Beyond the 99% Invisible City

In 2020, Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt put out a hit illustrated hardcover book about the built environment: The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design.

Recently we revisited the 99PI City with a tour of Oakland’s built environment, discussing select designs found in the book. But in this episode, we take a step beyond those original stories.

In the five years since publication, Kurt and Roman have worked on a number of new stories with an eye toward an eventual second, revised-and-expanded paperback edition with all-new stories.

And today, rather than wait on publishers or printers, we’ve decided to share a set of four of our favorite short stories from the past half-decade—each of which correspond to one of the four main chapters of The 99% Invisible City.

1) Infrastructure

Shortly before the book came out, Roman and Kurt did an episode on roadside signs and other roadway infrastructure designs titled Highways 101. A fan had written in about strange blue stop signs, which led Kurt and Roman deep into history, at the intersection of  signage, danger, and geometry.

2) Urbanism

During the COVID pandemic, Kurt became interested in how other global disasters had historically impacted urban design. His research yielded stories not only of white-knuckled perseverance and resiliency, as one would expect, but also tenacious creativity and playful innovation. This led to a “Horsemen of the Apocalypse”-themed episode titled War, Famine, Pestilence, and Design. That might all sound very somber, but one of its four constituent tales traces the rise of miniature golf through the Great Depression.

3) Geography

One of our ongoing series, Map Quests, explores the built world through geography. In this piece, we visit a unique border zone between the US and Canada where people can cross and mingle freely.

4) Architecture

One episode became two, then three, on 99% Vernacular architecture. This set of episodes features a slew of 99PI producers and guests talking about creative regional solutions, like Bermuda’s rain-catching rooftops, which hold lessons for the rest of the world as well.

Bonus: (In &)conspicuous

Finally, we circle back to the start, with two apt stories tied to the introductory chapters of the book: designs in the built enviroment that are either so visible or so subtle they tend to get overlooked.

The first of these (above) taps into the hit Train Set series that started with a single episode, then chugged along to support multiple sequels. The second (below) is one of dozens of many mini-stories we’ve done over the past decade—a fun end-of-year tradition for the staff.

Like what you hear? Check out the full episodes associated with today’s short stories, including:

• Highways 101
• War, Famine, Pestilence & Design
• Map Quests: Fifty-Four Fourty or Fight
• 99% Vernacular: Volumes 1, 2, and 3
• Train: Tracks 1, 2, and 3
• …plus over 20 sets of mini-stories and counting

Be sure to get your copy of The 99% Invisible City (on sale for just $11!) — plus a half-dozen or so more to gift your friends and family!