#roofscape

Tallinn

Edwin Smith, Roofscape, North Yorkshire, 1959

View from 16th Floor. Karlsruhe. June 2024 Many thanks to the owners letting me draw from their flat.

In many cities, this urban remodeling project is already underway. In New York City, workers and volunteers have planted over a million trees to add shade and clean the air. In Seville, Spain, city planners are using the technology of ancient underground waterways to provide cooling for the city without depending on air‑conditioning. In Freetown, Sierra Leone, officials are creating urban gardens, improving access to clean water, and erecting plexiglass awnings over outdoor markets. In Los Angeles, public works crews are painting streets white to increase reflectivity. In India, they are experimenting with green roofs, which absorb heat and create space to grow food. But perhaps nowhere in the world do the challenges, as well as the opportunities, loom larger than in Paris, where nearly 80 percent of the buildings have zinc roofs — an affordable, corrosion-resistant and virtually inflammable innovation of the 19th century. But those roofs are, in the 21st century, deadly — heating up to 194 degrees F on a summer day. And because top‑floor garrets were not insulated, that heat is transferred directly into the rooms below.

Morning view, Brenzone sul Garda, Italy (by commorancies)

Modica, Ragusa, Italia » 30 Dicembre 2022 » MELT YOURSELF DOWN - COMMUNICATION

André Kertész. Quartier Latin, Paris, 1926. From his book On Reading