Author: signordal
What I’ve Learned in 10 Years of Zen Habits
By Leo Babauta
Unbelievably, this month marks 10 years since I started Zen Habits. I’ve had an amazing decade, and I’d like to reflect on those years today.
I’ve seen so much change in the last 10 years that I can’t possibly reflect on all of it.
Just a few examples of how my life has changed:
- Zen Habits became my career. I had a full-time job (and was a freelance writer) when I started the blog in January 2007, with no idea it would change my life. A few months in, I decided that Zen Habits could be my calling, and I went into it full bore. By the end of the year, I quit my day job and never looked back. It has been amazing and gratifying.
- I published numerous books. By the end of 2007, I had my first book deal, and I published the Power of Less in 2008. I’ve also published numerous ebooks (some of which I’ve taken off the market) and self-published the limited-edition Zen Habits book and then Essential Zen Habits. Last year I published several ebooks. It’s one of my favorite things, writing and publishing a book. These past 10 years have made me so happy as a writer and book lover.
- I launched Sea Change and numerous courses. I’ve had the honor of starting my membership program, Sea Change with so many amazing members changing their lives. In addition, I created a number of other video courses (including an upcoming course called Dealing with Struggles). I’ve been so happy to be able to teach this way.
- My kids grew up. When I started the blog, I had kids who ranged in age from under 1 year old to 13. Today, I have three grown kids and one who’s almost 18. It’s been quite a decade watching them turn into their beautiful grown selves.
- I traveled, a lot. When I started the blog, I’d barely traveled anywhere outside of Guam except the west coast of the U.S. Since then, I’ve traveled all over the world, and it’s been an incredible journey so far. I still have a lot of places I want to visit, but I feel awfully lucky to have been able to go where I’ve gone, and meet people from so many cultures.
- I learned a lot about habits and mindfulness. I thought I knew a bit about mindfulness and creating habits, but I’ve learned about a hundred times as much through my own experiments and teaching habits and mindfulness to thousands of others. I’ve written books recently on what I’ve learned.
- I moved from Guam to San Francisco and then Davis. When I started the blog, I’d never lived anywhere else as an adult but Guam (I lived on the U.S. west coast). But we made the huge move from Guam to San Francisco in 2010 with our six kids, and it was quite an adjustment and learning experience for all of us. We went car-free and explored California. We absolutely loved it, and yet we missed our home and family tremendously. Today we live in Davis, California, completely changed because of our moves.
- Eva & I became vegan. I became vegetarian shortly before starting the blog, and Eva slowly transitioned to vegetarian by 2010. In 2012, we both went fully vegan for ethical reasons (not wanting to participate in animal cruelty) and we have never been happier.
- I made great friends, and lost one. While I had wonderful family and some really good friends on Guam, when I moved to the Bay Area I formed some of my closest friendships. While we no longer live near each other, I still see many of them regularly and I love them with all my heart. One of those friends, Scott Dinsmore, died tragically in 2015, and I miss him dearly. He was a brother to me.
- I lost two fathers, gained some family. My father died in the beginning of 2015, and Eva’s father died last month. These were terrible losses for our family. They still hurt to this day. That said, I gained some gorgeous nieces and nephews, and brothers-in-law, and I love them all deeply.
That’s just the start of the changes, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of big things. Honestly, I’m a completely different person and my life woiuld be unrecognizable now to my 33-year-old self. Life changes all the time, but for me it has felt like accelerated change.
This has been a decade of growth, loss, learning, fatherhood, loving, service and joy.
What I’ve Learned in 10 Years
It’s been a decade filled with learning for me … too many things to put into one post. But as I’ve been reflecting on it all, I have a dozen or so notes I’d like to share with you.
