The Greek city of Priene as it might have looked in 350 B.C. Planned so that all homes face south to make maximum use of solar heating in winter. Courtyards kept cold winds at bay. It is estimated even naked one could comfortably sunbathe indoors during coldest months Nov-Mar.
Housing 4000 at 0.37 km² (there again, the magic size for a human scaled city), twice as densely populated as modern London and only one or two story homes. Many streets were so steep they became stairs.
The city had free public baths, a theatre big enough to hold 6500, two free schools, several temples and a central agora/market located within a few minutes walk from anywhere in the city. All public buildings were charitably built by the richer citizens out of their own pockets.
There were a few paved and leveled streets with open rainwater drains in the middle where carts and vehicles could traverse the city West to East. Underneath all streets ran clay pipes feeding fresh uphill spring water to all or at least most homes.
The council chamber had seats for 500-650 members, essentially one representative of each family, rich or poor. They would have met frequently if not daily. Most likely a proper democracy.
Priene was a member of the Ionian League (a mid-7th c. defensive organization of 12 cities), hence all their grand civil architecture was of the ionic order, including the large temple of Athene.
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Until the late 19th c. the majority of people in Japan grew, spun, wove, and made their own clothing and dyes. Old clothing was never discarded, it was stitched and mended and re-dyed for generations. Given the name "boro" (襤褸), very little remains today, and mostly in museums.
Imagine wearing a coat made by your great-great-great-great grandfather and hand stitched little by little by all of their descendants and all of your siblings. The ultimate in sustainable clothing heritage. And environmentally sane.
Since each family grew the material most suited to their own clothing, patching and mending was easy, not so much with modern materials. Dyeing was typically done at home with plants easily grown in the backyard. Unlike other dyes, indigo dye can be reused over and over again.
Bamboos flower extremely rarely, some species only once every 120 years. According to folklore bamboo flowering is a serious harbinger for misfortune & trouble. Starting in 2018 until now many of these rare bloomers flowered all over Japan. We are bad at reading omens. #Hindsight
I was thinking about how many of these news reports of flowering bamboos I have seen over the last year or so, and on a family hike yesterday we walked past tens of thousands of dead or dying bamboos. More than I can ever recall seeing. 2020 indeed. news.nicovideo.jp/watch/nw7076187
After writing this @jayotibanerjee kindly offered an explanation of why the flowering (and following mass-die off) of bamboo was always considered a bad omen in Asia: when bamboo flowers, it releases highly nutritious seeds, which becomes abundant seed for rodents, leading to...
Kintsugi is a Japanese traditional method of repairing cups, glasses, ceramics and pottery, in a way that makes the broken item maybe even more beautiful. Originally it used gold and urushi lacquer, but these days silver or copper are also commonly used. Fake kintsugi uses epoxy.
Urushi and gold are 100% food safe and will not react to anything you put in the cup or on the plate. Plastic epoxy glues are cheap and easy to use but your items should not be used with food.
Raw or undried urushi though is highly allergenic so a lot of care has to be taken applying it. When it dries it becomes so safe even babies can use it. Urushi is hard when dry, and even harder with the gold powder added, it is commonly used to fix chipped stoneware and cups.
A famous "flashmob" video that went viral in 2012, from the city of Sabadell in Catalonia, Spain. An orchestra playing Beethoven. Have a look before you read the rest of this thread. Let's talk about the urbanism in this video, the Plaça de Sant Roc.
Originally a small walled town, Sabadell's population grew fast in the 16th c. and new streets were laid outside the original walls. Most of the buildings fronting it today are from the 19th and 20th centuries, it covers about 2,320m². The cursor marks the spot of the celloist.
The buildings are harmoniously presented in locally sourced stone, in a soft grey. They represent solid virtues of respect for the local, continuity, the strength of the communality, rather than the brittle, reflective glass buildings of the modern Anywhere City. This is Europe.
Are you retired or underemployed, student? Organize "neighborhood walks", get locals out of their houses into the fresh air and sunshine while guiding them on a subject you know or have researched well: architecture, biology, history. Gratis of course, but collect tips/donations.
Geologists: make a map of stones and rocks in your neighborhood, natural or quarried, talk about their properties, where they came from, how they are used in building and industry. Point out interesting rock formations or geological features of your neighborhood.
Botanist: draw a map of all the streets in your neighborhood and all the trees, teach people what they are and their characteristics, what they can be used for. Find anecdotes about interesting trees and talk about what trees are native in the area. Make a tree guide app?