Smart Growth News reports that architect and performer Tuomas Toivonen advocates smart growth in a new record, Urbanism in the House. At a recent New York performance, Mr. Toivonen presented a multi-media lecture and performed songs from his album. The 35-year old Finn put his love for cities and disdain for sprawl to music. The album is a 7-song record with lyrics about architectural history and policy prescriptions. The words are combined with percussion and electronic beats.
He runs a four-person architecture firm called NOW, which designs a mix of residential and commercial projects. The album originated from his nontraditional, architecture lectures that incorporate music. He collected the musical lectures into an album with a lyric sheet that doubles as a book.
''The world has been waiting for architecture and house [music],'' said Mr. Toivonen, who lives and works in Helsinki. As Nicholas Kaufman notes, "Now urban planning lectures can be delivered in nightclubs, as was always meant to be." Here is a sample of Tumas Toivonen's music along with a slide show. He has a blog called City of Sound.