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POPSOn Architecture and Elegance bridge is endowed with a subcategory of beauty we can refer to as elegance, a quality present whenever a work of architecture succeeds in carrying out an act of resistance—holding, spanning, sheltering—with grace and economy as well as strength; when it has the modesty not to draw attention to the difficulties it has surmounted. From philosophical historian Alain de Botton's inimitable The Architecture of Happiness , itself a paradigmatic illustration of the aesthetic elegance of well-engineered minimalism (be it architectural or textual). The NYRB's synopsis of de Botton's work makes note of this: The simplicity of his writing is not the product of a simple mind.... In The Consolations of Philosophy (2000) he remarked that "there are...no legitimate reasons why books in the humanities should be difficult or boring; wisdom does not require a specialized vocabulary or syntax."
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POPS World's Largest and Tallest Wooden Houses
In 2005, the world’s largest all-wood treehouse was built amongst the lime trees of the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland County, UK. Alnwick Gardens can be reached from the A1 approximately 50 miles north of Newcastle. This 6,000 square foot treehouse is comprised of walkways, cottages, shops, a restaurant, and play areas. There is an expansive deck area and rope bridge loop behind the house, all of which can be accessed by wheelchair. --- Dominating the skyline of Arkhangelsk, a city in Russia's far north-west, it is believed to be the world's tallest wooden house, soaring 13 floors to reach 144ft - about half the size of the tower of Big Ben. The house that Nikolai Sutyagin built is also crumbling, incomplete and under threat of demolition from city authorities determined to end the former convict's eccentric 15-year project. When Sutyagin began work on his dacha in 1992, he claims he was only intending to build a two-storey house - larger than those of his neighbours to
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