The hottest Architecture Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

Scaling Zerodha's Reporting System through 7 million PostgreSQL tables

Engineering At Scale • 15 implied HN points • 09 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. Zerodha created an innovative system with 7 million PostgreSQL tables to handle user reporting requests efficiently. This solution tackled issues with slow queries and poor user experiences during busy periods.
  2. They switched from a synchronous to an asynchronous model, allowing users to submit requests and check back later for results. This change improved the overall user experience significantly.
  3. The new architecture involved using a temporary database to handle queries and storing results in many tables. While it works well for now, they might need to consider other solutions if user growth continues rapidly.

Making architecture easy

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 18 implied HN points • 22 Nov 24
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Architectural styles should prioritize ease of appreciation for the public, as buildings are experienced by many, not just their owners. This makes it important for styles to be friendly and accessible to everyone.
  2. There's a difference between 'easy' and 'challenging' styles in architecture. Easy styles are enjoyable without much effort, while challenging styles can be difficult to appreciate for most people.
  3. Modern architecture often tends to be less appealing to the general public, leading to a need for styles that blend traditional principles to ensure buildings fit well into everyday environments.

The Wells of Venice

Of All Trades • 12 implied HN points • 10 Feb 25
💾 History Architecture
  1. Venice faced a big problem getting fresh water because it is surrounded by saltwater. To solve this, the people invented clever rainwater cisterns and wells.
  2. The Venetian wells used a special system that filtered rainwater to keep it clean. This made clean drinking water available despite the challenges of their environment.
  3. These historical wells show human creativity in solving problems. They remind us that, even without modern technology, people in the past found smart ways to adapt to their surroundings.

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

Urben Field Notes • 43 implied HN points • 04 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  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.

Are Single-Stair Buildings the New ADUs?

The New Urban Order • 2 HN points • 10 May 24
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Building codes influence the architecture of cities, leading to big, boxy buildings with uniform designs.
  2. Advocates are pushing for building code reforms to allow single-stair buildings, which are common in European countries with fewer fire deaths per capita than the US.
  3. Recent changes in cities like Seattle, Tennessee, and Austin show a shift towards enabling single-stair buildings as a way to promote gentle density and climate resilience.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Brick Lane Cybernetics

Cybernetic Forests • 39 implied HN points • 27 Dec 21
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture
  1. Annetta Pedretti was a cybernetic linguist known for fostering conversations about conversations, emphasizing the importance of writing and communicating consciously.
  2. Language is a complex system that reflects history and meaning, requiring active listening, questioning, and response to understand its nuances.
  3. Cybernetics is about relationships between complex systems, such as language and architecture, and involves navigating boundaries, challenging clichés, and engaging in curious, slow-building conversations.

Sayram Antiquities - Alexander Geins, 1898

The Library of Alexandria Ultima • 5 implied HN points • 24 Jun 25
💾 History Architecture
  1. Sayram is a historic city in southern Kazakhstan with deep roots in history and culture. It has many ancient sites and stories tied to famous figures like Alexander the Great.
  2. The local people attribute the construction of old sites to revered figures, showing how history can evolve into myths over time. This reflects how communities connect with their past.
  3. Sayram is known for its beautiful gardens and significant Muslim sites, with many ancient graves and monuments that highlight its religious importance and stunning architecture.

Of Eagles and Terra Cotta

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 79 implied HN points • 29 Jan 21
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. There are many eagle sculptures in Seattle, especially made from terra cotta. They're designed to show off strength and grace, reflecting the traits people admire in bald eagles.
  2. The bald eagle population in Seattle is growing, thanks to efforts like banning harmful chemicals. People can enjoy watching these beautiful birds in urban areas.
  3. The Camlin Hotel is home to a famous terra cotta eagle, and it's just one of many artistic ways that Seattle honors this powerful symbol.

Nate Sloan: The Tradition of Posting

Do Not Research • 59 implied HN points • 20 Apr 21
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture
  1. Reactionary social media accounts are embracing 'tradition' without irony, advocating for a return to traditional art and architecture.
  2. Some accounts use anachronism to juxtapose historical periods and styles, challenging modernist aesthetics.
  3. Critique of contemporary architectural aesthetics includes a call for a clearer relationship between form and function, pointing out flaws and pitfalls in modern design.

