“Originally designed by architect Tao Gofers as a communal hub for social housing tenants, it has been meticulously restored as part of the building’s 2024 luxury redevelopment” (Old news now but still astonishing that the developer sells it with these words) siriusattherocks.com.au/the-building...

Features - Sirius Sydney

Life at SIRIUS is characterized by its outstanding location, an address of unique distinction and luxury features.

siriusattherocks.com.au

(This is great: Marc Ribot on music, musicians, art and AI, not least as Ribot is my hero — and way more than one vowel switch away from Robot — and speaks so clearly and powerfully on not getting screwed by Big Tech, and using their need to finally observe laws) podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/l...

4. The Critic (Marc Ribot)

Podcast Episode · Light Box · S1 E4 · 42min

podcasts.apple.com

“Today the high court has said what we have always known: we cannot dig up coal, ship it overseas, watch it drive climate change, and then pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us and won’t be felt by us“ (A breakthrough) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hunter Valley community group wins landmark high court climate change case over Mount Pleasant coalmine

Ruling on Mount Pleasant coalmine shows ‘we cannot continue to dig up coal … and pretend the consequences have nothing to do with us’, group says

theguardian.com

Sharing a piece I wrote for a recent book: "Ginza Sony Park: on the Possibility of Incompleteness", incl. many of my usual topics: incompleteness, slowness, adaptation, retrofit, materials, public spaces, third spaces, open systems, cultural infrastructures, technologies medium.com/iamacamera/g...

Ginza Sony Park: on the Possibility of Incompleteness

In its radically incomplete form, the design and re-build of the Ginza Sony Park in Tokyo lends us a framework for exploring possible…

medium.com

“Musk wrote that post like Tesla just found a new problem. It didn’t. Cameras losing dark, low-contrast objects at night is the oldest limitation in the book, and it’s why everyone else put lidar and radar on their cars” electrek.co/2026/10/03/t...

Musk explains why Tesla Robotaxi is not running at night, and lidar is the answer

Elon Musk says Tesla Robotaxi is limited at night by pets that are hard to see. Lidar and radar handle that, and Tesla removed its radar in 2021.

electrek.co

‘The most vivid of the experiments Hughes conducted in public was a demonstration of the microphone’s capacity to pick up the sound of a fly walking across a wooden board.’ David Trotter on the mic, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

An Alternative History of the Microphone

Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 1 October · 47min

podcasts.apple.com

Complaining about London is a national pastime but where the hell else are you going to go. This @bryce.lol column is wonderfully written and also features a stronger contender for worst comment thread on the internet today as.ft.com/r/58fbf8c3-6...

A Londoner’s guide to hating London

Complaining about the capital is a national pastime — for good reason

as.ft.com

“If any tangible good is to come from the sordid City case beyond memes and banter, perhaps it is a realisation that the ownership model of English football needs to be reimagined on a radical level” (As Liew notes, unlikely. Still. A German-style model at least) www.theguardian.com/football/202...

How best to punish City? Restitution over retribution, then hand club to the fans | Jonathan Liew

There are no real precedents and emotions are still raw, but good can come from this mess if ownership models change

theguardian.com

“The mine’s owners, Yancoal and Glencore, forecast it could lead to 809m tonnes of carbon dioxide – nearly double Australia’s annual climate pollution – being released into the atmosphere once the coal is exported and burned” (So sick of this) www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Matt Kean warns climate crisis ‘isn’t someone else’s problem’ as largest coal project in NSW history greenlit

Exclusive: Climate Change Authority chair says planning commission did not account for climate-related economic damage in NSW

theguardian.com

“Haigh is in charge of creating a powerful new office of the prime minister. “We’ve basically abolished the Cabinet Office … It’s about ruthless prioritisation.” The power of the Treasury will be curbed, with No 10 North given responsibility for growth policy” observer.co.uk/news/observe...

Louise Haigh: ‘I’ve been more frightened as a politician ...

The first secretary, a former Met special constable, shares her vision of a fairer socialist Britain as she walks around a park in her home city of Sheffield

observer.co.uk

“Yet treating your house as a financial asset violates some basic tenets of investing” (Even The Economist!) economist.com/leaders/2026...

Why house prices may be in trouble

In a big serving of bad news, there are crumbs of comfort

economist.com

Komma (set up by the folks behind Punkt, actually) is looking increasingly impressive e.g. this cargo offering www.kommacargo.ch Part of the overall Komma suite www.komma.ch

Komma Cargo

Komma Cargo is a compact electric vehicle built for last-mile urban delivery. Greater coverage than cargo bikes, more agile than than vans, and quicker to deliver than both. Book a demo today.

kommacargo.ch

“A future with less agricultural land but more organic farming would only be possible with widespread shifts to more plant-based, less land-hungry diets and large reductions in food waste” (They finally get there in the last paragraph) ourworldindata.org/is-organic-f...

Is organic farming better for the environment than conventional farming?

Organic farming often wins when we compare impacts on one unit of land, but there is no clear winner when we look at impacts per unit of food production.

ourworldindata.org

(Utterly horrific. @holsmith.bsky.social’s Up In The Sky is great on the systemic risk baked in by the privatisation of building standards that contributed to this, but note also the boosterish ‘Manchesterism’ that has clad that city in incendiary devices. Take care.) observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Grenfell families ‘failed by UK law’ as cladding sharehol...

