See highlights from our digital travels this week…

Back in the USSR…

Transnistria is a breakaway republic – roughly the size of Rhode Island – that sits snugly between the Dniester River and Ukraine. Though it has its own government, currency and army, it’s never been officially recognised by any sovereign nation (Russia included). Transnistria is the also the only place where the USSR is still alive and kicking… Find out more about this international oddity on The Calvert Journal.

‘If you build it, they will come.’ (…Or not.)

China is infamous for its ‘ghost’ cities, but California has a secret of its own. The imaginatively titled California City was built 75 miles outside of Los Angeles in 1958 by property developer and professor of sociology Nat Mendelsohn, who master-planned a sprawling metropolis to rival the City of Angels. And he succeeded – sort of. Today, California City is the state’s third largest city. But it’s home to only 14,000 people. City Lab has more about the city that wasn’t.

The London skyline of tomorrow looks a bit cramped…

‘A tortured heap of towers’ – that’s how The Guardian describe the City of London’s changing skyline. Just this week, London’s second tallest building – the Trellis – was given the green light. It will join the ‘Can of Ham’, the ‘Gherkin’ and the ‘Cheesegrater’ in what sounds more like the contents of your granny’s pantry than a cityscape. Oliver Wainwright and Monica Ulmanu ask whether the new crop of 21st century giants are redefining the city’s skyline in the right way, or whether developers are getting too big for their breeches…

Karl Lagerfeld re-creates Paris in Rome

Celebrities flocked to Cinecittà film studios in Rome for the preview of Chanel’s Métiers d’Art Pre-fall 2016 show this week, but the iconic atelier brought more than just clothes with it… Lagerfeld et al recreated the Art Nouveau streets of Paris as his runway, while models adopted Brigitte Bardot-inspired buffons. See more on Highsnobiety.

Reach for the sky

When it comes to New York’s skyscrapers, there are talls, super-talls and the frankly ridiculous. We’ll leave it to you to decide in which camp Mark Foster Gage’s design belongs. Crowned by a temple-style observation deck, this 102-storey addition to 41 W 57th Street – aka Billionaires’ Row – features carved bird wings and propellor blades. Will it become a reality? Untapped Cities digs for info…