm përtej oqeaneve i pasardhësve të tyre, duket të ketë qënë një aksident i bio-gjeografisë.
• Designing for children should be plan A — so why aren’t we doing it? — Jan 09, 2020
  It is such a simple and straightforward idea: design your public space with safety and comfort for infants, toddlers, and caregivers. Do this, and you will have designed human-centric urban fabric that is safe and fun for all ages. Yet, despite being such an undemanding proposition, it is only recently becoming — slowly but steadily — part of the design discourse.
• The Pyramid of Tirana — Jan 09, 2020
  The Pyramid of Tirana is a landmark building in the main boulevard of the capital of Albania, built in 1988 by a number of renowned Albanian architects led by Klement Kolaneci. The structure was constructed with the preset aim of serving as a museum for the legacy of communist dictator Enver Hoxha. It fulfilled this purpose for three years up to 1991; since then it has gone through an array of functions becoming - always ephemerally.