THING OF THE WEEK  

HAVING A BALL… One of the longest-running street art projects in the world is coming to Liverpool. From today, 15 July, a giant red ball will appear across various locations in the city including Pier Head, Liverpool One and the Baltic Triangle. RedBall, the brainchild of artist Kurt Perschke, has popped up all over the world wedged between bridges and squeezed between famous landmarks. The ball is designed to make people think differently about the places they’re from. 

These are truly astonishing images from the Webb telescope. This one looks back nearly 14 billion years. Billion. If you look carefully top left, you can just see the GMCA meeting that agreed to start work on a Greater Manchester Spatial Framework. pic.twitter.com/QsYSxJ2RnY

— Sam Stafford (@samuel_stafford) July 12, 2022

STARGAZING… Spectacular images of the edge of the universe were released this week. The freakishly strong James Webb Space Telescope took snaps of stars and other mesmerising space matter from 14 billion years ago. Sam Stafford, podcaster and planning director at the Homebuilders Federation, couldn’t resist using this otherworldly event to take a cheeky dig at something that has been ubiquitous within his professional orbit for a long, long time.

Credit: via planning documents

NO-GO… You may remember that a couple of weeks ago THING brought news of a project that would have seen a site recently used as a beer garden by Irish bar O’Shea’s transformed into 10,000 sq ft of workspace. The plan was to stack 66 shipping containers on the site but Manchester City Council isn’t a fan. The authority’s planning department has refused the plans, saying they are “intrusive and over-dominant”.

What might our cities look like if we prioritised people, not cars?

Here's a visualisation of what Marble Arch, London's 5-lane mega-roundabout, could look like if we did just that.

Visualisation: @jan_kamensky for #ShimanoFutureCities project pic.twitter.com/bUNGScIGqU

— Adam Tranter (@adamtranter) July 13, 2022

PARADISE... A visualisation of the pedestrianisation of Marble Arch did the rounds on social media this week. It showed a car-choked stretch of road transformed into an idyllic inner-city utopia for pedestrians. What North West road would you like to see given similar treatment? Mancunian Way or the Rocket Junction in Liverpool are just two that spring to mind. 

Credit: Google Earth

FORE SALE… The pros of owning a house in the middle of a links golf club include having a huge garden and being in close proximity to the coast. Cons include occasionally having your windows put through by wayward drives off the tee. All of that could be yours if you chose to acquire this beautiful four-bedroom house in the middle of Abersoch Golf Club, which is on the market for £650,000.