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The Barbican

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Re: The Barbican

#251

Post by Sammi »

DamonHD wrote: post #247
Analemma_ wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a per-dish basis, yes. But dishwashers are a classic Jevons paradox: once you factor in that the convenience of having one increases your dish usage versus the counterfactual of having to hand wash everything you use, the comparison is less straightforward.

My family does not, so far as I can tell, use a different number of dishes because of the presence of a dishwasher. The kids almost never wash(ed) up, so it makes/made no difference to them for example. And I loathe washing up, but I always use as few dishes etc as I reasonably can simply from a sustainability point of view. And I ensure that the dishwasher is as full as reasonably possible before being run, and run…

If you're a single person living in a flat in a city, then you can get in the habit of rinsing your tableware right after using when stuff still easily comes off, and therefore not use much effort at all on washing, and you just reuse the same tableware over and over. This is common and the reason why dishwashers aren't much needed for some.

Re: The Barbican

#252

Post by freyfogle »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #223
freyfogle wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To my knowledge there are no rules against it, it is just a major and expensive plumbing project requiring redoing the whole kitchen. And so as a landlord why bother, you will always find someone willing to rent, no matter how unlivable the place. This dynamic was hardly unique to the Barbican, it was the reality of being a tenant in London, and ultimately one of the reasons I left. London's housing stock is just ter…

You can get a dishwasher that sits on the counter, filled from a tap connector. Space might be tight though.

you can do a lot of things. You can live as a hunter/gatherer. The question is do you want to live like that?

Re: The Barbican

#253

Post by freyfogle »

MisterTea wrote: post #231
freyfogle wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for three years, rented a flat. Living in the Barbican was fantastic, livign in my flat was not fantastic. I used to joke it was a time machine to 1965. There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. Day one that seems funny, a few days later less so. I was spending a fortune in rent to spend 30 minutes every day handwashing my dishes. I did know people who had bought a…

> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. 30 minutes? Either you're cleaning up a sink full of dishes you neglected for a week or cleaning up after cooking a dinner for four or more. If you immediately clean your dishes after use its takes almost no time at all, maybe a minute or two.

Thanks, amigo. If you want to come by and show me how it's done, you are more than welcome. As it happens, yes, we were a family fo four.

Re: The Barbican

#254

Post by themadturk »

libraryofbabel wrote: post #74
rjmunro wrote: post #17

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the concert hall. It's one of London's most famous, with almost 2000 seats, and it's the London Symphony Orchestra's main home. Until last lear, The Lead Developer conference ( https://leaddev.com/ ) was held there, but it's moved to a larger venue for this year (I don't think the size of the main hall was the problem, it was the areas for break out etc.) They had a great tal…

The concert hall and theater is indeed the main reason most people who aren’t residents end up in the Barbican. When I lived in London it was almost a classical music rite of passage to get completely lost on the wrong concrete overhead walkway while rushing to get to an LSO concert there. Unrelated, but recently the complex has been appearing in the general consciousness again as the excellent Apple TV series/spy no…

After watching the first season I (a left-coast Yank) started reading Mick Herron's novels and had no idea what the Barbican was. Kept forgetting to look it up, as I kept getting caught up in the action...

Re: The Barbican

#255

Post by eru »

lmz wrote: post #213
eru wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a more positive example, you might look at what the 'Housing and Development Board' managed to put up in Singapore. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinnacle@Duxton and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_and_Development_Board in general. However, I feel like HDB should declare victory and go home.

I don't think that Pinnacle project in particular is one to use against "over time their value has increased faster than an average dwelling in the vicinity, making them more exclusive and restricting access to those higher and higher up the socio-economic ladder". It's not gated but it definitely is not affordable now. The first owners probably felt like they won the lottery.

I don't think its value 'has increased faster than an average dwelling in the vicinity': the Pinnacle is very close to the city centre. I live in a shop house around the corner. These are even more expensive. And so are the condos nearby, too.

But in any case, I brought up the Pinnacle as a short-hand for a nice looking HDB, not to say that it's affordable. The city centre is very much not affordable.

You are right that further out, you can get much cheaper flats. Like in almost any city on the planet.

Re: The Barbican

#256

Post by aspenmayer »

yardie wrote: post #61

"There’s an underground parking garage for the residents, but half of it is empty and filled with 20-30-year-old cars whose owners are no longer known." Years ago I bought a flat and it came with an underground parking garage. Once we were settled in I break the garage lock and inside was an old Peugot, cans of old motor oil, and all sorts of junk shoved in between the garage door cracks. It was hell to get rid of th…

> After too many months I was able to get the city to declare the car derelict. And then I had to pay a scrap yard to accept it.

I’m assuming there contents of the garage became your property, and thus legal liability, when you purchased the flat?

Since the property is derelict and you weren’t aware of it previously, and the disposal of the property caused undue effort and cost, would the failure to disclose the contents of the garage by the former owner and/or their agent constitute some kind of breach of duty or some other kind of contract violation?

Re: The Barbican

#257

Post by randomcarbloke »

Lio wrote: post #244
randomcarbloke wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your largest city is 9 times smaller than London, admittedly it has some dirtiness as all cities do but I'd say it's cleaner than Berlin (having worked there) which is a quarter the size, certainly cleaner than Paris (although Paris is larger of course), and cleaner than New York (also having worked there) which is fairly close in population.

> although Paris is larger of course That surprises me, I was under the impression that Greater London was a bit bigger than Greater Paris on most metrics. Unless you mean the City of London (The Square Mile) itself, which is definitely much smaller than Paris proper.

no I mean greater paris (ile de france) and greater london, I think london is about a million shy of paris.

But it is actually closer than I thought, closer in size to paris than new york which surprises me.

I could be wrong though, maybe London is actually bigger than most estimates.

Re: The Barbican

#258

Post by randomcarbloke »

djtango wrote: post #209
randomcarbloke wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you're really supposed to go into the communal area without being a resident :) hence the quietness.

There are plenty of public spaces which are also really nice and calm considering you're pretty much in the thick of it. You can sometimes even hear the Guildhall students practising which is a lovely treat

it is amazing there, I agree, it's surprising how organic it can feel when you're surrounded by brown stone and slabs.

Re: The Barbican

#259

Post by MisterTea »

freyfogle wrote: post #253
MisterTea wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. 30 minutes? Either you're cleaning up a sink full of dishes you neglected for a week or cleaning up after cooking a dinner for four or more. If you immediately clean your dishes after use its takes almost no time at all, maybe a minute or two.

Thanks, amigo. If you want to come by and show me how it's done, you are more than welcome. As it happens, yes, we were a family fo four.

> As it happens, yes, we were a family fo four.

Then say that, amigo.

Re: The Barbican

#260

Post by gt0 »

I used to work near The Barbican, and have seen it many times, it's beautiful, I would have loved to live there, but couldn't possibly afford it.
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