iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Works in Progress is now available in print! Subscribe here: worksinprogress.co/print

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

In Germany, the response to this problem was the Munich S-Bahn, which linked together 12 pre-existing suburban branch lines with a 4.3-kilometer-long tunnel. Using tunnels to link pre-existing lines in this manner is known as through running.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

The Orphan Drug Act was intended to fix this. First, it created regulatory fast tracks, including an accelerated approval pathway. Second, it sought to minimize low revenue potential by offering tax credits and a greater length of time for market exclusivity.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

But even though it is no longer a superpower, the demographic decline didn’t hold back France’s economy. It is still a major economic power. Demographic decline does not inevitably lead to the death of civilisation.

141

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

We know this from language used in wills: did testators refer to God and Paradise and ask for perpetual Masses? Or did they use secular language? Ideas, not Napoleon, were what caused France to stop being a superpower.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

In England, fertility started declining in about 1850. In France, the decline started in about 1750.

110

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

What happened? Birth rates declined. Specifically, even though every European country’s birth rates went down in the nineteenth century, France’s started declining a century before anywhere else.

210

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Fort Greene Five in Brooklyn, NYC are indistinguishable from their predecessors that rose more than a century ago. We should not always mimic the past, but where context and will demand it, we can build as well as we once did, and in some respects, we can even build better.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Second Home, Hollywood is a breath of fresh air amidst the highways and parking lots in Los Angeles. The colorful pods that make up the office complex blur the line between indoor and outdoor, with 360 walls and garden workspaces to take full advantage of the California sun.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Weesperglide in Holland breaks the mold of suburban development with a bold use of natural materials. It’s familiar, but with a twist. Designed for families and oriented around courtyards, it is much denser than American developments, but remains genial, attractive, and comfortable.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

The level of detail and ambition of design in the Museum of Meenakari Heritage in Jaipur, India is all but non-existent in contemporary building practices. The Jodhpur red sandstone is an exquisite building material honored perfectly by the latticework ornamentation.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Terra cotta has been revived in wonderful ways in NYC in the last decade. The ultimate example is The Fitzroy, a luxury condo building just off the High Line. It shimmers in the daytime and broods enchantingly in jazz-age sophistication at night.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Located adjacent to a DC Metro stop, Chevy Chase Lake in Maryland is likely the finest collection of new mid-rise buildings in the country. The fantastic transit-oriented-development is even more remarkable given it is in an affluent and historically anti-development suburb.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Yale also has been building beautiful residential colleges. With rooms for 904 students and dining halls, lounges, study rooms, classrooms, and multi-purpose space, Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Colleges are exceptional places at the confluence of ambition, prosperity, and skill.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee has transformed its campus over the last two decades from a nice-but-unremarkable place to one of the most attractive destinations for higher learning. E. Bronson Ingram College continues this fine tradition.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Catfiddle Street in Charleston, South Carolina is rare as it wasn’t built all at once, but each new home rose organically alongside its neighbors over 20 years. It’s a marvel of ‘inner-block urbanism’ where development happens within the block rather than on the streetfront.

140

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

A wonderful transformation of a dreary structure, Wellington House in Wimbledon, London is a delightful mixed-use office building. The glazed ceramic tiles and sawtooth brickwork and the rounded windows that honor the corner make this building extraordinary.

140

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

There exists a popular sentiment that we can’t build as well as we used to and our best days are behind us. But when we choose to, we can still build beautiful and interesting developments. Here’s a tour of 10 new projects that are creating a better built environment. 🧵

12610

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Some find the high density of modern cruise ships unappealing. But even older people, often seen as the biggest skeptics of high density living, enjoy cruise ships’ walkable, high-density, and diverse environments.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

As well as the limits from ports and bridges, local destinations must be able (and willing) to cope with 1000s of tourists. In response to this demand, cruise companies are creating their own destinations. 10+ private islands and peninsulas are owned by cruise lines, like CocoCay.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Destinations like Venice and Santorini have ports that are too shallow to handle the largest ships, while bridges like the Verrazano-Narrows outside NYC limit the height of cruise ships. With limited draughts and heights, the latest generation of megaships have expanded outwards.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Cruise ships could be even bigger and more numerous, but they are held back, not by the ships themselves, but the land-based infra they interact with like ports, bridges, and canals.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

The biggest trump card for cruise ships to escape regulation is the flag of convenience. Each ship sails under a one nation’s flag, obliging it to the laws of that nation. Ships register in countries with favorable regs like the Bahamas to benefit from fewer taxes and labor laws.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Cruise fares have also fallen in real terms. In 1983 the cheapest cruise fare was $995 per person (about $3k today). An equivalent today was $600, five times cheaper in real terms. Plus cruises are getting better in terms of space per passenger and amenities.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Unlike tramways, nuclear plants, or houses, cruise ships aren’t more expensive in real terms to manufacture than flag carriers of the past when measured per gross ton. It’s not tech difficulty or raw inputs that make infra expensive in Europe, but flawed rules & institutions.