Some of the things I’ve learned, starting with personal lessons and ending with lessons about my business:
- Focus on intentions rather than goals. As you might know, I experimented with giving up goals after being very focused on goals for years. It was liberating, and it turns out, you don’t just do nothing if you don’t have a goal. You get up and focus on what you care about. Read more here. Instead, I’ve found it useful to focus less on the destination (goal) and instead focus on what your intention for each activity is. If you’re going to write something … instead of worrying about what the book will be like when you’re done, focus on why you want to write in the first place. If you are doing something out of love or to help others , for example, then you are freed from it needing to turn out a certain way (a goal) and instead can let it turn out however it turns out. I’ve found this way of working and living to be freeing and less prone to anxiety or procrastination.
- Small actions really add up. By focusing on getting out and going for a run each day, I ran several marathons and eventually an ultramarathon. By writing a blog post or part of a book chapter every day, I’ve written well over a thousand blog posts and many books, articles and courses. Small actions every day can really add up to a mountain.
- Working resistance is the key to habits. What I’ve learned in working with others is that most people fail at habits because of resistance. When the time comes to meditate or exercise or write, resistance arises and we procrastinate. I’ve written a whole book on overcoming this resistance, but until you start to face your resistance and become mindful of it, you won’t be able to overcome it.
- Working with attachments is the key to happiness. What gets in the way of happiness? Frustrations, anger, anxiety, feeling down, disappointment, procrastination, self criticism, getting caught up in our stories. The root of all of this is attachment to something — what we want, the way we want things, the way we think others should act. If we can let go of those attachments, we can be happier. I’ve been working for years to get better at being mindful of my (many) attachments, and letting go when I can.
- Mindfulness is the key to everything. If working with resistance is the key to habits, and working with attachments is the key to happiness … then mindfulness is the key to both of those things. And more. The deeper I dive into mindfulness, the more I find that you can’t really work with anything important without it. Check out my Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness for more.
- Health can be made simple. I’ve done all kinds of experiments to get fit and healthy, and they were all really interesting … but in the end, I’ve learned that only a few things really matter. Eat whole foods — my favorites are vegetables, beans & legumes, nuts, fruits, whole grains. And be active — my favorites are strength training, running, hiking, yoga, cycling and sports. I just pick one of these to do practically every day. In addition, floss, meditate, sleep. Each of these might seem hard, but if you just gradually work towards these simple things, you’ll get healthier over time.
- Consumerism & distractions require vigilance. The pull of distractions and urges to buy things (to solve problems or give us pleasure) is incredibly strong. Consumerism pulls on us every day, every time we watch TV, read online, see friends or strangers using products … and results in us owning too man possessions and getting too deep in debt. Distractions are a constant pull on our attention as well, pulling us away from what’s most important, taking attention away from the present moment. How do we overcome these powerful attractions? Constant vigilance: notice when you’re buying too much or becoming too distracted, and start becoming more conscious every day.
- Life is incredibly precious. The deaths of loved ones, and the growing up of young ones, are powerful reminders of how short life is. And how important it is to appreciate this gift we’ve been given. I really believe life is a miracle, and to take it for granted is kind of a crime. I do my best to realize the preciousness of life every day, and appreciate as many moments as I can. I try not to take my loved ones for granted, because I have no idea how many more moments I have with them.
- Focus on one small project at a time. I often have a bunch of projects on my radar, but I usually focus myself on one small project. A short ebook, a lesson for a course, the redesign of a website. If a project is too big, I make it smaller or focus on just one part of it. I like projects that take less than a month, and ideally just a week or two. Any longer, and it becomes overwhelming. By focusing on small projects, I stay focused, have lots of energy, and feel accomplished as I get things done. Btw, I know that this might seem contradictory to the goal-less method I mention above, but I honestly don’t focus too much on the goal (I hold loosely to them) and try to focus more on my intention.
- Copyright isn’t necessary. One year into doing this Zen Habits blog, I uncopyrighted the blog and all my books. It was a scary and liberating move, as no other bloggers or authors that I knew of were doing it at the time. But I really believe in the open-source software movement, and decided that none of the ideas that I write about are my original ideas — I steal them from people before me like everyone else. And though I don’t try to control my work through copyright, I can still sell my books and membership program. I’ve found that people appreciate the uncopyright, and seem happy to support me.
