Ovid Dullann works as an assistant accountant for a multinational corporation and is supporting a family of four; but abruptly, on his forty-ninth birthday, Ovid runs away from his daily work and his loving family to go on a road trip. Struck by inspiration, Ovid knows that an Author is writing about him, and will do anything to avoid acting as a protagonist of a book. But this Author will not abandon his pursuit, and vows to punish Ovid, his wayward protagonist.
“A remarkable book, a vivid testimonial to the horrors of the Syrian civil war.”—Robert F. Worth, author of A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil Set in Aleppo in 2012, when everyday life was metronomically punctuated by steady bombing, Roundabout of Death offers powerful witness to the violence that obliterated the ancient city's rich layers of history, its neighborhoods, and its medieval and Ottoman architectural landmarks. The novel is told from the perspective of an ordinary man, a schoolteacher of Arabic for whom even daily errands become a life-threatening task. He experiences firsthand the wide-scale destruction wrought upon the monumental Syrian metropolis as it became the stage for a vicious struggle between warring powers. Death hovers ever closer while the teacher roams Aleppo’s streets and byways, minutely observing the perils of urban life in an uncanny twist on Baudelaire's flâneur. Navigating roadblocks and dodging sniper bullets on visits to his mother and sister in the rebel-held eastern sector of the city, the teacher clings to normality with a daily ritual of coffee with friends, where conversation is casually permeated by news of the latest blasts and demise. The novel, a literary edifice erected as an unflinching response to the painful erasure of the physical remnants of a once great city, speaks eloquently of the fragmentation of human existence, the oppressive rule of ISIS militants in nearby Raqqa, the calamities of war and its grinding emotional toll.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 672: Roundabouts: An Informational Guide - Second Edition explores the planning, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of roundabouts. The report also addresses issues that may be useful in helping to explain the trade-offs associated with roundabouts. This report updates the U.S. Federal Highway Administration's Roundabouts: An Informational Guide, based on experience gained in the United States since that guide was published in 2000.
Once a small Quaker town, Carmel, Indiana, is now a city of more than 80,000 people and growing. What has set Carmel apart from most other communities surrounding major cities in the United States has been its focus on creating a more walkable, traditional city instead of the typical sprawling suburb. As mayor of the city of Carmel for nearly two decades, James Brainard has brought together civic and business leaders, developers and members of the local community to create a vibrant city with a bustling downtown.By planning ahead, Carmel has avoided the congestion of collector roads that dot the suburban American landscape. Instead, a grid system of small streets with roundabout intersections has given residents smoother, safer commutes. Carmel's Arts & Design District is home to many galleries, shops and restaurants. In addition, the business-friendly city boasts one of the most concentrated office districts in the state of Indiana.One of the most recent additions to Carmel's downtown is a 1,600 seat concert hall, the Palladium, which hosts symphonies and musical acts from around the world.
One common feature of the wave of recent revolutions and revolts around the world is not political but rather architectural: many erupted on inner-city roundabouts. In thinking about the relation between protest and urban form, Eyal Weizman starts with the May 1980 uprising in Gwangju, South Korea, the first of the “roundabout revolutions,” and traces its lineage to the Arab Spring and its hellish aftermath. Rereading the history of the roundabout through the vortices of history that traverse it, the book follows the development of the roundabout in Europe and North America in the early twentieth century, to its subsequent export to the colonial world in the context of attempts to discipline and police the “chaotic” non-Western city. How did an urban apparatus put in the service of authoritarian power became the locus of its undoing? Today, as the tide of revolt that characterized the Arab Spring seems to ebb, when nations and societies disintegrate by brutal civil wars and military oppression, the series of revolutions might seem like Dante's circles of hell. To counter this counter-revolution, Weizman proposes that the immanent power of the people at the roundabouts will need to find its corollary in sustained work at round tables—the ongoing formation of political movements able to enact political change. The sixth volume of the Critical Spatial Practice series stems from Eyal Weizman's contribution to the Gwangju Folly II in 2013, an exhibition curated by Nikolaus Hirsch with Philipp Misselwitz and Eui Young Chun for the Gwangju Biennale. Weizman and the architect Samaneh Moafi constructed a folly composed of seven roundabouts and a round table in front of the Gwangju train station, one of the central points in the events of May 1980. Critical Spatial Practice 6 With Blake Fisher and Samaneh Moafi Edited by Nikolaus Hirsch, Markus Miessen Featuring photography by Kyungsub Shin
Presents a plan for American cities that focuses on making downtowns walkable and less attractive to drivers through smart growth and sustainable design
Whether it's meeting that special friend, or finally getting that long-awaited cupcake, it's the little things that count in this sweet story of a little polka-dotted elephant, Mike Curato's Little Elliot, Big City. Amid the hustle and bustle of the big city, the big crowds and bigger buildings, Little Elliot leads a quiet life. In spite of the challenges he faces, Elliot finds many wonderful things to enjoy—like cupcakes! And when his problems seem insurmountable, Elliot discovers something even sweeter—a friend.
