Nobody numbered a house until somebody official wanted something. Here are eleven.
1. Numbering Was Imposed, Not Adopted
Systematic house numbering spread through Europe in the eighteenth century, introduced by…
A traffic light looks like the simplest control system in existence: three lamps, one at a time, in a fixed order. Almost everything about it is a compromise between constraints…
Watch the top of an escalator for a few seconds and something slightly impossible happens. A flat plate slides out from under a comb, then rises into a step, then…
The least designed-looking thing in the street, and all of it is deliberate. Here are ten.
1. The Backrest Decides How Long You Stay
A bench with a back supports…
The round cover is a famous interview question with a famous answer, and the famous answer is correct but incomplete. Roundness solves one problem extremely well. The lid is solving…
There is a question that seems too large to answer and turns out to have a small number of recurring answers.
The question is why a particular city is where…