- Focus on what matters to the readers. I’ve learned that a lot of things that people seem to focus on for blogs, websites and businesses don’t really matter that much. For example, people track all kinds of visitor stats, focus on how many followers they get, and try all kinds of promotional tactics (like popup subscriptions). These don’t really matter. What matters most? Helping your readers/visitors. I got rid of blog stats and comments and advertising and most social media, and I just focus on writing articles (and books) that help my readers. This has freed me from obsessions and other distractions, and instead I have the happiness of trying to help people.
- My readers are incredible. These last 10 years have been a true wonder for me. Not only have I gotten to make a living doing what I really love, but I’ve learned so much from all of you. The kind emails I’ve gotten, the notes of sympathy or joy, the feedback and suggestions … it has meant the world to me. I can’t express how grateful I am for all of you. It has been a true joy writing for all of you, hearing from you, being your friend. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I could go on all day about what I’ve learned, but these are some of the ones that have mattered most to me. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years will bring!
Tenniversary Gifts
I thought about creating a gift for all of you on the 10-year anniversary of Zen Habits, as a thank you. But I just haven’t had the time, with our monthlong Guam trip (necessitated by the funeral last month). I am creating a new course called Dealing with Struggles that I think you will all love, but it’s not quite ready yet.
Instead, I will highlight my best offerings, as a hope that you will consider them a gift, or at least consider supporting me in some way:
- My Sea Change Program. I have worked for years to create the content in this program, and each month I offer a new monthly challenge with course content to accompany the challenge. I hope you’ll check it out.
- My best books. In the last couple years, I’ve created a handful of books that I think will help most people in a powerful way. Check them out here.
- A plea to try veganism. I know many of you truly love animals, and a wonderful gift to me would be to try to be vegan for 7 days. It’s not hard, and I would be deeply grateful. As would the animals!
Thank you all for being a huge part of my journey for the last 10 years. Your love and support has brought me to my knees.
New BIO Winery / MADE Associati Architetti
© Francesco Galifi
- Architects: MADE Associati Architetti
- Location: 31020 Villorba, Province of Treviso, Italy
- Architect In Charge: Adriano Marangon e Michela De Poli
- Area: 7200.0 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: Francesco Galifi , Adriano Marangon
- Collaborator: arch. Francesco Faggian
- Chartered Surveyor : ing. Andrea Rigato
- Mechanical Project : p.i. Alessandro Sartori
- Electrical Project: p.i. Luciano Michielin
- Plumbing Project: iDeVa Ingegneria
© Adriano Marangon
Project
The new winery offers an opportunity to reorganise and reconnect the system of open spaces with the built-up structures through the restoration of signing, associated modality and materiality that come form the world of agriculture.
The requalification project involves new spaces and new buildings dedicated to the winery but are developed integrating also the existing parts for the formation of a functionality and homogeneous image.
Plans
Section
The new building is located alongside the existing buildings to create a compact nucleus of the different work activities.
The office space is structured to be an representative image of the company, its sensibility and of the always organic production (this year it will celebrate 35 years of activity, certified organic and vegan for all types of wines produced).
© Adriano Marangon
Exterior spaces
In addition to the visible connections, grass surfaces have been designed to absorb the shared diversity forming a transitional environment between the parking area and the building, and daisies have been planted as a “selection” of flower traces between the vines.
A small wooden square gives continuity to the internal space of the outlet store, almost building a natural enlargement and characterized by a “pisoèra” tree typical the Treviso countryside. (Celtis australis, bagolaro).
© Adriano Marangon
Materials
The principal material composed of Beechwood used both for the exterior spaces and the interiors.
The finish of the vertical wooden planks qualifies the simplicity of the warehouse construction material;
© Adriano Marangon
Use of a natural material like wood blends best with the agricultural landscape, due to its coloration, regarding its “matricity”, for its capacity to age without deteriorating (the oxidation of wood in time contributes to the integration of the material into the context in which it is inserted.)
