The hottest Architecture Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Authorization in microservice architecture, P0: Introduction

Hung's Notes • 3 HN points • 18 Jul 24
🕹 Technology Software Security Architecture Data Management Access Control
  1. Building a solid authorization system in microservices is tough since there aren’t clear guidelines. It's vital to share experiences for better solutions.
  2. Managing permissions can get complicated as a business grows. A better approach is needed to handle access control efficiently.
  3. Security is critical in public safety products, and proper access management helps maintain trust and legal compliance.

Manhattan Hotel Futurism

Kneeling Bus • 136 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
🎭️ Culture Nostalgia City Planning Architecture Cultural Preservation
  1. Cities are facing an existential crisis as urban activities move online, disconnecting from physical spaces.
  2. New York is clinging to past eras due to powerful nostalgia, which hinders progress and adaptation to emergent forces like technology.
  3. The future city may resemble suburbs more than traditional urban areas, with less inertia to hold onto the past and more openness to embrace technological advancements.

Problem: Break Down A Monolith Application Into Microservices

SkylineCodes • 19 implied HN points • 10 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Architecture Scaling Communication Design
  1. Decomposing a monolithic application into microservices pattern helps scale and deploy services independently which is crucial for agility and quick feature updates in a competitive market.
  2. Understanding the Scale Cube model and its dimensions (X-axis scaling, Y-axis scaling, Z-axis scaling) is essential for designing scalable and resilient software architectures.
  3. Decomposing by business capability and subdomain are effective strategies for breaking down microservices, ensuring cohesive and loosely coupled services aligned with business needs.

Back-end for Front-end Pattern in Ecommerce

Cristian’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 10 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Development Architecture APIs Microservices Patterns
  1. Back-end for Front-end (BFF) pattern helps reduce front-end complexity by acting as an interface between front-end and microservices/APIs.
  2. BFF pattern separates front-end requirements from back-end concerns, making the application easier to maintain and more resilient to API changes.
  3. Implementing BFF pattern can improve error handling, maintainability, and performance in an ecommerce platform by allowing for better control over API consumption and reducing network steps.

5 Historical Quirks to Spot at... The Barbican

Londonist: Time Machine • 39 implied HN points • 01 Sep 23
💾 History Historical Sites Architecture
  1. The Barbican in London has historical quirks like stained glass skyscrapers, a vertical graveyard, and a musical tree.
  2. The Barbican is a 1970s maze of concrete and cultural centers with secrets from its Blitzed past.
  3. The Londonist newsletter for paid subscribers highlights historical sights in well-known areas, offering insights and recommendations.
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Highland Park Captured My Heart

Cornerstone • 39 implied HN points • 14 Jul 23
🎭️ Culture Urbanism Architecture Community Nature History
  1. Highland Park in Pittsburgh exemplifies a beautiful blend of closely spaced homes, walkability, and a large park.
  2. The neighborhood showcases the potential of human-scale urban planning with diverse housing types and economic integration.
  3. Highland Park's organic beauty and timeless charm highlight the possibility of creating similar communities if granted permission and freedom in development.

4 Things This Week

The New Urban Order • 19 implied HN points • 06 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Cities Architecture Technology Trends
  1. The Vision Pro mixed reality headset may lead to societal divisions and changes in the nature of reality, prompting a need for new terms to describe this shift.
  2. Oklahoma City's potential construction of the country's tallest skyscraper with a mixed-use concept could signal a new era of skyscraper design in the U.S.
  3. Exploration of 'pocket neighborhoods' as an emerging concept in urban planning and architecture.

Nurse Buildings

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 159 implied HN points • 19 May 22
🌞 Climate & Environment Ecology Botany History Architecture Urban Design
  1. Nurse buildings, like the Colosseum, are structures where plants can thrive, thanks to their materials and existing cavities that hold seeds and moisture. This creates a unique environment for plant growth.
  2. The Colosseum has over 600 plant species recorded, showing how nature can reclaim man-made structures, even after efforts to remove them.
  3. Living walls in buildings can enhance urban spaces by providing natural beauty and habitat for plants, making cities greener and more inviting.

30 Jan 2024 – Windowless skyscrapers and random numbers

Outsider Art • 19 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Literature History Architecture Books Art
  1. Some skyscrapers lack windows and were constructed in the 1960s-1970s to house telecommunications equipment, like 33 Thomas Street in New York City.
  2. Windowless skyscrapers were designed to aid in temperature control and protect against external threats, including withstanding a nuclear blast.
  3. The Brutalist design of windowless skyscrapers like 33 Thomas Street replaced earlier Art Deco telecommunications hubs, ushering in an age of mass surveillance.

