Stefan Novakovic
@novakovicto.bsky.social
Writer + Editor | Architecture + Cities | Senior Editor, Azure Magazine
Like many cities, Madrid comfortably integrates restaurants/cafes into public space. Why not in North America? I could be wrong but 2 ideas. 1) good public spaces are scarce so we treat them kind of religiously. 2) how would duty of care and liability be divided between the city and the restaurant?
October 3, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Like many cities, Madrid comfortably integrates restaurants/cafes into public space. Why not in North America? I could be wrong but 2 ideas. 1) good public spaces are scarce so we treat them kind of religiously. 2) how would duty of care and liability be divided between the city and the restaurant?
Tokyo. The world’s biggest city is profoundly shaped by smallness.
August 28, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Tokyo. The world’s biggest city is profoundly shaped by smallness.
A key to small buildings? Small garbage trucks. www.azuremagazine.com/article/park...
August 26, 2025 at 1:27 AM
A key to small buildings? Small garbage trucks. www.azuremagazine.com/article/park...
There’s tiny lots and then there’s tiny lots.
August 26, 2025 at 1:07 AM
There’s tiny lots and then there’s tiny lots.
Tall buildings, tiny lots. Asakusa, Tokyo.
August 25, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Tall buildings, tiny lots. Asakusa, Tokyo.
Downtown Mississauga really distills the GTA’s deeply weird melange of urban conditions. A giant suburban shopping mall, surrounded by surface parking, surrounded by a huge cluster of new-build towers, surrounded by single-family suburbia. The Toronto turducken.
July 28, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Downtown Mississauga really distills the GTA’s deeply weird melange of urban conditions. A giant suburban shopping mall, surrounded by surface parking, surrounded by a huge cluster of new-build towers, surrounded by single-family suburbia. The Toronto turducken.
Sure we’re all talking about how Venice is friendly to pedestrians, but what of its hostility to urine?
May 11, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Sure we’re all talking about how Venice is friendly to pedestrians, but what of its hostility to urine?
Cherry Blossom season transforms my neighbourhood into a hub of pedestrian life every year. But people end up hanging out in parking lots because there’s nowhere to sit. We’re on a subway beside a major park, but there’s no place to hang out.
May 4, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Cherry Blossom season transforms my neighbourhood into a hub of pedestrian life every year. But people end up hanging out in parking lots because there’s nowhere to sit. We’re on a subway beside a major park, but there’s no place to hang out.
Annex. Downtown Toronto. Demolishing a tall office building for a marginally taller apartment complex in a neighbourhood single-family. This is basically climate arson.
May 3, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Annex. Downtown Toronto. Demolishing a tall office building for a marginally taller apartment complex in a neighbourhood single-family. This is basically climate arson.
Greater Los Angeles. A vast geography of warehouses, shipping depots, fulfillment centres. The spatial logic of a global economy of supply chain logistics, e-commerce, same day delivery—a 21st century trend that far eclipses urban gentrification in consequence. I wonder what’ll happen to it all now.
April 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Greater Los Angeles. A vast geography of warehouses, shipping depots, fulfillment centres. The spatial logic of a global economy of supply chain logistics, e-commerce, same day delivery—a 21st century trend that far eclipses urban gentrification in consequence. I wonder what’ll happen to it all now.
The new “accessible” entrance to the grandest library at the University of Toronto.
March 7, 2025 at 12:01 AM
The new “accessible” entrance to the grandest library at the University of Toronto.
I mean look at this. A third-rate ripoff of an idea that was misguided to begin with. At least firms like Snohetta did it with flair.
March 6, 2025 at 11:58 PM
I mean look at this. A third-rate ripoff of an idea that was misguided to begin with. At least firms like Snohetta did it with flair.
Beyond the lack of accessibility, I don’t see a whole lot of hanging out on the “hangout stairs.”
March 6, 2025 at 11:53 PM
Beyond the lack of accessibility, I don’t see a whole lot of hanging out on the “hangout stairs.”
Nothing like a big snowfall to lay bare our prioritization of cars over people. Days after the snow, being a pedestrian in Toronto — on a public TDSB property — means navigating a dangerous, slippery maze. What a walk to class for the kids at Keele Street Public School…
February 20, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Nothing like a big snowfall to lay bare our prioritization of cars over people. Days after the snow, being a pedestrian in Toronto — on a public TDSB property — means navigating a dangerous, slippery maze. What a walk to class for the kids at Keele Street Public School…
A Toronto mansion newly converted and expanded into 9 apartments. Feels at home beside both houses and towers. This type of conversion was once very common, and its results shaped streets like Palmerston and High Park, creating affordability. Sadly, reconversions back to SFH are now more frequent.
January 27, 2025 at 2:28 PM
A Toronto mansion newly converted and expanded into 9 apartments. Feels at home beside both houses and towers. This type of conversion was once very common, and its results shaped streets like Palmerston and High Park, creating affordability. Sadly, reconversions back to SFH are now more frequent.
It’s @jmings.bsky.social’s world, we’re just living in it.
January 19, 2025 at 10:10 PM
It’s @jmings.bsky.social’s world, we’re just living in it.
New Belgrade, brutalist intimacy.
January 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
New Belgrade, brutalist intimacy.
Different people are saying different things:
January 6, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Different people are saying different things:
I’ve been getting different responses (screenshotting cause I don’t know how to copy posts on here).
January 5, 2025 at 10:17 PM
I’ve been getting different responses (screenshotting cause I don’t know how to copy posts on here).
Can a slab form apartment tower be urban and pedestrian friendly? Here’s one at Lawrence & Weston with 10 street level retail units. Maybe it’s not exemplary urban design, but this stretch is arguably the most cosmopolitan “big city” pocket of Toronto—and a lot of it is big 20th century slab towers.
December 28, 2024 at 7:55 PM
Can a slab form apartment tower be urban and pedestrian friendly? Here’s one at Lawrence & Weston with 10 street level retail units. Maybe it’s not exemplary urban design, but this stretch is arguably the most cosmopolitan “big city” pocket of Toronto—and a lot of it is big 20th century slab towers.
A palimpsest of Toronto’s architectural heritage at Runnymede and St Clair. While we’re often tempted to return buildings to some imagined pristine original state, but sometimes the messiness is the real prevailing character.
December 28, 2024 at 5:24 PM
A palimpsest of Toronto’s architectural heritage at Runnymede and St Clair. While we’re often tempted to return buildings to some imagined pristine original state, but sometimes the messiness is the real prevailing character.
Toronto’s wealth of suburban slab towers is striking from above. I grew up in one when my family came to Canada and I still live in one now. The diversity and inclusion that we celebrate about this city is channelled through these buildings. This is our civic heritage — so let’s be proud of it.
December 15, 2024 at 7:33 PM
Toronto’s wealth of suburban slab towers is striking from above. I grew up in one when my family came to Canada and I still live in one now. The diversity and inclusion that we celebrate about this city is channelled through these buildings. This is our civic heritage — so let’s be proud of it.
Toronto from Ward’s Island.
December 7, 2024 at 9:31 PM
Toronto from Ward’s Island.