Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Reflection: four years of blogging

Four years ago -to the day- I started this blog and 413 posts have been published online since. I thought it would be a nice moment to once again reflect on which posts were most popular these past few years and which were not viewed much at all, also in comparison to my overview a year ago. So to start off the Top 10 of best viewed blog posts with on the right the ranking in 2015:

-1-
Am Freihof - Vienna (AT))
-1-
EVA-Lanxmeer - Culemborg (NL)
-2-
Hermeswiese - Vienna (AT)
-2-
Beringen Mijn - Campine (BE)
-3-
Karl Marx Hof - Vienna (AT)
-3-
Carl Seitz Hof - Vienna (AT)            
-4-
Lockerwiesesiedlung - Vienna (AT)
-4-
Cité Jardin André Dumont - Genk (BE)
-5-
Westerpark - Breda (NL)
-5-
Tuindorp Buiksloterham - Amsterdam (NL)
-6-
-6-
Luchtbal - Antwerp (BE)       
-7-
Brandevoort - Helmond (NL)
-7-
Mulhouse Quadrangle - Mulhouse (FR)
-8-
Solarsiedlung - Krefeld (DE)
-8-
Amsterdam-Zuidoost or Bijlmer (NL)           
-9-
Beguinage - Turnhout (BE)
-9-
Tower Gardens - London (UK)
-10-
EVA-Lanxmeer - Culemborg (NL)
-10-
Tuindorp Vooruit (NL)           


There have been massive changes in the Top 10. Only one of the post in the Top 10 last year has managed to hold on, most of the posts in the  list have moved much further down, especially Tuindorp Vooruit, Tower Gardens, Amsterdam-Zuidoost and the Mulhouse Quadrangle. Last year's number 1 EVA-Lanxmeer, an ecological estate, has moved to the end of this list. The Solarsiedlung in Krefeld, another ecological estate has overtaken it ranked eighth. The ecological estate of Westerpark comes in fifth place. The recent posts concerning Rotes Wien now take prime position, making up the Top 4. Other new entries are the German Garden Village Am Schmalen Rain in Gotha, the New Urbanism suburb Brandevoort in Helmond and the Beguinage of Turnhout. The mining-related housing has dropped out of the Top 10, indeed some have  dropped out of the Top 25. Some popular post just fell short of the Top 10: e.g. Carl Seitz Hof in Vienna, Beringen-Mijn, Onkel Toms Hütte in Berlin, New Urbanism explained, Ecovillages (GEN initiative), Bookworming: Camillo Sitte, Beguinage Breda, Luchtbal Antwerp and  Bookworming: Ebenezer Howard.


Equally interesting as this Top 10 are the posts in the Bottom 10:

-263-
Cités Jardins - Brussels (BE) *
-214-
Cités Jardins - Brussels (BE)
-262-
-213-
Factory Villages, Industrial Revolution (BE), Brandenburg a/d Havel (DE)
-261-
-210-
Suburbs Utrecht (NL), Market Towns in the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU), Lierre (BE) and Vught (NL)   
-259-
Garden Squares - London, Market Towns in the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU)
-206-
Garden Squares - London
-257-
Factory villages, Industrial revolution: Belgium, Lierre (BE) and Vught (NL)
-205-
Model Homes - Stuttgart (DE) and Little known grids: Düsseldorf (DE)
-253-
Little known grids: Düsseldorf (DE), Trajectum and Utrecht (NL)
-202-
Model Homes - Stuttgart (DE) and Little known grids: Düsseldorf (DE)  
-250-
-200-
Fortified Cities of the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU), Kielpark - Antwerp (BE) and Axial Interventions Munich (DE) 
-247-
-197-
Nordbahndorfl - Stuttgart (DE)
-246-
-196-
Albertopolis - London (UK)
-245-
-195-
Wiener Ringstrasse (AT)


There have again been quite some changes in the Bottom 10 compared to last year. Some of these posts in the Bottom 10 are old, others are recent. Most post that have enjoyed little attention on the blog are from the first year. So there is no clear-cut reason for these changes in overall ranking. It's not the case that general posts on a certain phenomenon (e.g. New Urbanism, Factory villages, Beguinages, Water Cities, Fortified Cities or Model Homes Exibitions) are by definition less popular that posts on a specific project or urban area. New Urbanism and Beguinages are in the top 25 whilst the post on industrialisation and factory villages are at the bottom end of the ranking.

* I'm excluding all impressions and the first post which makes for 263 "proper posts" in total over the past four years. Also within the group of least viewed post some have exactly the same amount of views, so they have been aggregated under the same ranking.


Some of the impression have proven more popular than others. This is especially true of posts in the urban nature category. So here the new top 10:

-1-
Urban nature: invasive (2016)
-1-
Urban nature: survivalists (2014)
-2-
-2-
Braem Pavilion (2014)
-3-
-3-
Late Flowers (2013)
-4-
-4-
Middelheim Sculpture Park (2014)
-5-
Urban nature: wild in the city (2016)
-5-
Polder village Buiksloot (2014)
-6-
Silly Walks (2016)
-6-
GLOW 2015 (2015)
-7-
Urban nature: on the wall (2016)
-7-
Ivy, a late developer (2014)
-8-
Urban nature: ubiquitous (2016)
-8-
Beautiful Bavarian Bells (2015)
-9-
Urban nature: more survivalists (2016)
-9-
Re-inventing the wheel (2015)
-10-
-10-
Urban nature: something special (2015)

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