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Quite a few of you have asked for an update on how I find living in my new place. For readers who recently joined: almost exactly a year ago I moved into a Nightingale building, an Australian housing model designed around social, financial and environmental sustainability. (I should disclose again that I occasionally work with the Nightingale crew.)
Precinct-wide approaches to good medium-density housing are common in many places, but designing apartments that prioritise social and environmental outcomes is a relatively new concept in a country that primarily views housing as an investment vehicle.
My building is part of a new precinct called The Village. And because it’s such a unique model here in Australia, there has been a lot of media interest. Here are some of the video profiles and magazine features. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to live in a place that serves as an inspiration for a better housing model.
That said, like many new developments, we’ve had a lot of teething issues. Some were caused by pandemic-related supply and staff shortages during construction, others are engineering or design flaws. Because these buildings deviate from box standard developments, I think our construction company at times struggled with delivering the more novel elements of the build. For example, our precinct captures rainwater that should be recycled twice: first it feeds plants in the many landscaped areas, then the water is cleaned before being re-used for flushing our toilets. A wonderful concept that’s still not operating as expected.
However, as I said in a previous intro, whatever architectural shortcomings, the people who live here have so far more than made up for them. One year in (which, arguably, is still the honeymoon period), the social value has more than exceeded my expectations. I’ve not just gained lovely neighbours but made new friends. My need for social interaction is so consistently met that I sometimes worry about neglecting my ‘old’ friends, who now seem to live impractically far away.
This is where a model like Nightingale can really shine. It brings together people with caring, community-focused mindsets; the building ‘just’ acts as a facilitator that encourages connection. The power of doing this on a precinct level is that the neighbourly energy extends across the street, if not further. We often joke that simple errands, like getting groceries or taking the bins out, now take twice as long because you frequently run into someone you know.
Since moving in, residents have been asked to participate in a range of surveys that analyse the building’s social impact. My answers to this survey question surprised even me. Just a year ago, when I still lived at my old place, I knew exactly one neighbour in a building of around sixty apartments. It’s the seemingly trivial daily interactions – borrowing a neighbour’s power drill, having a chat while doing laundry, walking their dog when they are busy – that foster strong feelings of belonging and make this the best place I have ever lived in. – Kai
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Apps & Sites
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Explore the power of passports
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The Passport Index remains one of my favourite internet projects. It ranks each passport by a ‘mobility score’, i.e. how much it allows holders of each passport to travel the world. It reveals the vast inequality inherent in your place of birth. For example, compare an Australian with a Filipino passport and see the different levels of freedom of movement each affords.
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Collaborative writing app
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Reproof is still in waitlist mode, but based on the feature list on their current website, it looks like a great app to work collaboratively on long text. I like that it uses an AI helper not as a full ghost writer, but as a smart assistant that proofreads text or creates an outline to work from.
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As our planet warms, understanding and responding to the air quality index (AQI) will become more important. Paku (for iOS and macOS) lets you configure alerts for specific sensors nearby (including your own) and get real-time push notifications when the air quality exceeds your specified threshold.
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If you’re curious about the different parts of the human brain, this 3D visualisation is a fun, interactive way to learn more. The project is designed “to serve as a hub to facilitate research into how brain injury affects cognitive, sensory and motor function”.
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Worthy Five: Justine Sless
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Five recommendations by author, comedian and kvetcher in the wry Justine Sless
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A phrase worth knowing:
‘We all have a story to tell – the denial of that story can cause despair.’ I credit this to Arnold Zable but I think it comes from Jungian psychology. We are nothing but the sum of our stories. The more I write and perform, the more clarity it gives me on my personal history and understanding of human nature. Writing releases so many emotions and eventually transforms them into stories that liberate me from the confines of distress, sadness or trauma.
An activity worth doing:
Stand-up comedy is an incredibly empowering art form. Comedy can do the heavy lifting. It can undermine structures and systems that seek to oppress and when it works, it is a very special kind of alchemy.
A podcast worth listening to:
Comedians Comedian gives great insight into inner and outer workings of what it takes to be a comedian.
A book worth reading:
Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf speaks so eloquently and succinctly about the need for human connection at any age. (Don’t watch the movie!)
A quote worth repeating:
“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” by Elie Wiesel. Hate can contort and disfigure us, indifference is a wise and liberating response.