The filter / woven effect refers back to the finishing of barn facades composed and interweaved with bricks and/or vertical, holed wooden planks allowing for ventilation: a recurring characteristic in the traditional rustic structure of the Treviso countryside.
© Adriano Marangon
The work of restructuring will rely on this skin in order to wrap around the preexisting structure to the new intervention: along the north front the hight deformity and the material of the different warehouses in successive time will become absorbed by the resurfacing in the vertical wooden planks presenting a new facade both recomposed, reordered and harmonious.
In the space between the buildings and the new facade there is a visitor route located that from the outside allows you to follow the different stages of production: coming up from the vineyard arriving inside in the tasting rooms/meeting rooms in a constant relationship with portions of the historical (the villa) and productivelandscape (the vineyard).
© Adriano Marangon
Product Description:
Beechwood from the Cansiglio area has been utilized. The wood comes from the controlled forest of Cansiglio, a forest in which the beech tree is an endemic species destined to become a finished certified product connected to the territory, through which a selection process is carried out according to Veneto Agricultura (an official body with the task of forest management in the Veneto region), in a synergy between the Cansiglio Forest and Itlas Spa. It is a forest certified according to the PEFC scheme (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification), that is, the principle of sustainable forest management, that guarantees the maintenance and the appropriate development of forest resources, protecting the biodiversity and ecosystem of the forest, preserving the different functions of the woods, other than the productive ones.
The choice is to promote the territory sensitizing it to its visitors towards a natural ecosystem, a forest heritage managed according to a naturalistic forest mandate, and following the criteria of the forest certification. This process encompasses within itself the precise environmental philosophy of the Cantina and of its natural products that shows also in the character of the material utilized. In particular, the wood utilized was cut in October 2015 and in part was cookfor external use and a part was laid with its natural finish (floors and furnishings).
Steven Vandenborre and Mias Sys Come Together to Create a Simple and Elegant Home in Ghent, Belgium
In our experience, there’s a certain level of excitement that comes with being able to tell that a home is beautifully modern and contemporarily decorated before you even step through the doors. This is usually evident from the inclusion of big, gorgeous windows, clean, industrial materials, and unique angles on the home’s exterior. Abeel House is a stunning example of what we mean! Abeel House is a private residence designed..
At the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the…
At the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the Lincoln Memorial stands in tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. It’s not only a reminder of one of our history’s greatest figures, but a place of celebration, education and demonstration. In times of trouble and of peace, the National Mall has served as America’s symbolic front yard and the eyes of Lincoln’s statue have kept watch over our unfolding history. Photo by Yu Sheng (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
10 Best Skin Foods For Healthy Glowing Skin
Beauty doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, with the right food, you can boost your skin’s natural glow without having to rely on creams, serums, and lotions. And because these natural foods don’t contain the chemicals and preservatives most skin care products have, they are also a lot safer.
For healthy, glowing skin, you can try adding more of these foods to your daily meal plans.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes have lycopene which is a natural antioxidant. It helps fight free radical damage and protects your skin against the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Aside from these benefits, adding tomatoes to your diet can also boost your skin’s collagen production. Collagen is what gives your skin its structure to make it taut, supple and youthful looking.
How to benefit from it:
You can eat tomatoes raw or add them to your salads. You can also puree it and apply as a mask on your skin.
Green Tea
Another potent source of antioxidants is green tea. It contains catechins that can tame inflammation and help your skin heal and repair itself after severe sun exposure.
You can use regular bags of green tea for your skin but research suggests that you can get more potent antioxidant benefits when you brew loose tea leaves. You just have to be careful in choosing your brand or source as green tea, like any botanical products, may contain lead.
How to benefit from it:
You can use it to create delicious and refreshing recipes from desserts to smoothies. You can even use it as a face mask.