110

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

The trend for larger cruise ships accelerated around the turn of the millennium when Carnival’s Sunshine became the first passenger ship to exceed 100,000 gross tons in 1995. By 2008, Oasis of the seas had more than doubled that record at 226,000 gross tons.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

The SS France shows this change. Launched in 1960, she was the world’s longest passenger ship, but airline competition and the oil crisis forced her into retirement in 1974. Resurrected as the SS Norway in 1979, she became the largest Caribbean cruise liner and served until 2003.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Before the 1960s, people mostly traveled between continents on ocean liners. The fastest of these, the RMS Queen Mary, could cross the Atlantic in 4 days. But jet planes could do this in hours. Faced with reduced demand, the ocean liners pivoted to warmer water leisure cruises.

100

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Planes aren’t getting faster. Buildings in the developed world aren’t getting taller. Roads are getting slower. But the world’s largest passenger ship record has been broken 9 times this century. They show what is possible w/o the constraints that stifle progress on dry land. 🧵

182

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Switzerland and Germany have agreed to upgrade a cross-border rail line to relieve congestion and decrease journey times. The 47 mile route between Basel and Erzingen will be electrified plus platforms will be extended to allow for a more intensive rail service.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Riyadh opened the first five lines in its new metro network last month, with the sixth opened earlier this month. The six automated lines cover 110 miles and 85 stations and cost $22.5 billion (~$205m per mile). To help finance the metro, companies could buy station naming rights.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The French Government is also committed to new rail freight, with plans to build 22 new intermodal terminals where containers can be moved between trains and lorries. The government hopes to double rail’s share of the freight market to 18% by 2030.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Ghana has opened a new railway from Tema to Mpakadan, which forms a part of an eventual 1,200 kilometer line to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. This will support freight movements to the port at Tema. Ghana plans to develop 4,000 km of railways by 2030.

141

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

India’s New Pamban Bridge is due to open soon, which will be the first vertical lift sea bridge on the subcontinent, allowing boats up to 22m tall to pass underneath. The new bridge and railway cost 535 crore INR (~$64 million) for its 2.05km length.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

The country of Monaco is growing by 3% as a new six-hectare district called Mareterra is being reclaimed from the sea at a cost of 2 billion euros. It has luxury apartments and villas costing up to $200 million, plus a new park, a small marina, waterfront promenade and shops.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Nuuk, Greenland has opened a new runway that’s now large enough for bigger planes to fly directly there rather than using a former US military base 200 miles away. There’ll be flights from Newark launching in June, making the capital and the territory much more accessible.

110

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

High speed rail may also be coming to Australia, with drilling being done to identify the best route for a line between Sydney and Newcastle. Construction contracts will launch in 2027 with the goal of starting services a decade later.

120

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Vietnam has approved an ambitious $67 billion high speed line between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. It will stretch for 957 miles at a cost of ~$70 million per mile (roughly 7 times cheaper than Britain’s HS2). Construction will start in 2027 and the first services could run in 2035.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

We can still build great things, at least in some places. Here’s a run down of 10 major new infrastructure projects that have happened recently.

1126

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

The metro expansion provides lessons for cities that aspire to improve their transit systems. These advances take time and there will always be challenges when building metros, but perhaps the most important lesson is to consider how successful cities deliver large projects.

150

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Madrid’s track record has left the city transformed. It has higher per resident ridership than London or NYC, with higher satisfaction rates. Madrid also has the largest area accessible by public transit within 30 minutes of its center of any American or Western European city.

152

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Madrid had a group of well-paid in-house engineers that led the expansion, not external consultants. The team stayed the same and learned as they went on. With 8 tunnel boring machines operating, the leadership captured expertise and lessons.

141

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Madrid recognised that trade-offs matter. Wanting the fastest, grandest, most innovative designs come with high price tags. Stations were simplified and standardized with design, “focused on the needs of the users, rather than architectural beauty or exotic materials.”

150

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Decisions requiring political input, like station locations, were often made within 24 hours, compared to months or even years in other countries. E.g. design changes and safety improvements to Green Park station in London had to go through Parliament as a bill and took 3 years.

141

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

To deliver the projects in the 4 year electoral cycles and get the political rewards for doing so, community engagement remained limited and top-down

160

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Spain has 17 autonomous communities that function like an American state. The Community of Madrid is a little larger than Delaware and has an elected parliament, which can levy taxes and fund metro expansions.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Madrid could build so much because of its low costs. The 35-mile 1995-1999 programme of works cost around $2.8bn (in 2024 prices). For the same amount, New York built just 1.5 miles of track. London’s Jubilee Line extension cost nearly 10x more per mile than Madrid.

130

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

Madrid’s metro was 71 miles long in 1995. That would be the world’s 51st longest today, reasonable considering Madrid is the 57th largest city by population. Yet over 12 years, the metro would ~3x in length at costs much lower than was thought possible. Here’s how they did it. 🧵

1279

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Of course technical and practical challenges remain. What happens when bedrock vaporizes? How to transmit the energy down the well? How to set up the rig and obtain the right gyrotron to run 24/7? In 2023, a team vaporized a 10m hole, far from 20km, but it shows progress.

140

Works in Progress @worksinprogress.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Millimeter waves could vaporize bedrock, which could lead to 20km deep holes, hot enough to get supercritical water with an energy density not far off from fossil fuels. This would be ‘a complete game changer.’

130