(Did you know? Friends of DD can respond to and engage with guest contributors like Justine Sless in one click.)
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Books & Accessories
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A manual for our times
A friend recommended this book, saying it is more hopeful than the title lets on. Building on the notion that society’s way of operating has become incredibly complex and therefore vulnerable to collapse, the book is a synthesis of the growing systemic instabilities and how we may overcome them. “Today, utopia has changed sides: it is the utopians who believe that everything can continue as before, while realists put their energy into making a transition and building local resilience. Collapse is the horizon of our generation. But collapse is not the end – it’s the beginning of our future. We will reinvent new ways of living in the world and being attentive to ourselves, to other human beings and to all our fellow creatures.”
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Ways to see things differently
A book to remind you of the power of creativity and how to turn disappointments into unexpected opportunities. “Drawing on an extraordinary range of reference points – from the Dada Manifesto to Nobel Prize Winning economists, from Andy Warhol’s studio to Einstein’s desk – Rod Judkins distils a lifetime’s expertise into a succinct, surprising book that will inspire you to think more confidently and creatively.”
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Overheard on Twitter
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Humans doing the hard jobs on minimum wage while the robots write poetry and paint is not the future I wanted.
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Food for Thought
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In this beautiful ‘letter to the future’, Jenny Odell challenges us to think more deeply about the potential that exists in every present moment to change the course of the future. “Everything we had now that was beautiful had been struggled for, just as much of what you have that is beautiful is what we will need to struggle for. Ages of wisdom have hung in the balance before and could hang there again. Zoom far enough into any moment of the past and all you will find is contingency and doubt. This is, after all, what you and I have in common: we each live in a present, a space for action. I no longer see you as an arrival point, far away from us on a line, or over the side of a waterfall. You, the future, are always imminent in my undecided present. We are at the center of time, and you, reading this, are also there. In both of our moments, we have so much to lose, but also so much to gain.”
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An interesting essay that positions AI (and I guess tech innovation more broadly) as a belief system that guides our thinking about ‘the truth’. “My hunch is that it is useful to frame AI models as a form of belief system i.e. a thing that some people consider to be a source of ‘greater truth’, regardless of whether there is any evidence to support that point of view.” Given the many unanswerable questions about where AI leads us and how much power it will eventually give or take away from us, I think this is a valuable way of framing the AI discussion. “Ultimately, every consumer facing AI model that supports prolonged, deep interaction e.g. taking the role of a life-stage or life-long personal assistant, will be forced to take a position on substantive issues that support or challenge their users’ belief systems. If the AI is set up to avoid taking a stance, users will gravitate to more culturally aligned models where interaction requires less cognitive friction.”
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Oh boy, this new documentary about the power of cycling looks amazing! Premiere screening dates and locations here. Can’t wait for this to be released on a streaming platform! “For the past century, our society has grappled with the unintended consequences of a car-centric culture. Follow the lives of six individuals from diverse backgrounds who have devoted themselves to a simple, age-old machine – the bicycle. Through their struggles and challenges, witness how bicycles have the potential to transform lives and contribute to a better world.”
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Aesthetically Pleasing
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Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captures the stunning beauty of our solar system.
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7100 N. Figueroa is an unassuming, kind of odd-looking small home with some serious environmental credentials: “The exterior of the house is clad in 2" thick cork panels, which serve as wall insulation to moderate both temperature and sound. Terrazzo countertops are made with aggregates from the Los Angeles River representing an urban geology. Flooring, doors, frames and vanities are made with fallen local trees, California Sycamore and Ash, rather than lumber removed from far-away forests. There are no petrochemical painted walls inside or out.”
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A fascinating way to visualise population density, by data analyst Spencer Schien. (via)
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Fat is the epitome of boldness in the world of display fonts. “With its commanding presence, Fat is designed to make a lasting impact on your design projects.”
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Notable Numbers
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In Europe, the top 1% by income drive nearly four times more than the median driver, accounting for some 21% of their personal climate footprint.
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The median age in the US in 2020 was 38.8, an increase of 0.4 years over the last decade as the share of residents 65 or older grew by more than a third from 2010 to 2020.
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Dutch people cycle an average of 2.6 km each per day. If this pattern was replicated worldwide, annual global carbon emissions would drop by 686 million tonnes. This mammoth figure exceeds the entire carbon footprint of most countries, including the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
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The Week in a GIF
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