See Also: 7 Easy Steps To Aging Skin Repair
Grapefruit
Grapefruits contain a high amount of vitamin C. In fact, just one grapefruit can give you around 38.4 mg of the vitamin to boost your skin’s collagen production for skin cell growth and renewal.
Grapefruit also has a high water content that can keep your skin hydrated. When your skin is hydrated, it’s more resistant to damages caused by exposure to pollution.
How to benefit from it:
Take a half grapefruit and sprinkle sugar on its surface. Use the grapefruit to scrub away the dry and rough areas of your skin, such as your knees and elbows,
Avocados
Avocados naturally have vitamin E which is one of the secrets to youthful skin. Vitamin E can help reverse the damages brought about by aging, including sagginess and wrinkles.
Avocados also contain a high amount of oleic acid which can address your dry and irritated skin. This fatty acid is essential in keeping your skin’s outer layer moisturized.
How to benefit from it:
Take a half ripe avocado and mash it. Add a few drops of aloe vera gel and apply the mixture liberally on your face.
Broccoli
When it comes to anti-aging, alpha lipoic acid is one of the best antioxidants you can give your skin. Broccoli has enough ALAs to reduce your fine lines, dark undereye circles and puffiness.
It also has beta-carotene that’s not only good for your skin but your eyes and mucous membranes as well. Broccoli is even potent enough to be used as a sunscreen when applied topically on your skin.
How to benefit from it:
You can add broccoli to your soups, salads, and pasta. It also makes a good face mask.
Oats
Eating oats every day can help reduce the number of bacteria in your gut. It can also lower your blood glucose levels.
Both of these properties can help you avoid breakouts or get rid of your existing acne. When used topically, oats can relieve itchiness and inflammation while providing your skin moisture.
How to benefit from it:
Oats are great to use as face scrubs by adding a small amount of water. You can also use it as a face mask by mixing it with honey, yogurt, and milk.
Almonds
Munching on almonds is a good way to boost your skin’s natural glow. They are rich in monounsaturated fats that can regulate your skin’s oil production and moisture.
Almonds can repair damaged skin cells from the inside and hasten fresh skin cell production. These properties allow you to have an improved skin texture and tone.
How to benefit from it:
Take a few almonds and soak them in warm water for a couple of hours. After letting them soften up a bit, use a mortar and pestle to grind the almonds into a fine powder.
Once they are fine enough, you can add a few tablespoon of yogurt, just enough to turn the powder into a paste. Use the mixture as a face scrub and wash right after.
Spinach
If you want to boost your iron levels, then eating spinach is one of the things you should do. Iron is the protein part of your hemoglobin which carries oxygen to your cells.
When you increase your cell’s oxygen supply, you can get that rosy and glowing look.
Spinach is also a great source of vitamin K which can address dark undereye circles and inflamed skin. If you’re struggling with late night sleep, adding this vegetable to your diet can make your skin clearer and less puffy.
How to benefit from it:
You can boil your spinach and add it to your salad. Another way to reap its benefits is to use it for your smoothie recipe.
See Also: 6 Vitamin-Packed Smoothie Recipes for Glowing Skin
Pomegranate
If you are suffering from acne, eating a pomegranate a day should help. It has a special component that makes it extra effective against acne. Anthocyanins, the antioxidant that gives pomegranate its color, have a strong anti-inflammatory property that can address your skin breakouts.
It can also increase your insulin sensitivity and decrease your body’s stress hormones.
How to benefit from it:
Aside from eating pomegranates, you can use a blender to make a paste. After getting the right texture, apply the paste on your skin and use it as a scrub.
You can also add raw honey to the mixture. Massage well and rinse after you’re done.
Dark chocolate
Dark chocolates are not as bad as you think they are. In fact, with its flavanol content, it can minimize your skin’s roughness.
Eating dark chocolate can help you get glowing skin even if you’re in a stressful situation. This chocolate can actually lower your stress hormones before they show on your skin.
How to benefit from it:
You can melt your dark chocolate and add a few drops of honey. Apply it on your face as a mask and let it sit for a couple of minutes.
