Some cultures value face-saving over outright confrontation. The placing of infrastructure, be they roads, railways or buildings, often requires compromise on the part of all concerned – developers, highway designers, rail consultants and, not least, people who own the land.
There may be no greater monument to this type of compromise than in the Japanese city of Osaka where the Hanshin Expressway meets the Gateway Tower building. Did we say ‘meet’? Not quite, as the highway does not touch the 16-storey off