Hello,

I hope you've had a good week and avoided the torrential rain if you're in the UK. There's a little bit of that funny bright thing in the sky today in London and it's doing wonders for my soul. I hope a little sunshine lifts yours too.

In moving this newsletter to Buttondown I realised that I had been sending this out for a while now (four years!) and sent almost 170 emails. What a load of guff I hear you say, well yes, lots of that but maybe a few nice things in there. It's also somewhat alarming that I sent the first one out on the 25th April 2020. Time has no meaning since covid it seems.

Anyway, you know the score by now here are ten things you might like to ingest into your consciousness from my own view of the world this week or so.

Breathing Space
Owen Hatherly reviews a new two-volume set of Monographs on the architecture studio Caruso St John. It's an absolutely beautiful piece of writing and covers so much in terms of the wider societal and cultural context which has informed their work. Do try and read this if you have even the slightest passing interest in architecture.

What industry “secret” do you know that most people don’t?
I'm a latecomer to the world of Reddit despite being online since 1996 but it still produces so much good stuff from this huge online community. Also a shout out to r/UKPersonalFinance for the incredible amount of knowledge shared.

On Dec 31st 2022 I took a one way flight to Sri Lanka
Mr Bingo took a year off and published a list of reflections on his experience. Joyful and amusing as ever from the man who does the brilliant posters and illustrations. You should be following him on Instagram.

Inside the UK’s nuclear reactors
Incredible photos from inside the strange world of the UK nuclear industry. I've cropped out the sensationalist headline but the images are quite special. How nice it must be to go and spend time photographing all these places - with a someone who knows what they're doing of course.

‘Enshittification’ is coming for absolutely everything

The term describes the slow decay of online platforms such as Facebook. But what if we’ve entered the ‘enshittocene’?

Stonehenge surrounded by motorways

Photographer and artist Kyle Branchesi imagines a future where landmarks like stonehenge are transformed into vast vehicular realms. the series highlights the ‘danger of prioritizing short-term political gains over sustainable urbanplanning’

The thing no one will say about Apple Vision Pro
It still looks ridiculous of course but this video from Casey Neistat was probably one of the best things I had seen on the topic.

People Probably Like You More Than You Think
I seriously doubt that but let's entertain that thought a little longer in this Harvard Business Review article.

Do people understand the impressions they make on others or do their anxieties lead them to assume the worst? Across nearly 10 years of research and tens of thousands of observations, the authors have come to this answer: people underestimate how much others like them, and this bias has important implications for how people work together.

Rolf Sachs studio in Rome, Italy
That first image really grabbed me, so so warm and homely. And here's a proper article on him and his workspace.

Balancing Creativity and Commerce: Navigating the Architectural Landscape with Andy Matthews
I'm breaking with my self imposed rule of no self promotion for a brief moment. I really enjoyed the interview recently and it neatly summarises my values and views of running a my architecture studio.

That's all for this week. More links heading to your inbox again soon, hopefully.

Love as always,

Andy x
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