Six Things, Volume 119

City Wildness | Frank Lloyd Wright | Animal Gender | Labyrinths | Baarle | Reality

Jul 13, 2025

Thing 1 – City Wildness

Urbanites with a fondness for nature – hello! It’s me! – are long used to finding life among the concrete. It’s easier in some cities than others (Melbourne, Cape Town and Medellín seem to figure most often in ‘Best Cities for Nature’ lists), but wherever you are, an inquisitive nature and a nose for the wild should serve you well – the natural world has a habit of thriving in the unlikeliest of places.

This is a really nice piece (with some fantastic photos by Homo Ambiens, to boot) about the world of the wild within the walls of Rome.

Thing 2 – Frank Lloyd Wright

Fans of the work of pioneering architect Frank Lloyd Wright will enjoy this: architect and 3D designer David Romero has created digital renderings of Wright’s unrealised concepts, including probably his most famous unbuilt project – “The Illinois”, a skyscraper that would have been four times the height of the Empire State Building.

If that’s whetted your appetite for a bit of FLW, you’ll probably enjoy this video tour of the legendary Fallingwater.

Thing 3 – Animal Gender

The Pudding looked at the representation of animal gender in children’s books. The results are predictably fascinating and thought-provoking.

Thing 4 – Labyrinths

I’m tempted to go to Estonia just for this

Long-term readers might remember my fondness for mazes and labyrinths, as detailed in Volume 69. You’ll have no difficulty, then, imagining my delight on discovering the existence of the Worldwide Labyrinth Locator. Find the nearest labyrinth to you, wherever you are in the world, or just have a happy browse.

Lovely stuff.