Bernard Schoeller, who had worked with the famed modernist architect Xavier Arsène-Henry, won the bid with his proposal for a transforming, dome-covered swimming pool, which bore an uncanny resemblance to a flying saucer dotted with portholes.

Schoeller’s dome design – made up of wide curved segments that could slide under one another – allowed for a covered pool that could be opened up in good weather. The opening could rotate, following the sun’s rays as the day went by – like a sunflower, earning the model the nickname “piscine turnesol” (sunflower pool). 

The map is even better than it might seem at first glance: the colors are the real colors, the patterns are the real patterns, and the size of the dots is the distance at which each light is visible. 

Britain’s sprawling suburbs of low-density housing, often poorly connected to city centres by weak transport links, were a key reason why British cities are less productive and pleasant places to live than their European equivalents