Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at sinking London homes, US magnesium manufacturing, the World Humanoid Robot games, catastrophic flooding in Nepal, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid subscriber.
Housing and Cities
New home sales are down 6.3% year over year. [Calculated Risk] And the median new home price is down to $393,800, the lowest since July 2021. [HousingWire]
As of a few weeks ago there’s a new tallest timber building in the world, for certain definitions of “timber building.” “Designed as the Sydney headquarters for technology company Atlassian, the 180-metre-high office tower topped out earlier this week. With a hybrid structure of timber, steel and concrete it overtakes the 86.6 -metre-high Ascent tower in Milwaukee, USA, by almost 100 metres, to become the world’s tallest hybrid timber tower.” [Dezeen]
Salim Furth at Market Urbanism looks at how various jurisdictions will be affected by the Build Now Act, the ROAD to Housing provision that tethers a portion of CDBG funding to housing growth rates. I noted in my look at ROAD to housing that the way this was calculated was weird, and Furth confirms that as written Build Now has some consequences that aren’t ideal. “The biggest takeaway is that most places are ineligible. The second takeaway should be that the law ought to be amended to better match what proponents say it’s meant to do: provide more federal funding to support places that are growing, even if those are in cheaper parts of the country or experienced a nasty snowstorm 2 years ago.” [Market Urbanism]
London homes are cracking as the ground sinks beneath them, thanks to subsidence caused by recent heat waves. “Insurance claims tied to subsidence — a phenomenon associated with bouts of hot, dry weather that shrink the soil and destabilize the foundations on which buildings stand — hit a record last quarter, according to data provided by the Association of British Insurers.” [Bloomberg]
A good essay on how the financialization of real estate — specifically, the rise of distant owners without any particular interest in making an area beautiful or livable — harms the built environment. “All the qualities that give a place charm or loveliness are ones that are best stewarded by people who live there. Someone who owns the plot from afar, without even visiting, can never understand the subtle details that give it life. And the middleman property developer or manager just will never care.” [New Atlantis] See also my essay on why skyscrapers became glass boxes.
Manufacturing
Following a 50% US tariff on various Canadian goods, Canada responded with tariffs up to 50% on various US aluminum and steel products. [Manufacturing Dive]
John Deere, which manufacturers earthmoving equipment in addition to tractors and farm equipment, has full order books for its construction division for the rest of the year thanks to data center demand. [Manufacturing Dive]
EV manufacturer Polestar, which will now be banned in the US due to recently-created restrictions on Chinese-owned car manufacturers, says that it was blindsided by the decision. “Polestar also said the Commerce Department had signaled it would be allowed to stay in the U.S., just like its corporate cousin, Volvo Cars. Polestar and Volvo share the same Chinese majority owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, and two of their models are built on the same production line in South Carolina, with nearly identical hardware and the same software inside.” [WSJ]