Think the city is a museum? Wait until you hear about the suburbs

Urben Field Notes • 43 implied HN points • 04 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Urbanism Architecture Housing Historic Preservation
  1. The housing crisis is not just in cities, but also in suburbs where banal cityscapes are treated as architectural gems.
  2. Historic preservation policies in expensive cities like New York often benefit elite areas while ignoring the suburbs and banal neighborhoods.
  3. Efforts to address housing shortages in major cities like New York require redeveloping existing structures and involving suburbs in housing solutions.

The History of The Mechanical Clock

Endless Explorations • 79 implied HN points • 12 Mar 23
💾 History Technology Science Culture Architecture Society
  1. Mechanical clocks changed how we view and manage time. Before them, timekeeping was less precise and influenced by nature.
  2. The Black Death pandemic increased the need for time management, leading to the widespread use of clocks in towns.
  3. The escapement mechanism was a key invention that made mechanical clocks more accurate and reliable, changing daily life forever.

#67 Form is everything

Design Lobster • 239 implied HN points • 10 May 21
🪑 Design Architecture Furniture Quotes Form Innovation
  1. Designing with form can influence the psychological state of people experiencing it - like lower ceilings in buildings that help calm heated discussions.
  2. Pushing the boundaries of traditional form can lead to innovative and unique designs - like the Pelican chair by Finn Juhl that hugs the sitter with its sculptural arms.
  3. Focusing on form in design can reveal hidden surprises and create memorable experiences - as Enzo Mari suggests, 'Form is everything.'

Where Are They Now?

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 119 implied HN points • 16 Jun 22
🎭️ Culture Art History Architecture Sculpture
  1. There are large terra cotta sculptures from Seattle's history that were once on top of buildings but were saved when the buildings were demolished. These figures were made to honor Native American history.
  2. The terra cotta figures have been relocated to various places, including parks and museums, but some still remain unaccounted for. People are curious about their current whereabouts.
  3. One of the figures was recently discovered in Kirkland, showing that these historical artifacts might be hiding in unexpected places, like someone's yard.

#61 How to sabotage a Zoom call

Design Lobster • 239 implied HN points • 29 Mar 21
🪑 Design Tech Architecture Quote Craft
  1. A browser tool called Zoom Escaper allows users to self-sabotage Zoom calls with bizarre sound effects, addressing the need for disconnection in our highly connected age.
  2. Anni Albers, a celebrated artist and weaver, innovated by weaving a fabric using chenille and cellophane threads to solve practical design problems with sound absorption and reflective qualities.
  3. The quality of design often depends on the client, highlighting the importance of collaboration and communication between designers and clients for successful outcomes.

Poetry in Stone

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 139 implied HN points • 03 Mar 22
📚 Literature Poetry Architecture Nature History Culture
  1. Tor House and Hawk Tower were built by poet Robinson Jeffers and deeply connect with the natural landscape. The buildings seem to rise naturally from the hillside, blending with the environment around them.
  2. Jeffers had a strong bond with nature, which greatly influenced his poetry. He wrote about the land, ocean, and life around him in a way that paints vivid images and teaches readers about the natural world.
  3. Geological elements frequently appear in Jeffers' work. He described rocks and waves with rich metaphors, showing the power and beauty of the earth, and felt a strong connection to the land he built his home on.

Geometric Constraints on Computing

Bzogramming • 30 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Computing Physics Architecture Optimization Future Trends
  1. The physical constraints of computing, such as distance and volume, significantly impact performance and efficiency.
  2. Parallelism at different scales within a program can affect latency and performance, offering opportunities for optimization.
  3. Considerations like curvature of computation, square-cube law, and heat generation play a crucial role in the design and limitations of computer chips.

Design an Application with 3 Layer Architecture[Systems Design Sundays]

Technology Made Simple • 39 implied HN points • 07 Nov 22
🕹 Technology Architecture Software Coding Newsletter
  1. One of the classic patterns in software design is the Layers Pattern, promoting low coupling and high cohesion among different layers.
  2. 3 Layer Architecture has been widely used in software development for decades, segregating applications into three logical and physical computing tiers.
  3. Despite modern advancements, the simplicity, flexibility, and practicality of the 3-layer architecture make it a foundational choice in software development.

#65 Details that tell a story

Design Lobster • 159 implied HN points • 26 Apr 21
🪑 Design Architecture Creative Quotes
  1. Design details can tell a story by revealing historical eras in architecture and showcasing craftsmanship as seen in skeleton clocks
  2. Consider allowing elements of your design to reveal inner workings for a more transparent user experience
  3. Design has the power to renew perception and make us more alert to our surroundings

The Context Window Dillema

Davis Treybig • 19 implied HN points • 24 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Research Models Attention Architecture Innovation
  1. The driving factor limiting context window size is the quadratic scaling of self-attention in transformers.
  2. New research explores alternative mechanisms like Hyena Operators, State Space Models, and hierarchical attention to improve context window efficiency.
  3. Emphasis is placed on the importance of context curation and retrieval systems over simply increasing context window size for effective LLM performance.

