Placemaking

Why we love cities that never sleep.

This is all to say: it’s worth listening when a place calls to you. It’s worth thinking about whether the place you live enables your goals or stands in their way. And it’s worth noticing what surroundings speak of enchantment, cultivate the conditions you feel at home in, and aim toward them. Life is more malleable than we think. It’s a surprise t... See more

I am very affected by place. Actually I think everyone is. Probably more than they realize.

Our surroundings act on us. Some foster chaos, others encourage enchantment. Broad landscapes, beautiful artwork, and ancient architecture fill people with awe. Office buildings with drop ceilings and an unimaginative palette of gray, screeching subways, and... See more

However, amid the AM -ification of cities and culture, there is light in the darkness. We are beginning to understand what we lose when we reject the night. Policies to keep cities open round-the-clock have been picking up steam since Amsterdam began issuing 24-hour operating licenses in 2013. The idea of cultivating night time economies has since ... See more

Some places are morning cities, and some places come alive at night. Every city has it’s own distinct circadian rhythm, and Berlin and Sydney represent the two extremes of that scale.

A few other examples of AM cities: Portland, Stockholm, Boulder, Colorado, Vancouver.

A few other examples of PM cities: Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, New York Cit... See more

As Mireille Silcoff noted in a piece exploring how real life subcultures have been reduced to online aesthetic trends: ‘youth culture’ comes alive when the sun goes down, and by stopping young people from hanging out in cities at night, they’re ultimately cutting off the lifeblood of these scenes: “ the youth belong at the rave, at the block party,... See more

Cities, like the residents that call them home, tend to run on distinct circadian rhythms; internal, collective clocks that dictate when the streets and town squares come alive, peaking with movement and activity, and when they eventually begin to quiet down, the bars, cafes and clubs emptying.

Having temporarily relocated from Berlin to Sydney, I’v... See more

Doing work in a coffee shop, drinking coffee on a terrace and walking around—often to many of the tourist sites or local hot spots—for an extended period isn’t living in a place. It’s a working vacation, often part of a series of working vacations, typically for the relatively privileged among us.