Design
The Netherlands' highest wooden building can change its function like a chameleon
The tenants of Patch22, the highest wooden apartment building in the Netherlands, can design and create their own floor plans thanks to the project’s impressive level of flexibility. Architecture firm FRANTZEN et al architecten designed Patch22 with multifunctionality in mind– the team Read More...
Ikea's flat pack refugee shelters wins design of the year
A flat-pack refugee shelter designed by Ikea has been crowned design of the year in the prestigious Beazley design competition. The ready-to-assemble shelter was created by the Swedish furniture giant in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It Read More...
The radical model fighting the housing crisis: property prices based on income
A forbidding clock tower rises above the arched windows of a former Victorian workhouse in east London’s Mile End, behind a hoarding which trumpets the conversion of the crusty old pile into an enclave of luxury apartments. The mortuary, morbidly located next to a graveyard at the end of this Read More...
To solve old problems, study new species
Nature is wonderfully abundant, diverse and mysterious — but biological research today tends to focus on only seven species, including rats, chickens, fruit flies and us. We're studying an astonishingly narrow sliver of life, says biologist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, and hoping it'll Read More...
Three-mile-high futuristic skyscraper has a smog-eating, self-cleaning coating
What will the world look like in 2062? Manufacturing company Arconic gives us a preview with their latest campaign called “The Jetsons“. The firm’s engineers teamed up with futurists to update the world of the Jetsons with new design marvels like flying cars and three-mile-high Read More...
Investors are leaving fossil fuels in the dust in favor of greener funds
Just because Donald Trump is putting his money on fossil fuels doesn’t mean the investment community is doing the same. In fact, a new reports shows investors controlling more than $5 trillion in assets have committed to dropping some or all fossil fuel stocks from their portfolios. On top of Read More...
From architecture to cultural life: how would you design a city from scratch?
Cities define modern life. They make more money than other places, demand more of the people who live in them, and provide more for them too. Except for the people who aren’t making money; and if you are the kind who does make money, you probably know little about them. Several million humans Read More...
The radically simple design that's changing African architecture
When constructing a building in Africa, the one thing it must be able to do is withstand the African climate. By combining the sophistication of European architecture along with the needs of African buildings, Berlin-based architecture Francis Kéré has started an architectural revolution in Read More...
Reusable space craft, healthy marriages, 10 other key moments of science in 2016
2016 was a turbulent year. Not only in the political world, but also in the world of science. SpaceX demonstrated a big step towards fully reusable space crafts. The Zika virus was uncovered. And scientists even confirmed that there is a nearby planet that could be inhabitable. Science had a wild Read More...
This abandoned military village could soon be a sustainable shared paradise
There are dream-like plans in the works for an abandoned military village sitting just outside the German city of Heidelberg. In what’s being called an “experiment for future living,” the old village may soon be transformed into a sustainable communal residence where people share Read More...