My recent reads surprised me about Paris’ evolution since I’ve left:

• Wow, just across the periph and 17th arrondissement, Paris is building a floating village in the middle of a forest
• And on the other side of the city (next to Paris expo, porte de Versailles 15^th arrondissement), the Tour Triangle has been voted Paris 1st Skyscraper. Technically it’s on the other side of the “periph” 😉

That will make some new illustrations for Vincent Mahé and his 750 Years in Paris. The 750 years of Parisian history, as told through architectural illustrations are just so lovely and a visual time machine:

Outside Paris, I was fascinated to read about The Classic Six in Manhattan in the WSJ: a floorplan with six rooms (living room, formal dining room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and what was known as a maid’s room, usually off the kitchen) that first gained its popularity in the 1920’s and favored for its flexibility. It was wonderful to discover the interior of empty nesters and young families alike. In the nation of fast-food, the formal dining room seems to catch these New-Yorkers’ imagination.

Closer to home here in Asia, Hong Kong in the 1950s Captured by a Teenager is pretty impressive and for all HK lovers