A strangely alluring cocktail of dad dancing and traffic chat: architecture on TikTok

From rants about famous buildings to unabashed property porn, TikTok is full of riffs on architecture and design. Our man enters a world of eccentric carpeting, lurid mansions and in-depth pavement analysis

One minute, he's sitting in a fast-food restaurant in a three-piece suit, twirling his moustache and miming popping a glock to the sounds of Polo G and Lil Tjay. The next, he's standing at a traffic intersection, extolling the virtues of protected bicycle lanes. This is Mr Barricade, the social media persona of California traffic engineer Vignesh Swaminathan, who introduces niche topics with succinct panache to audiences that might never have stopped to consider the radius of a curb or the racial history of pedestrian crossings. His strangely alluring cocktail of dad dancing and traffic chat has garnered more than 30m likes. Or maybe it's all thanks to that magnificent moustache.

The worlds of architecture, design and urbanism on TikTok can be confusing places to the uninitiated. Users swerve between educational explainer videos, interior design advice, and Hey guys, here's a cool building I found on the internet" monologues, along with thoughtful criticism and unbridled ranting. Plus there's oodles of property porn to sate your Through the Keyhole desires.