Housing Affordability
203 episodes
#6488: Why Australian Suburbs Resemble American Ones
In 1907, an ad for Malthoid roofing kicked off Australia's obsession with American Craftsman bungalows, transforming inner-ring suburbs.
#6414: Scaling an Architecture Practice Without Adding Staff
Seventy percent of a construction specification is reusable across projects, offering small practices a clear opening to automate and productize.
#6411: Why Two Kitchens Keep Multigenerational Homes Peaceful
Japan has spent fifty years engineering multigenerational homes, finding two separate kitchens matter far more than separate bathrooms.
#6404: Why Urban Villages Rely on Selection Over Design
In Vauban, parking spaces cost 17,500 euros in peripheral lots to ensure residential streets remain free of stationary cars.
#6400: Where Pedestrian Zones End and Car-Free Cities Begin
While historic cities like Venice cover over seven square kilometers without cars, retrofitted city centers like Brussels peak around fifty hectares.
#6361: Why the Kibbutz Had to Unbundle Security
In 1985, runaway inflation and real interest rates overwhelmed Israeli kibbutzim that had financed collective life with external debt.
#6281: Why Guest Cabins End Up Looking Mismatched
A holiday cabin rental rate can swing from 600 shekels to 1,400 in the same month without a single cushion changing.
#6085: Israel Votes, Part 5: Rent and Noise, Side by Side
657,000 noise complaints in 2.5 years, 1 in 7 fined — and only one party platform even mentions noise. What the parties actually wrote on rent and ...
#6077: Jerusalem's Shuk Is Getting 10 New Towers
The stalls stay put. Everything around them is going up — and a lot of it is going down seven floors first.
#6019: Who Should Decide What Gets Built?
A listener asks what developers' role in a city should really be — and two very different cities show what happens when you get the answer right or...
#6018: The Plan Nobody Has Ever Read
Jerusalem's Taba is a legal document no single person has ever read cover to cover — and it governs where millions of people can build.
#6017: Israel's 319-Day Permit: Why Building Takes a Year
Israel averages 319 days to a building permit — nearly 3x the Western average. Where does the year actually go?
#5934: Why Modiin Is Ugly Despite Its Form-Based Code
Modiin had a form-based code and still came out ugly. The reason sits in what the code refused to regulate: facades, windows, materials.
#5933: Form-Based Codes and the City That Feels Dead
Can a zoning document create a walkable Levantine city with real character — or does over-planning kill the spontaneity that makes cities alive?
#5931: What the Council on Vertical Urbanism Actually Decides
The body that rules on the world's tallest buildings just dropped "tall buildings" from its name. What does that mean for Jerusalem's Marom Tower?
#5924: Living Among the Dead: Cemetery Housing, Cairo to Manila
Cairo's City of the Dead holds roughly a million residents. Manila North, six thousand. Nobody has ever counted the global total.
#5896: Modiin, Safdie, and the Suburb That Was Meant to Be a City
Moshe Safdie designed Modiin to be a real city. Thirty-seven years later, residents say there's nowhere to go at night.
#5895: Can Cities Be Quiet? Designing Density for Families
Families leave cities for space, quiet, and schools. What if cities could deliver all of that without losing walkability?
#5880: Why Suburbs May Be a Bad Deal
Suburbs promise the best place to raise kids — but the research on childhood independence, municipal finance, and carbon says otherwise.
#5874: Who Actually Builds a City's Housing Crisis?
Jerusalem's cranes aren't an accident — they're an incentive machine. Four operators, one load-bearing part, and the rules that could change it.
#5866: When Asking About a Leaky Roof Ends Your Lease
Israel's Fair Rental Law protects your contract — but not your home. Why model tenants still get pushed out.
#5711: Ireland's Offshore Islands: Who Lives There Now?
Ireland's offshore islands were dying for a century. Then the 2022 census showed the first real uptick. Here's what changed.
#5633: Is Construction Noise Actually Inevitable?
What if the jackhammer isn't the problem? A look at how deep garages, tall towers, and concrete make cities loud.
#5632: Why Cities Keep Digging Expensive Parking Holes
Parking minimums bury money underground — and shape the towers above. What Jerusalem's luxury towers reveal about rules nobody chose.