Geometric Constraints on Computing

Bzogramming • 30 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Architecture
  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.

living in the city

the rohn report • 59 implied HN points • 18 Jan 21
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. Cities have always been important centers of human activity and civilization, even in ancient times when structures like temples were located in cities.
  2. The evolution of cities has transformed human lifestyle from a hunter/gatherer existence to urban living, with concrete pathways and towering buildings replacing forests.
  3. The streets of modern cities host a diverse mix of people, from urban dwellers to street individuals, embodying distinct aspects of human adaptation and survival.

Rabbit Holes 🕳️ #66

Creative Destruction • 22 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. Aggressively tackle climate breakdown with mass mobilization after severe shock.
  2. Systemic transformation needed for beautifying the world to boost sustainability and social justice.
  3. Shift from collective outrage to cooperation and shared hope for societal change.

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

Engineering At Scale • 30 implied HN points • 29 Jul 23
🕹 Technology 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.

Horse Power

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 39 implied HN points • 03 Jun 21
💾 History Architecture
  1. In early Seattle, horses were the main mode of transportation, used for trolleys, fire engines, and carts. There were almost 4,000 horse-drawn vehicles counted in one day in 1904.
  2. There are only a few remnants of the past, like old stables that once housed hundreds of horses. One stable has been turned into a brewery, while another has an iconic horse head on its facade.
  3. You can still find hitching posts and stepping stones around Capitol Hill, showing how people used to disembark from horse-drawn vehicles. These reminders of history help connect us to the past.

That Rose-Colored Campus Life

Shore Leave • 19 implied HN points • 05 May 22
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. Walking through Seoul's campuses feels vibrant and lively. The blend of nature and modern architecture makes it a refreshing experience compared to other cities.
  2. Korean universities often incorporate mountains into their campuses, which adds a unique beauty. This design influences student activities and gives campuses a special charm.
  3. Many people find a strong emotional connection to college campuses. They can represent a time of personal growth and memorable experiences in life.

Britain’s interwar apartment boom

The Works in Progress Newsletter • 15 implied HN points • 27 Feb 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture
  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.

To Build or to Reuse? A CDK Question

Making It Up • 1 HN point • 11 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. CDK offers the flexibility to reuse existing resources or create new ones in your architecture for different environments.
  2. By incorporating conditionals and the ability to import resources via ARN, CDK allows code deployment into both fresh and existing environments from the same codebase.
  3. Using CDK, it's feasible to create custom constructs with logic for reusing or building infrastructure, making it simpler to manage and deploy resources across different states of environments.

Stark and Exposed

Natural Selections • 21 implied HN points • 21 Mar 23
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. The modern way is to sanitize and control your surroundings to avoid imperfections and surprises.
  2. Trusting experts and following standardized aesthetics can lead to a sterile living environment.
  3. Balancing controlled indoor spaces with exposure to nature and elements can bring vitality and appreciation for life.

Episode 23: Burkhard On Qt Embedded Systems

burkhardstubert • 19 implied HN points • 08 Nov 21
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. Hexagonal architecture is suggested as the standard for Qt embedded systems. This architecture helps organize code and makes it easier to manage.
  2. Current navigation apps in cars often lack self-learning features. A better app would remember routes taken and suggest them based on past trips.
  3. Automatic software updates are crucial for embedded systems. This helps companies quickly fix problems or add features without needing to send technicians.

Monolith is not dead and it scales

Cloud Weekly • 17 implied HN points • 06 May 23
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. Serverless may not always be the most cost-effective option, even for big companies like Amazon Prime.
  2. Using ECS to package services in one container can help reduce costs and improve scalability.
  3. Architectures should evolve based on business needs and not just follow trends or debates.

Will PostgreSQL switch to a Thread-based model ?

Engineering At Scale • 15 implied HN points • 24 Jun 23
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. PostgreSQL currently uses a process-based model for handling client connections and managing data.
  2. The process-based model offers advantages like fault isolation, security guarantees, and efficient resource management.
  3. Although there are advantages to the process-based model, the community is considering a switch to a thread-based model for PostgreSQL in the future.

Street Appeal

Street Smart Naturalist: Explorations of the Urban Kind • 19 implied HN points • 14 May 21
🎭️ Culture Architecture
  1. The history of street materials can be fascinating. For example, some roads in Seattle are made of old sandstone from 40 million years ago.
  2. The Giro d'Italia bike race highlights how different types of stone impact performance, like the slippery San Pietrini cobbles in Italy.
  3. Understanding the types of rocks used in construction can help avoid mistakes when building. Rock types like basalt and travertine have unique qualities that are important.

