Here & there, 19 March 2024
A compendium: ugly, lifespans, germs, 🚫
Why we need joy in architecture — The Global Danger of Boring Buildings, Wired. “Buildings need to mean something to people, or they won’t be sustained, they’ll be more likely to be demolished. And in our environmental crisis, the demolition industry is society’s giant dirty secret.” Commercial buildings have a lifespan of only 40 years in the UK, less elsewhere.
Child car seats have shelf lives — Did you know that child car seats have service lives, with European regulations listing them as 5 to 9 years, depending on the child’s weight and corresponding type of seat. Details on comparis.com (En). Check the bottom or back of yours to find the date.
The history of why we wash our hands — Just as you think you can put those masks away and stop thinking about how diseases are transmitted the Smithsonian publishes The Dirty Secret about How Our Hands Spread Disease. It turns out to be a gripping tale about Typhoid Mary and what can happen if you put a plate of cookies too close to the office toilets.
The even crazier history of that red circle with a slash (know what it’s called? or why the slash goes one way and not the other?), “one of the most obvious symbols around”, with a particular connection to Geneva. Okay, no suspense there, the International Standards Organisation is involved. We Europeans can be proud of not having a common language, for it has forced us to invent something as wonderfully simple and clear as this. Hat’s off to my favourite newsletter, The Browser, for sharing this gem.
