
Space Invaders: A Burglar’s Guide to the City - allthebest
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/space-invaders/
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uog
I never studied literature and so never became desensitized to its particular
brand of ridiculousness, which can be fascinating in small doses.

Between the original author and the reviewer, "reshape our understanding of
the built environment" "burglary activates a different awareness of space"
"interrogations of urban design and architecture" "alternative form of
architectural criticism" ...etc. (stops skimming)

I was never much good at papers in school because I can't bullshit (plus I
somewhat don't fall for it well, making it somewhat hard to believe others
will eat it up). To the outsider, it seems ... ermmm... inventive in a way,
like something you wouldn't have thought to say yourself, but probably if you
have the humanities degree it starts to look like a well-worn set of mix-and-
match cliches like the commonly used primitives in any field.

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tekklloneer
I spent a second or two thinking about the quotes you used, and I disagree.
They're all true and expressing abstract concepts that I find hard to
simplify. That last one is definitely pushing it though.

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mrexroad
"interrogations of urban design and architecture"

this.

it'd take me paragraph(s?) to convey the concept of design systems having
personality (be it of a single designer, or the relationship/history of the
city/building/whatever-scale) and questioning "facts" and probing various
things. some things push back, some things give; sometimes you peel back
layered patchworks of systems.

when traveling, i love walking around and intentionally getting lost and
trying to "listen" [1] when visiting a new town/city -- i've always considered
this my "greeting" or "polite conversation" with a city.

if the above is a conversation, then something more brutal or invasive is an
interrogation. i've done enough construction/renovation work that i have a
solid grasp of residential building codes and their changes over past 20
years, and a more corse understanding for past 50+ years. when starting a
project, there's a "slightly invasive" probing that takes place to understand
what era(s) of building codes you're dealing with and what you can exploit or
what may be an obstacle.

so, yeah, i find "interrogations of urban design an architecture" to be a
extremely efficient and dense encoding of knowledge.

[1] smaller or older cities, walkable.

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_nullandnull_
A Burglar’s Guide to the City is a good read. I have recommended it to a
number of people. Two weeks ago while visiting San Fran I went to a security
meetup and mentioned the book. One of the individuals pulled out the book and
said he was reading it. Then he turned to a page that mentioned his name and
noted his contribution to the book. Small world. One of my favorite subjects
in the book is Nakatomi Space[1].

[1] [http://www.bldgblog.com/2010/01/nakatomi-
space/](http://www.bldgblog.com/2010/01/nakatomi-space/)

~~~
cafard
The technique goes quite a way back--it was used extensively in the urban
fighting in WW II, and I believe that the US troops used it in Buena Vista
during the Mexican War.

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__david__
He talks about a game called "Super Bad", but I believe he meant Super Hot.
[http://superhotgame.com/](http://superhotgame.com/)

~~~
CoolGuySteve
Also interesting that he neglected to mention GTA V which has several heist
missions that seem inspired by a few real life LA heists (including the hole
through the vault floor via sewer caper).

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busterarm
I read the book two weeks ago. It was decent I guess made me more aware of
some things I've been thinking about peripherally anyway.

Pretty light overall though. If anyone wants I can mail them my copy for cost
of shipping.

~~~
donclark
I would like to read it please. My address is 5620 jackson farms drive nw,
lilburn ga 30047

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pavel_lishin
> _Or consider Bill Mason, an ex-burglar Manaugh profiles, who became so adept
> at deciphering municipal building codes that he could mentally construct the
> layout of an apartment simply by scanning the placement of exterior fire
> escapes._

My weird hobby as a kid was looking at the windows of our apartment building
and figuring out which ones belonged to which apartments. I wonder if I
narrowly escaped a life of crime.

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fermigier
I thought for a moment this was about the french artist "Invader".

[http://www.space-invaders.com/home/](http://www.space-invaders.com/home/)

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stcredzero
Isn't this something that some MIT students do to their campus?

