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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
How to design architecture for wildlife | Aeon
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video

Architecture

Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world

8 minutes

The panopticon | Aeon
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video

Thinkers and theories

Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result

4 minutes

The impossible architecture of Étienne-Louis Boullée | Aeon
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Architecture

The radically impractical 18th-century architect whose ideas on beauty endure

19 minutes

Nubia Way | Aeon
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video

Cities

Inside the unique London community built by residents to defy housing discrimination

21 minutes

James Wines: nature’s revenge | Aeon
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video

Architecture

Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design

9 minutes

Weaving a bamboo house | Aeon
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video

Architecture

How the Dorze in Ethiopia make ‘beehive’ houses from bamboo that last a lifetime

35 minutes

Being in a building | Aeon
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essay

Architecture

Being in a building

One of the great buildings of the Renaissance reminds us that buildings are made to be explored, smelled and even tasted

David Karmon

Heritage at sea | Aeon
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essay

Architecture

Heritage at sea

Must we simply accept the loss of beloved buildings and cities to the floods and rising seas of the climate crisis?

Thijs Weststeijn

Acoustic naturalism | Aeon
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essay

Architecture

Acoustic naturalism

Our movies and offices are engineered to sound natural based on what rang false in the theatres of 18th-century Paris

Joseph L Clarke

Serial parallels | Aeon
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video

Architecture

A whirlwind tour of Hong Kong’s high-rises is an awesome meditation on urbanity

9 minutes

Nomadic architecture: the Nenets chum | Aeon
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video

Architecture

Cultural wisdom begets cozy temporary homes for the Nenets of the Siberian Arctic

32 minutes

Last acre | Aeon
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Architecture

A world of shacks and shanties is a place of makeshift beauty on England’s margins

12 minutes

Stone cut | Aeon
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video

Architecture

Surreal, audacious, unfinished – the Sagrada Família remains a divine work in progress

6 minutes

The city is a lie | Aeon
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essay

Cities

The city is a lie

From Ancient Egypt’s deltas to Edinburgh’s crags and peaks, the city pushes back against the dream of human separateness

Sam Grinsell

Barbican, 1969 | Aeon
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video

Cities

How the Barbican brought back living into the working heart of London

22 minutes

House: after five years of living | Aeon
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video

Architecture

The best home is a joyfully inhabited one – doubly so if its residents are design legends

11 minutes

3D-printing coral reefs | Aeon
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Future of technology

Ceramic coral reefs and sawdust houses – the architects 3D-printing the future from scratch

4 minutes

Constructing the Chrysler Building (1929-30) | Aeon
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video

Work

‘Quite a height, ah?’ A tour of the Chrysler Building by those building it

6 minutes

City on mute | Aeon
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essay

Cities

City on mute

When you stare at your phone or use Uber to navigate your neighbourhood, you flatten the rich texture of urban life

Kathleen Vandenberg

Prison, spectacle, refuge | Aeon
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essay

Animals and humans

Prison, spectacle, refuge

Modern zoos are proud of their contribution to animal conservation but will always be haunted by their histories

Nigel T Rothfels

Toute la mémoire du monde | Aeon
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Knowledge

A bibliophile’s paradise: the National Library of France in a classic documentary from 1956

21 minutes

The universal design ideal | Aeon
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Design and fashion

The universal design ideal

At every turn, the design of our environments either creates barriers or opens doors. Let’s design a more humane world

Anna Leahy

Earthrise | Aeon
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video

Astronomy

How an unplanned picture from Apollo 8 altered humanity’s perspective of Earth

30 minutes

Downside up | Aeon
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video

Film and visual culture

Other worlds pop in and out of view when the perspective shifts by degrees

4 minutes