🔴 Stream: DDD Context Mapping with Clean Architecture

🔮 Crafting Tech Teams • 19 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Software Development Architecture Microservices
  1. The post discusses DDD Context Mapping and Clean Architecture, exploring their benefits and connections in software development.
  2. There is a call for feedback on chat participation and event accessibility on Linkedin, highlighting the importance of engagement in the community.
  3. Readers are encouraged to subscribe for a 7-day free trial to access more content and resources on Crafting Tech Teams.

Government as a Service

Engineering Open Societies • 19 implied HN points • 01 Apr 23
🕹 Technology Governance Software Development Consulting Architecture
  1. Government as a Service aims to address unique challenges governments face with tailored software solutions.
  2. The product strategy focuses on aligning incentives with government partners to create mutual value and revenue streams.
  3. The technical architecture emphasizes common infrastructure, modularity, and security for efficient development and deployment.

#70 Design illusions

Design Lobster • 139 implied HN points • 31 May 21
🎨 Art & Illustration Design Architecture Typography Perception Context
  1. Design can deceive our eyes through various techniques like overshooting in type design and visual illusions in architecture.
  2. Human visual perception quirks are important to consider in design to create effective and impactful visuals.
  3. Context and wit can be leveraged in design to playfully interact with surroundings, adding depth and interest to the design.

GroupBy #1

VuTrinh. • 19 implied HN points • 08 Sep 23
🕹 Technology Data Engineering Architecture AI Quality Assurance Open Source
  1. Kappa architecture simplifies data processing by combining batch and stream processing. This makes handling data more efficient compared to the traditional Lambda architecture.
  2. Presto is a powerful tool for querying large datasets, and Meta has valuable insights on using it effectively. Learning from their experience can help other teams improve their data operations.
  3. Data quality is crucial in analytics, and there are specific metrics to help measure it. Keeping track of these can prevent problems that arise from poor data.

Britain’s interwar apartment boom

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 15 implied HN points • 27 Feb 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture History
  1. Between 1934 and 1939, there was a significant boom in the construction of flats in London, with over 56,000 flats built. This period marked a shift from the predominant planning ethos of the time and led to a broad range of flats designed for different budgets and locations.
  2. The era prior to the interwar apartment boom in Britain was characterized by the construction of semi-detached homes on the outskirts of cities. The surge in private flat construction during the 1930s offered a different housing option to a wider range of people, breaking away from the norm of suburban living.
  3. The 1930s saw the rise of purpose-built flats, moving from traditional housing forms. These flats were embraced by a more affluent demographic and reflected changing lifestyles and aspirations. The historic interwar apartment boom in Britain offers insights into urban housing densification and its implications in modern city development.

The Goldilocks theory of creativity

Austin Kleon • 119 implied HN points • 07 May 21
🎭️ Culture Creativity Writing Art Architecture Music
  1. The Goldilocks theory of creativity suggests that we find the right balance between too much and too little stress in life when being creative. It's about finding that perfect spot that inspires us to create without feeling overwhelmed.
  2. Making something, even if it's not perfect, is often better than striving for an ideal. Starting with a rough draft or just creating anything can help get your creative juices flowing.
  3. When life gets tough or too easy, it can affect our ability to work creatively. Sometimes, a little challenge can make creating more enjoyable and rewarding.

Ancient Houses of Denny Hill

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 79 implied HN points • 23 Dec 21
💾 History Urban History Architecture Cultural heritage Local history
  1. Denny Hill in Seattle was heavily regraded in the early 1900s, changing the landscape significantly and moving a lot of dirt and buildings.
  2. Only two houses from Denny Hill still exist today: one is Belltown Funky Studios, which is in bad shape and might be demolished soon, and the other is on Lopez Island, having been moved there in the past.
  3. People often moved houses during the Denny Hill regrade, showing how careful movers were back then; if you know about more surviving houses, it's exciting to hear those stories.

System Design Concepts: An in-depth guide to Database sharding

Engineering At Scale • 30 implied HN points • 29 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Systems Databases Scaling Performance Architecture
  1. Database sharding splits a large dataset into chunks stored on different machines, increasing storage capacity and distributing queries for better performance.
  2. Sharding allows for high availability by avoiding a single point of failure and higher read/write throughput by distributing query load.
  3. Cost and maintenance overhead are drawbacks of sharding, and it differs from partitioning where data is stored on a single machine.