Since we lived in caves humankind was on a building rampage. We spent huge amounts of resources on building ever bigger, nicer and comfier caves.

But does a modern (single) person or a small family really need a huge house with a lot of space? Big houses mean more heating, more electricity and more building material. And more big individual houses mean wider spread cities and longer drives to work, school and shopping. Look at the typical American city - which are spread all over the countryside, they are not well planned, they don’t mix work, shopping and entertainment areas together, so long drives are normal.

Spacious individualism is expensive and eats loads of resources.

Isn’t it time for a new modesty - by combining minimalism, comfort and efficiency. We don’t need to resort to ugly skyscrapers, but we should be smarter about building our homes and cities.

My hometown and birthplace München just celebrated it’s 850th birthday last weekend. It is certainly not the oldest city in Europe - more like a middle aged one.

Just because more roads are built doesn’t mean the traffic will run smoother.

I am always amused when some of my American friends come to Europe and get lost by our chaotic cities and streets. If you look at schematics above of American and European cities you immediately see how straight and orderly most cities in the new world are. Very different to the of thousand of years old and “organically” grown Euro cities …

A great shot with mystical qualities. Train stations had always a certain magic for me - like an ant hill, the pulse of any city and a social parade ground. I could spend hours and hours there - watching people and sucking in the atmosphere. Make sure to also visit the Grand Central Terminal Pool on Flickr.

More? Grand Central @ Wikipedia