Objections to density are almost never objections to the number. They are objections to how a place feels, which is a different problem with different solutions.

Reuse is now the default position rather than the exceptional one. The interesting question is no longer whether to keep a building, but how much of it, and how visibly.

Almost every indoor space in a city now requires a transaction. The few that don't are civic buildings, and designing them well is a narrower problem than it looks.

Almost everything that determines whether a building is any good happens at an edge. The site boundary, the reveal, the threshold, the junction, four scales, one problem.

Wear, patina and repair are information. Most refurbishment removes them by default, and nobody records what was lost because nobody registered it as a choice.

Every practice has a story about a small job that turned into something. Fewer are honest about what small work costs, or how to structure it so it doesn't quietly damage the studio.