An Apology for the Builder (@BuildersApology) header
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new edition of Barbon's classic 1685 essay, and exploration of terraced & speculative housing then & now. from @PressYIMBY, ed by @tmccormick, @SonjaTrauss

SanFrancisco, Portland, London
Joined February 2021
Photo by 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!
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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
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Replying to @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
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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: nytimes.com/2022/05/01/upsho… With @qdbui
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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
From William Blake’s apocalyptic Lambeth to Zadie Smith’s postcolonial north-west suburbs: my 6-week Zoom course ‘Unreal City? London in Literature, c.1800 to Today’ starts Weds 16 June at 7pm @BishopsgateInst Now booking bishopsgate.org.uk/whats-on/…
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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": youtu.be/9SmD_xEgwpc. I was on early @itvcorrie tear for @BuildersApology research
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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.
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!
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
Replying to @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
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"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."
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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 😂
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
@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.
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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
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An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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
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Replying to @eean @SonjaTrauss
see also: #NITSEVT - Scientific and Research Centre of Electronic Computer Technology building, Moscow. 736 meters long. nicevt.ru h/t @NGryphon c/@alfred_twu @mattyglesias
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Early yimby propaganda
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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
An Apology for the Builder retweeted
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 policyexchange.org.uk/wp-con… – at Camden Town, London
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