Wash it off with water and pat dry your skin.
When you eat these vitamin and mineral-rich foods, you not only feed your skin, you are feeding your other organs and entire body too. Avoid processed food and stress, and live more healthily with nature’s bounty.
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Quinta do Carregal / WAATAA_we are all together around architecture
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
- Architects: WAATAA_we are all together around architecture
- Location: 3460 Tondela, Portugal
- Architect In Charge: WAATAA
- Team: Rita Cantisano Diz, Lucas Cantisano Diz, Miguel de Gouveia André
- Area: 299.9 m2
- Project Year: 2016
- Photographs: WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
From the architect. In a seemingly infinite territory and mostly occupied by pines and oaks, the implantation of the house marks a space and an intention. A space of pause, serenity and breathing, surrounded and protected by the green patch that filters the light and the eyesight, purifies the air and the soul and stimulates the corporal senses of who let himself be seduced by the elements of nature. An intention of materializing a perennial refuge that transforms and adapts itself to the site’s conditions and to the family that inhabits it.
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
The house does not begin in the physical limits of its walls, but rather at the outer limit of the green patch that surrounds it, assuming it as imaginary walls that make up a larger house, a habitat. This green patch, or better, this forest, is assumed as the intermediate and transition space between the outside (of what exists beyond itself) and the interior (housing).
Ground Floor
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
Section
The concrete volume construction sets up and gives shape to a boundary defined by employing courtyards that are outlined by the interior spaces of the house. It is the empty space trimmed and subtracted from the built volume. This design favours the organization and the hierarchy of the spaces inherent to the house, and also increases the contact perimeter with the forest, which promotes the creation of scenarios where the fusion of inhabitants and nature happens, where the visual, touching, hearing and olfactory experience is encouraged in a way to provide a sense of comfort and well-being to those who live there.
© WAATAA PHOTOGRAPHY
Archiplanstudio Designs a Three-Level Apartment in Milan
One of the best ways to create a beautiful contrast between modern contemporary styles and artistic aesthetics when it comes to home design and decor is to incorporate and embrace unique shapes, surfaces, and textures to create stunning visual combinations. This often looks very modern in a way that people don’t find homey, but depending on the combinations of materials you choose, modern shapes can certainly be made to look..
The post Archiplanstudio Designs a Three-Level Apartment in Milan appeared first on HomeDSGN.
New York City – New York – USA (by paul)
New York City – New York – USA (by paul)
Game of Thrones: The Politics and Foundations of Fictional Cities
Kingslanding- Game of Thrones (2011). Image © HBO
What makes a city different from a town? What is the distinction between these two seemingly similar collections of buildings and streets? Why can we trace towns back to the Stone Age, while the first city remains a mystery? Although a village and a city can be considered similar, the city has a unique and innovative element that makes it stand out: the citizens and civitas.
While villages were merely an efficient urban system for groups of people that live together, the foundation of a city entails the institution of a very concrete idea of society, of a commitment between individuals to organize the world based on shared criteria.
The civitas is precisely this idea of social order, the accumulation of traditions, laws, principles and beliefs that gave rise to the civil community. Urbs is the urban model especially dedicated to institutionalizing this idea of society. Be aware that we’re not talking about streets or houses here, but of the moment of the establishment, that is, of the foundation of the city. As Fustel de Coulanges would say, while the civitas is a time-honored inheritance accumulated over centuries, the urbs is founded in one day. Filling it with streets, houses, and shops as a consequence.
As Hermann Minkowski puts it in “Vers une cosmologie. Fragments philosophiques” (Paris, 1967, p.149), “in the beginning, the environment was a shifting ocean. It is evolution. The human personality detaches from that evolution and affirms itself because of that. The person does it what he can, that is, by modeling the environment in his image, according to both individual and general characteristics. “
In this sense, the city is not a housing complex but a cosmogonic device, which explains the origin of order -cosmos- in disorder -chaos-. The political institutions – polis – are guarantee the operation of this device and of the laws that it governs. Therefore, its existence affects the founding city form just as much as the civitas or the urbs. Aristotle already identified this circumstance in the 4th century BC and presented the act of founding a city as a practice that is bound and subject to the political regime. De Coulanges would probably propose a debate on whether the Polis is a later, more complex element, and not as essential.
