Retrospective: 5 years of blogging

It was five years ago -to the day- I started this blog and 498 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 2017:

-1-	Hermeswiese - Vienna (AT)	-1-	Am Freihof - Vienna (AT)
-2-	Am Schmalen Rain (DE)	-2-	Hermeswiese - Vienna (AT)
-3-	Karl Marx Hof - Vienna (AT)	-3-	Karl Marx Hof - Vienna (AT)
-4-	Brandevoort - Helmond (NL)	-4-	Lockerwiesesiedlung - Vienna
-5-	Eco-housing in the Netherlands (NL)	-5-	Westerpark - Breda (NL)
-6-	Agnetapark Delft (NL)	-6-	Am Schmalen Rain (DE)
-7-	Solarsiedlung - Krefeld (DE)	-7-	Brandevoort - Helmond (NL)
-8-	Unwinesque spatial design	-8-	Solarsiedlung - Krefeld (DE)
-9-	EVA-Lanxmeer - Culemborg (NL)	-9-	Beguinage - Turnhout (BE)
-10-	Campine workers colonies (BE)	-10-	EVA-Lanxmeer - Culemborg (NL)

There have been remarkable changes in the Top 10. Last year’s number 1 Am Freihof has dropped out of the top 10. Number 2 has moved to top position and Am Schmalen Rain has become second. Newcomers are Eco-housing, Unwinesque design , Agnetapark and Campine workers colonies. Posts that have disappeared from the Top 10 are mostly in the Top 25. Westerpark in Breda,  the Beguinage of Turnhout, Am Freihof, Model villages, Hydrologically neutral development, Onkel Toms Hütte, Beringen-Mijn, Solarsiedlungen NRW,  NewUrbanism explained, Bookworming: Camillo Sitte, Luchtbal Antwerp, Carl Seitz Hof in Vienna, Letchworth Garden City, and  Bookworming: Ebenezer Howard complete this year’s Top 25.

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

-318-	The City Plan, a Tale of twin cities *	-263-	Cités Jardins - Brussels (BE)
-316-	Factory villages, Kamp Beverlo (BE)	-262-	Brandenburg a/d Havel (DE)
-314-	Brandenburg a/d Havel (DE), Nuremberg (DE)	-261-	Suburbs Utrecht (NL), The City Plan
-312-	Garden Squares - London,	-259-	Garden Squares - London, Market Towns in the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU)
-311-	Little known grids: Düsseldorf (DE), Cités Jardin Brussels (BE)	-257-	Factory villages, Industrial revolution: Belgium, Lierre (BE) and Vught (NL)
-309-	Vught (NL), Antwerp pleasaunces (BE), Market Towns in the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU) and Antwerp building upwards (BE)	-253-	Little known grids: Düsseldorf (DE), Trajectum and Utrecht (NL)
-305-	Noordoostpolder (NL)	-250-	Cité Jardin Seraing (BE), Metroland - London (UK), Antwerp building upwards (BE)
-304-	Metroland - London (UK), Watercities a topology and Nordbahndorfl – Stuttgart (DE)	-247-	Noordoostpolder (NL)
-301-	Southgate (UK)	-246-	New Towns (NL)
-300-	New Towns (NL), Water cities in the Low Countries (BE-NL-LU) and Kielpark – Antwerp (BE)	-245-	Southgate (UK) and 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 again 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, Saxon Borg Towns, Water Cities, Fortified Cities or Model Homes are by definition less popular that posts on a specific project or urban area. New Urbanism and Beguinages are in the top 25 whilst some 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 318 "proper posts" in total over the past five 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.

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

-1-	Glow Eindhoven (2016)	-1-	Urban nature: invasive (2016)
-2-	Lainzer Tiergarten (2016)	-2-	Lainzer Tiergarten (2016)
-3-	Urban nature: invaders (2016)	-3-	Glow Eindhoven (2016)
-4-	Silly Walks (2016)	-4-	Housing Expo Almere (2016)
-5-	Housing Expo Almere (2016)	-5-	Urban nature: wild in the city (2016)
-6-	Urban nature: wild in the city (2016)	-6-	Silly Walks (2016)
-7-	Good to have you here (2017)	-7-	Urban nature: on the wall (2016)
-8-	Fully flushed (2017)	-8-	Urban nature: ubiquitous (2016)
-9-	On Dutch Gables (2014)	-9-	Urban nature: more survivalists (2016)
-10-	Urban nature: wild by plan (2016)	-10-	On Dutch Gables (2014)