Episode 18: Burkhard on Qt Embedded Systems

burkhardstubert • 19 implied HN points • 07 Jun 21
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. A good architecture meets three criteria: it should be technically sound, fulfill the needs of stakeholders, and deliver real value. Mixing different architectural patterns often results in better designs.
  2. Understanding and addressing operating conditions like temperature or dust is important in system architecture. These factors can influence design decisions considerably.
  3. It's crucial to balance modeling and implementation for successful architecture. Rely on both upfront design and iterative feedback from working code to adapt to changing requirements.

The New API

The API Changelog • 3 implied HN points • 03 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. The new API is all about flexibility. It will change itself to fit what users need instead of sticking to old rules.
  2. Users can communicate with the new API using any format or style they like, whether it's REST or GraphQL. It adapts automatically to what makes sense for each user.
  3. Developers won't have to worry about the technical details as much. They can focus on creating useful features because the API will manage itself behind the scenes.

Microservices - Getting started

Overflow • 2 HN points • 20 May 23
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. Monolithic applications have tightly coupled code, making it difficult to add new features and scale beyond a point.
  2. Microservices architecture involves breaking down applications into smaller, independent services to solve problems like scalability and deployment dependencies.
  3. Common problems with monolithic applications include challenges in adding new features, intimidating codebase for new team members, and difficulties in updating technology stack.

#41 How would you camouflage a power station?

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 09 Nov 20
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Design can be more effective when disguised to confuse or bewilder, as seen in the camouflage of infrastructure during wartime.
  2. The design trend of neumorphism, inspired by skeuomorphism, reflects a shift towards more tactile, sculptural digital interfaces.
  3. Real-world metaphors in design can offer insights into the material anxieties and creative trends in digital design.

The Architecture of Modern Observability Platforms

Bit by Bit • 11 implied HN points • 26 Jul 23
🕹 Technology Architecture
  1. Observability platforms help organizations understand the health of their applications using metrics, logs, and traces.
  2. Modern observability platforms tackle the challenge of handling large volumes of data and offer different types of architectures.
  3. Unifying the storage, ingestion, and querying layers can significantly scale and reduce costs in observability platforms.

The Moroccan Express

The Cosmopolitan Globalist • 7 implied HN points • 21 Feb 24
🏝 Travel Architecture
  1. Reading assignment provided for Middle East studies: involves skimming specific chapters of 'Peace Process' by William Quandt.
  2. Marrakech offers a unique and alluring experience: from the architecture of riads to the vibrant culture and historical significance.
  3. Insights into Moroccan monarchy and governance: showcases an example of implementing democratic reforms under a constitutional monarchy.

#28 Dreamlike houses, Netsuke and Norman's Law

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 10 Aug 20
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Designing a house to feel dreamlike involves matching a client's psychological history with unique architectural patterns.
  2. Netsuke, small toggles used with traditional Japanese clothing, evolved into elaborate decorative objects, showcasing the joy of adding artistic touches to everyday items.
  3. Design processes often involve discovering the real problem once designing begins, which can impact timelines and budgets.

#23 Whispering bridges, Detector Locks and umbrellas

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 06 Jul 20
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Designs can evolve to solve new problems in different contexts, celebrating the unpredictable life they take on once released into the world.
  2. Incorporating personality and charm into functionality, like the Detector Lock's whimsical design, can make creations more delightful and memorable.
  3. Stay open-minded like an umbrella to new ideas and information to enhance the quality of your designs and creative output.

#9 Indestructible clothes, telephone boxes & unhappy customers

Design Lobster • 19 implied HN points • 27 Mar 20
🪑 Design Architecture
  1. Designing clothes to be indestructible requires thinking of them as more than just garments, but as microhabitats that could potentially meet various needs like shelter and sustenance.
  2. Taking inspiration from unexpected sources can give ordinary objects a sense of monumentality and dignity, like how a tomb inspired the design of the iconic red telephone box.
  3. Unhappy customers are valuable sources of learning and improvement, as their feedback can provide insights and ideas that may not come from those who already appreciate your work.

The Tintin Opera House

Arjun’s Newsletter • 6 implied HN points • 13 Sep 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Architecture
  1. The Tintin Opera House was a remarkable building in Sarasota, Florida, created by the Tintin brothers.
  2. Dick Dawson, an enterprising New Yorker, transformed the failing venue into a successful establishment.
  3. After financial struggles and tragic events, the Tintin brothers had to sell the opera house, leading to its eventual transformation and loss of original beauty.