An Apology for the Builder

new edition of Barbon's classic 1685 essay, and exploration of terraced & speculative housing then & now. from @PressYIMBY, ed by @tmccormick, @SonjaTrauss

[An Apology for the Builder @BuildersApology]

An Apology For the Builder, #YIMBYpress' new edition of the classic 1685 essay by Nicholas Barbon, with preface by @SonjaTrauss, edited and with introduction by @tmccormick, and readings on the origins & present of terraced & speculative housing, is coming in 2021!

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@SonjaTrauss @Key_Z_E @BenRossTransit @emilymbadger @qdbui speculative *development*, or building, uses prospective gain for useful ends like new housing; speculative *ownership* seeks/receives gain for mostly inaction, is far more pervasive & larger, unproductive, even harmful. The key point of @SonjaTrauss's & my book @BuildersApology

[Bruce Katz @bruce_katz]

@emilymbadger @qdbui It also (partly) explains the tsunami of investor purchases underway in the country, which further limits the supply available for homebuyers and changes the fabric of neighborhoods

[Emily Badger @emilymbadger]

The pandemic housing market has created wealth on a vast scale for just about anyone who owns a home.

It’s inseparable from the housing affordability crisis for anyone who doesn’t: https://t.co/Mal1YrsJfO

With @qdbui

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@MissSarahWise @BishopsgateInst I'd love to take this! excellent topic and entrepreneurial knowledging. I feel (imaginatively) half-resident in London, because immersed in research on it for @BuildersApology book, 1/2 grew up there, dual citizen of UK, & the unparalleled richness of London in representation

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@helen__carter @RegenerationEX @JosephConmee @JohnMcGrath95 related, fun, & informative, but total contrast, is this docudrama centering on another local Tony working at Granada: #CoronationStreet creator Tony Warren, in "The Road to Coronation Street": https://t.co/zgFwei7p4x. I was on early @itvcorrie tear for @BuildersApology research

[An Apology for the Builder @BuildersApology]

@leohollis @tmccormick @qurbanist @SonjaTrauss @PressYimby let's make it happen!

[YIMBY! Durham @YIMBYDurham]

This looks like an incredible re-print project.

As Gen X, Y and Z chart a return course back to human-scale, incremental #urbanism, these historical texts will help guide the way.

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@SonjaTrauss no wonder an enterprising Englishman just back from studying in Holland thought, in this mess, what'd be tight and make bank is, mass production & cookie-cutter row-housing, all to the new standards. So #NicholasBarbon invents mass speculative & terraced housing in London, 1670

[the sandwhich is a clear offer of support @SonjaTrauss]

"The scurvyest Things in the World, as appears very plainly from the whole Streets still remaining, nothing but Wood and Plaister and nasty little Windows, w but 1 little Casement to open. The Stories were low and widen'd 1 over another, all awry and in Appearance ready to fall."

[the sandwhich is a clear offer of support @SonjaTrauss]

Francis Maximilian Misson, a Frenchman who fled to England after the 1685 Edict of Nantes, looked at the bits of London that didn't burn in the 1666 fire and called the houses:

h/t @tmccormick 😂

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@lucyinglis @MissSarahWise @BFHouse I'd definitely like that, but am out on a western Farthest Shore here eight hours behind the curve, missing the News again. Recorded, by any chance? btw working on book project @BuildersApology about origins of Georgian terraced housing and implications for today.

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@eean @SonjaTrauss @NGryphon @alfred_twu @mattyglesias idea of curved terraced housing, & assembling row/townhouses to larger visual wholes, comes from John Wood, the Elder (1704-54)'s combining of London speculative rowhouse with a vision of Roman/Druid grand form, in Bath; as we discuss in @BuildersApology book.
c/@RottenInDenmark

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@eean @SonjaTrauss @NGryphon @alfred_twu @mattyglesias Falowiec in #Przymorze, #Gdańsk, Poland - Europe's largest residential building, 850m long. #Falowiec is a general name for this type of Polish block built in late '60s to early 70s, based on 'falowce' = 'waves', describing the form. The Soviet kid had similar idea w/river on top

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@eean @SonjaTrauss see also: #NITSEVT - Scientific and Research Centre of Electronic Computer Technology building, Moscow. 736 meters long. https://t.co/2yJwEMS9hr h/t @NGryphon c/@alfred_twu @mattyglesias

[工an Monroe @eean]

Early yimby propaganda

[Tim McCormick @tmccormick]

@bswud @SCP_Hughes @Policy_Exchange fascinating, & compelling work! Intrigued to see Georgian terrace as exemplar, & the analysis of Great Estates management, b/c working on edited volume @buildersapology likewise finding origins of terraced mass housing in interplay of decentralized bldg & Great Estates' oversight

[Ben Southwood @bswud]

At Policy Exchange today we offer a new way of tackling the housing crisis. By giving local residents control, and a large share in the upside, we can build beautiful, sustainable, and walkable new houses where they are most needed https://t.co/3QgLdkWEjo