Thread by @doctorow

Shanghai's Lagena Primary School is a 5-story, 76 kiloton 85-year-old T-shaped structure that was rotated 21' and relocated 62m down the road over 18 days by means of "walking machines."

cnn.com/style/article/…

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These are 198 sensor-studded, actuating mobile supports that alternately raised and lowered in two groups, allowing the building to slowly shuffle around and manoeuvrer into its new position.

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The legs were installed by workers who excavated around and beneath the structure, relying on its existing support pillars to support it; when the legs were in place, the pillars were sawn through.

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The success of the walking machines is heralded as a reprieve for China's older buildings, which have been razed in vast numbers to clear the way for high-density urban expansions, ending the post-Mao vogue for architectural preservation.

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The novel I'm working on now, "The Lost Cause," is a post-GND utopian story about truth and reconciliation with white nationalist militias who lost the war on the planet and its life.

twitter.com/search?q=from%…

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It turns on all kinds of urbanist stuff like this, as people roll up their sleeves and embark on hugely ambitious climate remediation and adaptation projects, like relocating every coastal city ~20km inland.

patreon.com/posts/new-deca…

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This kind of stuff absolutely skewers me: whole buildings on the move. It gives me hope that our historic structures may survive as more than future marine habitats.

eof/