Zoning
114 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.
#6413: Why Pedestrian Fatalities Keep Rising on City Streets
Vehicles with front hoods over forty inches tall are forty-five percent more likely to kill a pedestrian than lower, sloping models.
#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.
#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?
#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.
#5779: Tunnel Girl Dug 80 Feet Under Her House
No engineering degree, two books, and ten dead jackhammers. How one woman dug an 80-foot tunnel under her Virginia house — and got it permitted.
#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.
#5613: Seven Stories Down, Building Stays Up
A historic Jerusalem house is staying put while a seven-story car park is carved out beneath it. Here's how top-down excavation actually works.
#5451: Who Captures the Savings: Zoning Windfalls vs. Import Margins
A zoning windfall gets audited. A tariff cut doesn't. Why two public decisions that create private value are treated so differently.
#5444: Carmei Gat: The Buchman of the Negev?
A planned neighborhood on Kiryat Gat's edge is pulling in Anglo olim with prices that undercut Beit Shemesh and Modiin.
#5326: What Makes a Bar a Third Place?
A listener's search for a bar where you can actually hear your friend — and the 35-year-old sociology that explains why it's so hard to find.
#5098: Jerusalem's Digging Problem: Who Pays for Progress?
Jerusalem is tearing itself apart to rebuild. Residents pay top taxes but get no signage, no end dates, no recourse. Do other cities do better?
#4801: Who Decides What a Stop Sign Looks Like?
The surprising economics and design process behind the 20 million traffic signs on U.S. roads.