Steel gates lie under the inlets of the lagoon, rising when the tide comes. They work. The question is what happens if they are needed more often than intended.
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Around 1970 the bicycle's share in Copenhagen had fallen to ten percent. What happened next was not national character but policy, and it began with petrol rationing.
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Behind the monumental municipal courtyards lies a fiscal choice. Vienna used tax money to build affordable homes, with a special role for the progressive housing construction tax.
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In 1756 the Douro became a regulated wine region. Behind the famous terraces there is also a business story: control of production, origin and trade.
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Every block in Barcelona's extension has cut-off corners. That is not decoration but a calculation, made before there were cars.
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On the Old Town Square hangs a clock that counts time in several ways at once. One of those ways has to shift with the seasons.
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Nine out of ten Icelandic homes are heated with water from the ground. That is not a natural wonder but a decision, taken when oil became too expensive.
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On All Saints' Day a capital collapsed three times over: first the shaking, then the wave, then the fire. What was devised afterwards is still standing.
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He built houses in which daylight reaches the core and used steel where it did not belong. His most important building was demolished in 1965.
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In Tallinn's old town the medieval street pattern is still remarkably easy to recognise. That does not mean every building has come down from the Middle Ages intact.
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