Propane in air conditioners, Anduril making submarine parts, nuclear reactors on the moon, the robotic hand landscape, and more. The Miraculous Draft of Fishes, by Konrad Witz, via Wikipedia . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at propane in air conditioners, Anduril making submarine par

PLATO V terminal, via Wikipedia . In 1960, a team at the University of Illinois released the first version of their PLATO “computerized instruction system,” a network of what would eventually be thousands of computer terminals connected to large mainframe computers. Users of PLATO could use the system to learn about various topics, with courses on subjects such as chemistry, math, music, and forei

A Senate permitting reform bill, the potential of Tesla’s Cybercab, the Navy’s $200 billion worth of shipyard renovations, returning a SR-71 to service, and more. Annunciation with Saint Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure and industrial technology. This week we look at a Senate permitting re

An Explanation of Vision-Language-Action Models It’s been over a year since I last looked at the state of humanoid robots, and enthusiasm for the technology shows no sign of waning. Startups NEURA Robotics and Figure AI raised $1.4 billion and $1 billion , respectively, and Apptronik raised $520 million . China’s Unitree went public, raising roughly $900 million , and Agility Robotics plans to go

The Quay, Olaveaga, Bilbao by Luis Paret y Alcazar, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at ASML’s lack of European sales, a California distributed power plant, Starlink as a planetary barometer, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access be

Soap Bubbles by Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at AirBnB’s housing accelerator, rising steel prices, a resurgence of US coal power, low-head dams, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid s

Via SpaceX . If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’ve seen this famous image of three iterations of SpaceX’s Raptor rocket engine. The Raptor engine was developed for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft (the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy use the Merlin engine ); it was first test-fired in 2016, first flew on Starhopper in 2019, and first flew on a Starship prototype in 2020 and on the full S

The Iron Bridge (View of Frankfurt) by Max Beckmann, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at city permitting speeds, more efficient ground source heat pump drilling, an Amazon Air crash in Miami, cooling paint, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for

Construction is famously labor intensive: direct labor makes up close to 50% of the cost of constructing a new single-family home in the US, compared to around 6 to 8% of the cost of manufacturing a car. Unsurprisingly, there’s long been interest in automating the construction process to reduce the amount of labor required, and therefore the cost of housing. The earliest attempt at automating cons

Spring Waters by Vilhelms Purvitis, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at SpaceX’s turbine blade factory, Fervo’s deal with Google, Delhi’s cheap metro, why recycling is overrated, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full access become a paid s

Via Wikipedia . This is my third and final essay looking at the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, and how it’s likely to affect housing supply. As I’ve noted in my previous two essays, this is a sprawling piece of legislation, with 59 sections spread across 12 different “titles.” So far we’ve looked at Titles I, II, and III, which together contain 24 individual sections. In this post, I’ll look at

Morning in the Tropics by Frederic Edwin Church, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at sinking London homes, US magnesium manufacturing, the World Humanoid Robot games, catastrophic flooding in Nepal, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full ac

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is the largest crude oil storage facility in the world. It’s capable of storing 714 million barrels of oil, slightly less than 10% of the US’s annual oil consumption . Built in response to OAPEC ’s 1973 oil embargo, the SPR was created to insulate the US from oil supply shocks: to make up for shortfalls and prevent steep price increases should oil imports b

View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds , by Jacob van Ruisdael, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at Los Angeles’ ADUs, electrical transformer manufacturing, gas turbine power plants, how water in the Colorado River is used, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is

Home price declines, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, The Boring Company fundraising, and more. Fishing for Souls, by Adriaen van de Venne, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at home price declines, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, The Boring Company’s $4 billion fundraise,

This is the second installment of my look under the hood of the recently passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, looking at what each provision actually does and trying to suss out its actual impact on housing supply. You can read my previous essay on Title I of the Act here . This time I’ll look at Title II, “Building More in America,” and Title III, “Manufactured Housing For America,” which hav

House over the Bridge by Diego Rivera, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, and industrial technology. This week we look at the Endangered Species Act and housing production, why it’s hard for LEGO to use 3D printing, robotic welding and shipbuilding, modular data centers, and more. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is

Home under construction, via Wikipedia . A few weeks ago the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law . This is an enormous housing bill that’s been in the works for roughly a year — I first discussed it on Statecraft back in 2025 — and folks are optimistic that it will, per its description, “increase the supply of housing in America.” But actually understanding what, specifically, the law will

The Creation of the World, by Ivan Aivazovsky, via WikiArt . Welcome to the reading list, a weekly roundup of news and links related to buildings, infrastructure, industrial technology. This week we look at pepper-spray drones, China’s chip Manhattan Project, Commonwealth Fusion’s fundraise, and a proposed Dulles Airport renovation. Roughly 2/3rds of the reading list is paywalled, so for full acce

A battery technology that’s getting a lot of attention is solid-state batteries, lithium-ion batteries that replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid material. Chinese battery manufacturer CATL alone had more than 1,000 people devoted to solid-state battery research as of 2024, and battery manufacturers like BYD , LG , and Samsung are also working on the technology. US and European startups maki