Design
The cities that saved lives with protected bike lanes
Several weeks ago, painted lines and flexible plastic lane dividers began materializing on Maryland Avenue, one of the major north-south arteries that connect downtown Baltimore to the residential neighborhoods above the city. The resulting 2.6-mile route is called a cycle track, one of the Read More...
Designing cities that create more health and less violence
Design affects the brain. The design of our spaces can heal us, hurt us, and alter the way we think. Scientists and designers are starting to understand how and why. And as they learn more, they’re fueling the development of new design tools and approaches that are rapidly changing the built Read More...
From train to car, a Finnish app to guide citizen’s travel plans
Helsinki, on the southern shore of Finland, has a regional population of 1.2 million. Its transportation options include buses, trams, and a metro, not to mention bike rentals in the summertime—yet plenty of people still use cars. To encourage more of those drivers to use public Read More...
Amsterdam has plans to turn its city center into an environmentalist's paradise
Amsterdam’s city center is always crowded with tourists and traffic, but that may all change in the coming years. Architecture firm HofmanDujardin recently unveiled a new project that will decentralize the area and repurpose routes currently used solely by cars into green, pedestrian-friendly Read More...
Suck it up: thorny dragons use their skin like a straw to drink water
Thorny devil lizards shovel damp sand on to their backs and suck the moisture through their skin to their mouths, new research has found. The spiky reptiles live in the arid deserts and sandy plains of central and western Australia, where they feed almost exclusively on ants. Their mouths have Read More...
Invisible solar cells: Harnessing solar energy with stone, concrete and wood
Generating “free” electricity with solar panels is attractive to many homeowners. However, there also many people who don’t like the sight of the blue panels on their roofs or in their gardens. That’s where fashion-sensitive Italians can help. Dyaqua is a new company that offers Read More...
World’s largest passive house settlement tops off Heidelberg in Germany
Located on the land of a former old freight train terminal, the 116-hectare Bahnstadt celebrates sustainable architecture and diversity in its living, work, and cultural spaces all built to passive house standards for an ultra-low energy footprint. The 6,100-square-meter Heidelberg Village, located Read More...
Wooden skyscrapers
Wooden buildings may soon shape the skylines of America’s urban spaces. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced a contest awarding $2 million to a winner that can demonstrate feasible means to constructing “plyscrapers.” Initially proposed by Vancouver-based Read More...
Bogota has the world’s best mass recreation program, other cities want to copy it
To visit Bogotá, Colombia on a Sunday is to witness an unforgettable spectacle: miles and miles of car-free streets packed with cyclists, runners, and walkers. This summer, I walked from my hotel down a hill to Carrera Séptima, a wide avenue where men on Italian road bikes zoomed past Read More...
How honeybee research improved your Internet experience
Question: What’s the most efficient way for a colony of honeybees to harvest nectar from your garden? The answer, it turns out, is helping make your work on the Internet quicker and more efficient. The story begins with three Georgia Tech systems engineers — Craig A. Tovey, John J. Read More...