Buildings
The first four metres of a building decide the street
Almost everything a pedestrian experiences of a building happens below head height. Most architectural debate happens above it.
Léa Dumont
Architecture writer, Street to Sky
Léa writes about buildings at street level — the first four metres, where most people meet them.
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14 articles
Buildings
Tall buildings are a wind problem before they are a height problem
The objections that stop towers are rarely about the skyline. They are about what happens at the base on a windy Tuesday.
Streets
Corner radius is a speed limit you can measure with a tape
The curve where two streets meet decides how fast vehicles turn across a crossing and how far a pedestrian has to walk to get over…
Streets
One-way systems move cars past the shops that need them to stop
Converting streets to one-way raises vehicle capacity and speed, and quietly removes the conditions a high street depends on.
Streets
Street lighting is aimed at the road when people need to see faces
Lighting standards grew out of driving. The measures that matter for someone walking home are different ones.
Streets
Traffic calming works when it changes geometry, not when it adds signs
Humps, chicanes and build-outs succeed for the same reason: they make speed physically uncomfortable. Warnings and paint do not.
Buildings
Perimeter blocks reach tower density without the towers
Continuous street-facing blocks of moderate height achieve densities people assume require high-rise, and they do it while making…
Buildings
Demolition is a carbon decision before it is a cost one
The emissions already spent building a structure are gone whether it stands or falls. Replacing it spends them again.
Buildings
Balconies are the hardest cheap thing to build
A slab sticking out of a wall crosses the insulation line, catches wind, collects water and has to hold people up. Almost every…
Buildings
Party walls decide whether your neighbours become a problem
Most complaints about flats are complaints about sound. Sound transmission is settled by construction detail long before anyone…
Streets
Freight arrives twice a day and the street was designed for neither trip
Every shop, office and flat on a street is a delivery address. The kerb and the footway rarely admit it.
Streets
A rat run is a symptom of the main road failing
Drivers divert onto residential streets when the arterial route becomes slower than the alternative. The side street is the…
Buildings
Mixed-use buildings fail at the boundary between the uses
Putting homes above shops is sound urbanism and a difficult building. Almost every problem occurs where one use meets another.
Buildings
Refurbishment is priced by its surprises, not by its drawings
The cost of working on an existing building is dominated by what nobody could see until the work started.