Design
This Argentinian artist is building a "pantheon of banned books" in Germany
Ever since the printing-press was invented, different regimes have tried to censor books they found controversial. In fact, Argentinian artist Marta Minujín worked with researchers from the University of Kassel to identify over 72,000 forbidden titles going back to the early 1500s. As a massive Read More...
Ants mastered sustainable agriculture 30 million years ago
Ants cultivated designer crops in controlled environments millions of years before humans figured out how to push seeds into the ground to grow food, scientists reported in a study Wednesday. It has long been known that dozens of ants species tend and harvest fungi in subterranean farms, mostly to Read More...
How Rotterdam became a world leader in sustainable urban design
When Helly Scholten makes dinner, if she needs a tomato or squash or an onion, she heads upstairs–the top floor of her house is a 440-square-foot indoor vegetable garden. She starts cooking before the sun goes down, while warmth is still flooding through the glass walls of the kitchen Read More...
A Swedish suburb is being redesigned to make it 'more feminist'
A suburb of Stockholm is being redesigned to make it more feminist. Housing company Svenska Bostader (SB) is remodelling the area of Husby in the Swedish capital in an attempt to attract more women and make female residents feel safer. Changes are being made in the district, which is on a Swedish Read More...
How to design our neighborhoods for happiness
Biology is destiny, declared Sigmund Freud. But if Freud were around today, he might say “design is destiny”—especially after taking a stroll through most modern cities. The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. Neighborhoods built without Read More...
The surprising ways neuroscience can help design smarter, more intuitive cities
We have used economics, creativity, and technology to shape the built environment—and now it’s time for science to become the final piece in this puzzle. By integrating aspects of cognitive neuroscience into the design process, we can build cities that are primed for their Read More...
Soon you can get around Paris on an electric water taxi
Taxis stopping to pick up and drop off passengers can clog up streets, especially during rush hour. It’s frustrating for everyone, but what’s the alternative? In Paris, the answer may be silent electric taxi boats. The boats, called SeaBubbles, run on electric batteries that recharge when they Read More...
Germany’s Optionspace wants to be an ‘Airbnb for office space’
Optionspace, a new Berlin-based startup, sees its official launch today with a service that is something akin to an ‘Airbnb for office space’. Specifically, prospective tenants — which, of course, includes startups — are able to rent furnished and unfurnished office space via the online Read More...
Chinese city gets bike highway in the sky
Copenhagen’s Bicycle Snake is a wonderful ride and a fun design by Dissing + Weitling Architecture. Now the firm has completed a 7.6 km (4.7 mi) elevated bicycle path in Xiamen, China that they claim was developed “with a vision to inspire people to prioritize green alternatives, such Read More...
How one of the world's densest cities has gone green
Singapore calls itself the Garden City, and it’s making good on that promise. Singapore’s meteoric rise launched a landscape of towering architecture in the compact city-state, and it’s now a case study in urban density. But as the metropolis continues to grow, urban planners are Read More...