Growth Through Destruction

Can built environments grow even stronger after experiencing some form of destruction?

Podcast, Marohn, ST Podcast, Top StoryStrong TownsMarch 20, 2023Podcast, podcast, complexity, complex systems, Complexity

We’re Getting Worse at Construction Despite Technology Advances

If the U.S. is advancing in its ability to build things, why does it seem like our places are falling apart?

“How Can My Town *Not* Be Wealthy When There’s Been So Much Growth?”

Let's talk about some core Strong Towns concepts: complexity, incrementalism, fragility, and more!

12 Ideas That Embody How Strong Towns Advocates Think

Here are some touchstone concepts that help underlie the Strong Towns view of how to achieve a world full of places capable of growing bottom-up prosperity

Cleaning My Swimming Pool Is Like Building Strong Towns

Cities are complex systems…and maintaining a healthy system in a stable equilibrium is relatively easy. But restoring an unhealthy system back to equilibrium is very hard.

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesOctober 6, 2021complexity, complex systems, strong towns approach

Johnny Sanphillippo: The Trajectory of Suburbia

This week on the Strong Towns Podcast, we’ve invited back a popular past guest and regular Strong Towns contributor: Johnny Sanphillippo.

Best of 2020: Effective Quarantines and Strong Towns

Centralized systems are good at getting us cheap food, cars, and toilet paper—until they’re not. They’re also really bad at isolating deadly outbreaks.

Cities Are Complex. So Why Do We Treat Them Like They're Merely Complicated?

If we want our cities to be more resilient and financially productive, we must allow them to become complex again.

Top StoryJohn PattisonOctober 2, 2020complexity, complex systems

When should the state jump in to address local problems?

This is Part 1 in a three-part series about why our cities deserve better than cookie-cutter, state-level land use reforms.

Housing, Member Post, Small Scale Developers, Zoning, GardnerSpencer GardnerSeptember 8, 2020accessory dwelling units, ADUs, zoning, complex systems, cities

Effective Quarantines and Strong Towns

Centralized systems are good at getting us cheap food, cars, and toilet paper—until they’re not. They’re also really bad at isolating deadly outbreaks.

Limiting Nutrients, or Why Things Change Very Little and then All At Once

Why does a healthy pond suddenly become overrun with algae? And what can the natural principle behind this help us understand about how change works—or doesn’t—in cities?

Herriges, Top StoryDaniel HerrigesFebruary 12, 2020complex systems, complexity, ADUs, upzoning, traffic engineering

How Urban Change is Like Ecological Succession

Cities evolve like ecological systems—a neighborhood, like a forest, has a life cycle. The fundamental question of planning needs to shift from “Should our neighborhoods change?” to “How should our neighborhoods change?”

Top StoryMathieu HélieJuly 30, 2019history, antifragile, complex systems, Complexity, ecology, New Urbanism, suburban experiment

Is It Better to Be a Soldier or a Scout?

The best judgments are made with a “scout” mindset—your job is to survey the terrain and understand it—rather than that of a “soldier” whose job is to win a battle (or an argument). A social scientist explains the difference.