With respect to fortified places, they aren’t equally suited for all regimes. The acropolis, for example, is useful to an oligarchical or monarchical regime; For democratic regimes an open plain is best, and neither of those for an aristocracy, but rather several fortifications – Aristotle, Politics, II, 8, 1.
Joseph Rykwert proposed in the 1960s that all these political and symbolic foundations share certain common elements. From the Euphrates Valley to Etruria, Greece, Rome, China, India, sub-Saharan Africa, Indigenous North America and Pre-Columbian Latin America, every foundation has represented a cosmic order and has possessed an institutional and religious center, key areas, a boundary, gates and a labyrinth. This article does not have illustrations, but the sketch I would’ve liked to have shown you is the same that you are already drawing in your head. Center, streets, boundary, gates and labyrinth. That’s it. Now the only difference between your mental picture and a true urban foundation is the unconditional acceptance that these elements build the order of the universe on earth.
Roman mosaic from the end of the Republic showing a fortified labyrinth. (1st century BC) Rykwert, Joseph. The Idea of a Town: The Anthropology of Urban Form in Rome, Italy, and The Ancient World Madrid: Hermann Blume, 1976. p. 166.
So far we’ve been talking about history, history in the sense that these rites and institutions feel like they’re far removed from the diffused and scattered metropolises that the majority of us live in today. If you are lucky enough to live in a small town, you are still connected to the net of networks, to the liquid marsh of data and vectors that govern the world. It seems that with the exception of some specific places like historical city centers in Europe or Bolivar Square(s) in the Americas, the contemporary city is more a system of aggregated elements than a cosmic gesture guaranteeing order. This is true, of course … only if you ignore the other half of today’s urban production: fictional cities.
The Banner Saga 2 (2016). Image © Stoic Studios
Literature, theater, film and video games are arts plagued by cities. From the Old Testament to A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-), works of fiction are often developed in urban contexts, cities that by their very nature do not possess the Deleuzian complexity of modern cities. Each of the cities in the work of George R. R. Martin represents a political position and a specific way of facing the world. It’s not a coincidence that it’s one of those “books with a map”, a genre that could be considered founded by Utopia in 1516.
The opening credits of the series of HBO Game of Thrones (GoT) are a great success in this sense. In the absence of a physical cartography like the one accompanying the book, GoT’s opens with the map itself, the land. Through an abstract and stylized infographic, the spectator goes through the main cities of each episode one by one.
King’s Landing sits on a cliff crowned by the great royal palace, the lower you live on it, the lower you are on the social ladder: a tribute to Aristotle. The center of Winterfell is outside the stronghold and is shaped like a tree, as it is a city that honors the ancient gods. The Wall is not the “city wall” but the “city gate”, one that decides what’s within the social order and what is left out, the “wild”. Pentos is a city “on the other side” and its existence is based on its confrontation with King’s Landing. It is the opposite shore, the refuge of the “other” personified by the last vestiges of the house Targaryen and its allies the Dothrakis.
All these cities are urbs characterized to house singular civitas, imagined but linked to our own history. Their foundational elements are powerful, basic but revealing. Their forms institutionalize very clear political orders that the viewer can read from the very first scene. The classic practice of founding cities as messages of order survives today in these fictional cities. For many centuries to come, Rome lives on.
A trench was dug
down to the solid rock,
fruits of the earth were thrown into the bottom of it,
and with them earth fetched from the neighbouring soil.
The trench was filled up with mould,
and on the top was set an altar,
and a fire was duly lit,
on a new hearth.
Ovidio, Fasti, IV, 819.
Sig Nordal 