Welcome to Building Probable! 👋
Essays on the technology that changes what's possible, design that imagines what's plausible, and the reality of what's probable.
Why subscribe?
The built environment is the context we all live in. It has deep reaching impacts on all our lives.
We’ve been building since the dawn of civilization, you’d expect we would be really good at it by now. However, our built environment today remains an impossible challenge.
The built environment accounts for 42% of annual CO2 emissions
The construction industry faces an insurmountable labor shortage
A lack of housing supply keeps prices unaffordable
US infrastructure is overstretched and under performing while demand is increasing.
All the while, construction productivity is actually decreasing.
We can claw our way out of this mess!
We are optimistic that:
Advances in technology will create new possibilities, redefining how we build.
Design will make the outrageous plausible, imagining better futures.
We can make the newly possible feel plausible. With a little collective effort, we can make a better future probable.
Join us on this journey. We’ll be glad you did 😀
What Can I Expect As a Subscriber?
Here are some examples of what you can expect.
Dives into technology from the perspective of Architecture and Design:
Introductions to companies innovating how we build:
Policy and trends affecting our built environment:
Detours into topics we’re interested in:
Book Review | Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
Who Writes Building Probable?
Building Probable is written by Libo Li and Pyline Tangsuvanich.
Libo is a designer and programmer. He’s worked at the intersection of design and technology throughout his career. His insights come from years of learning by doing at companies like KPF, WeWork, CBRE, and Meta.
Pyline is an architect and workflow operations enthusiast. She’s excited by all of the innovation happening in one of the world’s oldest sectors - buildings.
