Commercial Break

To briefly interrupt the obsessive-compulsive Shanghai posting - part three, on high-rises, is below, and there's more to come on the Expo and a new town/University. I have been asked to draw attention to the following events where I will be publicly pontificating in London and elsewhere; at the South Bank on 22nd November, at the LRB Bookshop on 25 November, at the Canterbury School of Architecture on 2 December, at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton (hooray!) on 9 December, and at a Philosophy Football Xmas event on 17 December. I will also be involved in more geographically interesting pontification at Kyiv Offline in the Ukrainian capital next week. Am intending to get some Constructivism-spotting done in the second city, Kharkiv, beforehand - any recommendations for either city much appreciated.

Some press: very happy to be in the Manchester Evening News. Also a review at the Independent, along with Miles Glendinning's new book, which I must read - his and Muthesius' Tower Block is a lost classic; and the aforementioned review by me of Ben Myers' Richard. Also, some new things on the blogroll which I very heartily recommend: Labour Partisan, the Charnel House (currently putting together an excellent Modernist Archive), the paintings and writings of Marika Kandelaki.

Not being in the UK, I can't say anything much about it, but things appear to be happening in London, with the first proper public reaction to the cuts - students, actually sticking up for themselves rather than the distant other! Viva my Alma Mater, and follow Penny Red on Twitter, who appears to be in the thick of it.