Urban Design
194 episodes · Page 3 of 9
#4719: When the Car Rewired Rural America
How the automobile replaced a dense patchwork of towns with a landscape built entirely around driving.
#4583: Structural Stone: The Building Material That Lasts 500 Years
Stone buildings outlast concrete by centuries — and engineers are bringing it back with post-tensioning and CNC cutting.
#4539: Athens Beyond the Acropolis: A Jerusalem Comparison
What does daily life in Athens actually feel like? Think Jerusalem — palimpsest streets, community cats, and a rhythm all its own.
#4504: When Cars Took Over: Traffic Engineering's Origin Story
How 1920s traffic engineers borrowed from fluid dynamics, and whether AI routing could be a public utility.
#4485: How to Start an Architecture Movement That Actually Works
Recovering lost design technology — Art Deco, Jerusalem stone, and building a new architectural style from the ground up.
#4484: Cooling Cities Without Cooking the Planet
Paris district cooling, passive design, and whether we can stay cold without climate guilt.
#4483: Scooters vs Sidewalks: Jerusalem's Mobility Crisis
Why 3,000 scooter fines in Jerusalem couldn't fix a sidewalk safety crisis — and what actually works.
#4389: The $120 Noise Sensor That Could Change Cities
One Jerusalem resident wants to track construction noise from his balcony. Here’s why that’s harder than it should be.
#4282: Beyond the Tourist Trail: Finding Cities Worth the Trip
How to find well-connected cities that aren't overrun with tourists — Bilbao, Gdańsk, Turin, and Plovdiv.
#4272: Why Are Light Switches Banished to Industrial Wastelands?
How a 1926 Supreme Court case about a "pig in the parlor" still determines where you can buy a pipe fitting.
#4263: When the Knesset Appears in Your Window
What happens when your apartment view includes the Israeli parliament every day?
#4237: How to Build Community in a Vertical Building
Why most high-rises isolate residents—and the architectural fixes that actually work.
#4165: Living in the Gap: High-Rise Satire as Social Experiment
One man weaponizes luxury marketing by treating his apartment tower as an actual sanctuary above the city.
#4126: The Hotel Three Miles Away
Why a hotel in your own neighborhood can beat a trip abroad for real recovery.
#4116: What an Earthquake Actually Feels Like
The ground doesn't open up. Here's what survivors actually describe in those first seconds.
#4103: Tall vs Short: Which Floor Survives an Earthquake?
Why your intuition about building height during a quake is probably wrong — and what Israeli seismic codes actually require.
#4082: How Heat, Noise, and Smog Make Us Angrier
Three environmental stressors that measurably increase human aggression — and what happens when they hit at once.
#4037: Finding Home in a City You Didn't Choose
How to build happiness in a city you dislike, using research on third places, cognitive mapping, and micro-mobility.
#4032: Venice's Secret: Cargo Lanes for Hand Trucks
Can cities learn from Venice's car-free logistics to create dedicated lanes for hand trucks and deliveries?
#4018: Vertical Cities: The Hidden Science of Skyscraper Neighborhoods
How architects, sociologists, and urban planners are reimagining tall buildings as livable neighborhoods in the sky.
#4017: When Your City Becomes a Construction Site
Why a 30-minute bus ride became a 2-hour maze of blocked sidewalks, and what cities can learn from it.
#4016: What's Really Inside That Jerusalem Trench
Those concrete pipes and giant cable spools? It's not what you think. Here's what's actually happening underground.
#4011: What Intermittent Jackhammer Noise Does to Your Brain
Unpredictable construction noise isn't just annoying—it triggers your threat-detection system in ways your brain can't adapt to.
#3997: Do People Actually Like Living in Jerusalem's Towers?
New data shows high-rise residents report 12% lower life satisfaction. The real story is who suffers most—and why.