Design
These radical ideas show how nature can inform sustainable design
Before humans ever conceived of sustainable design, nature was doing a good job. Plants and animals have evolved to use energy efficiently, to be multi-functional yet balanced, and to use information to carry out living processes. With this in mind, the Biomimicry Institute challenges designers to Read More...
Octopus inspired adhesive patch works under water
A team of researchers at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea has developed a type of adhesive patch that works under a variety of conditions including underwater. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the team describes how they studied octopus suction cups to design a better patch for Read More...
What all urban planners should be asked: would you let your child cycle here?
“I love to cycle. I’ve got no clue why,” says Emilie, a six-year-old Danish girl. She is with her friend Vilja, who’s the same age. “When I cycle, I can go to new places faster,” she says in a recent Danish campaign for cycling. Even though it’s almost half a century ago, I would have Read More...
A highway in the heart of Seoul has been converted into a beautiful skygarden
An abandoned highway in the heart of Seoul just got a green makeover. By planting some 24,000 plants on the 1970s highway, city workers turned the concrete mass into a beautiful trail that runs right through the city. The greenery will still take some time to grow fully, but is expected to reach Read More...
Social housing is good. But let’s make it beautiful too
Ostentatious parsimony was the phrase used by Kate Macintosh, the woman responsible for some of the most ambitious local authority housing of the 1960s and 70s, to describe the spending environment for the social architect. Housing ministers would speak with pride of stripping out unnecessary Read More...
Meet Mexico city's first bike mayor
Mexico City falls far short of the cycling infrastructure that bike activists dream of: as many residents say, it’s no Amsterdam. Although only 30 percent of daily trips in the city are made via private car (the other 70 percent are made by public transportation, by bike, or on foot), Mexico Read More...
Possibility: Refugees drive affordable housing innovation in Europe
From The Intelligent Optimist Magazine Fall/Winter 2016 European nations are finding that by working on one problem—sheltering the waves of refugees in ways that help integrate them into their new homes—they also can address other, seemingly intractable problems: Affordable housing for Read More...
Ode to Abeer Seikaly, Amman, Jordan
From The Optimist Magazine Fall 2015 A new kind of mobile home People move. It’s what they have always done and what they will keep doing. Architect, artist and cultural producer Abeer Seikaly, from Amman, Jordan, designed an elegant and practical home for people who are forced to move on to a Read More...
How self-driving cars will profoundly change real estate
Menlo Ventures managing director Venky Ganesan says that urban spaces will change dramatically once self-driving cars become widespread. "The average house is roughly 3,000 sq ft and it's been going up. The size of your garage is roughly 500 sq ft. That means roughly 15 to 20% of your living space Read More...
Beijing mega-region plan aims to alleviate poverty, but some are wary
Ming Jun snaps some dusty twigs and drags them indoors to cook lunch for his daughter and heat his mud brick home. The Chinese farmer is down to his last pile of firewood, and he can't afford any more. It's just ahead of the Lunar New Year, but Ming says he feels no holiday cheer. "Other families Read More...