Campaigners call for stronger measures to hold corporations accountable as new report into blaze that killed 72 people says shareholders were paid £23m more than relatives of victims

observer.co.uk

(Happy to see this. There's barely been a year in the last decade where I haven't made a one-off newspaper — to document a project — always using Newspaper Club. As a format, they hold true value) designobserver.com/ira-blossom-...

Ira Blossom created a games-only, print-only newspaper — and it’s sold at a newsstand in New York City - DesignObserver

Being a UX research manager at Google showed how much users are seeking balance between the digital and analog, and he's meeting the moment

designobserver.com

Coming soon at @unimelb.edu.au Melbourne School of Design: our annual symposium on ‘The Future Suburb’ - amazing lineup. October 2nd. Find out more here: bookings.events.unimelb.edu.au/event/future...

“On Europe’s economy, let’s ditch the lazy stereotypes … There is no evidence welfare has turned Europeans into slackers” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

On Europe’s economy, let’s ditch the lazy stereotypes

Despite careful, consistent labour market reforms, the continent has not lived down to its image as work-shy

giftarticle.ft.com

“If we talk about A.I. wrong, we might fail to control it. So how should we talk?” www.newyorker.com/culture/open...

Can A.I. “Go Rogue”?

In the wake of turmoil at OpenAI and Anthropic, it’s become common to describe A.I. as a kind of person, hatching plans and pursuing desires. The truth is a little trickier.

newyorker.com

"In the June quarter the total value of Australia’s housing fell $34bn. Sounds like a lot? In percentage terms it was just 0.3%. That’s because in the June quarter the total value of Australian housing was $12.18tn...that is $948bn more than it was a year ago" www.theguardian.com/business/gro...

“report paints a devastating picture of severe food shortages, price rises, migration, political destabilisation and possible war, resulting from the collapse of ecosystems…government has repeatedly refused to publish the full version” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Polanski calls for report on ecosystem collapse to be published in full

Green leader says ministers must stop ‘hiding the truth’ about threat to UK security from climate and nature crisis

theguardian.com

August 2026 was the warmest August on record in the the Copernicus/ECMWF ERA5 dataset, at 1.65C above preindustrial levels. This beat the prior record set in August 2024 by a fairly wide margin (~0.14C).

Thanks to Michael McLeod from Kennedy Nolan architects who shared their recent Fitzroy Neighbourhood House project with students on the ‘Shaping of Urban Design’ multidisciplinary elective at Melbourne School of Design—a great small project, in a system designed only for Big.

"Fairphone has finally created a phone that feels ready for the mainstream in the 6 and 6 Plus. It’s not just a device that represents some admirable ethical qualities — it’s a very good total package." (Very impressive, really) www.theverge.com/tech/990436/...

The Fairphone 6 Plus is the midrange phone we desperately needed

Be your own AppleCare.

theverge.com

"When we look at the largest drivers of this deforestation, beef production is the standout (driving) 41% of global deforestation in recent decades (and) one-quarter of global deforestation is caused by beef production in Brazil" (A quarter for Brazilian beef!) ourworldindata.org/beef-product...

Beef production in Brazil has been the largest driver of global deforestation in recent decades

Most beef production in Brazil is to meet domestic rather than international demand.

ourworldindata.org

"There are signs that Spaniards are eating earlier in the evening. Experts say it could make for a healthier country, but not everyone is ready to part with the custom" (Kind of fascinating how this will change urban rhythms, perhaps even urban design and strategy) www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/w...

The 10 P.M. Dinner Is a Spanish Tradition. Are People Giving It Up? (Gift Article)

There are signs that Spaniards are eating earlier in the evening. Experts say it could make for a healthier country, but not everyone is ready to part with the custom.

nytimes.com

“Melbourne is on course to become Australia's biggest city. But size isn’t everything. What would make it Australia’s most healthy, sustainable and equitable city? Here are three ideas” (A piece by me on sorting Melbourne out) pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/mel...

Melbourne's future is something we build together

Melbourne is on course to become Australia's biggest city. But size isn’t everything. What would make it Australia’s most healthy, sustainable and equitable city? A University of Melbourne researcher explores three ideas for Melbourne Assembly

pursuit.unimelb.edu.au

“Making housing more affordable is a great thing to be doing,” Keating said, “and if we’ve lost 10 or 15% on house values, so what?”” (Completely! Given house prices have increased ~400% over last 20 years and wage growth has been ~3% there’s some way to go) www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Labor is in damage control over falling house prices. Why not take credit instead? | Tom McIlroy

In the long term Chalmers, O’Neil and Albanese will want to own any improvement in intergenerational equity, so maybe it’s better to start now

theguardian.com

“There’s a lot of talk on these billionaire-owned, heavy-loss-making TV channels about deranged ideologues. But reviewing the summer meltdown on GB News and TalkTV, I think I found them – right there in the studios” (I feel sorry for him, having to watch all that) www.theguardian.com/environment/...

From ‘psyops’ to ‘hysterical hysteria’: how GB News and Talk TV lost their cool in the heatwaves

Thousands of heat-related deaths in record-breaking temperatures appeared to only intensify hosts’ climate denials

theguardian.com

Easily the best book I’ve read about architecture, design and urbanism this year: ‘Tools for Living with Uncertainty’, by and about Tsubame Architects. It’s published by TOTO, and available in Japanese and English. Extremely good.

"The Balearic Social Housing Model — From Housing Production to Housing Policy at Scale" (This is simply beautiful work — I just mentioned it to my students: "We have a similar climate here in Melbourne, but a very different housing model! Why so?") obel.foundation/foundation/a...