Design
11 design projects that are tackling poverty in America
A new exhibition opening September 30 at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum aims to highlight design projects that use art, architecture, urban planning and design to address issues of poverty and sustainability. The show, called “By the People: Designing a Better Read More...
Tiny flat-packed off-grid homes aim to be bridge between renting and owning
The Big World Homes project aims to be a new model of affordable housing, and its modular mobile design could make it a good fit for 'pop-up' communities on unused land. Australia's Big World Homes, led by architect Alexander Symes, is taking on expensive city housing with its design for tiny Read More...
Paved, but still alive
There are said to be at least 105 million and maybe as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the United States. A third of them are in parking lots, those asphalt deserts that we claim to hate but that proliferate for our convenience. One study says we’ve built eight parking spots for every car Read More...
Fitness apps could help cities plan better bike lanes
The data collected by the fitness app Strava turns out to be a pretty accurate way to get a handle on how many people commute on foot or by bike, say scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This could help urban planners as they try to make cities safer for walkers and Read More...
Londoners in 2050 won't need cars. They'll be living in an app-powered eco-capital
The success of London in 2050 will be measured by its environment. By this I don’t just mean the quality of its air, or whether it has retained its biodiversity, important though those are. I mean the overall quality of life for Londoners. Will they experience the city as spacious, efficient, Read More...
Sustainable skyscrapers... made out of wood
Skyscrapers are nor made of wood. The reason for this seems logical, but architects are now making the case that wood could actually be a better, more sustainable option. Timber is a sustainable material that is lightweight and can act as a natural “sink” for CO2, and by using new technology to Read More...
'People are nicer to each other when they move more slowly': how to create happier cities
When Charles Montgomery first started talking about urban happiness, people laughed at him. As his colleague Omar Dominguez explains, “happiness is kind of an out-there concept for some people”. Montgomery and Dominguez work at Happy City, a Canadian organisation named after Read More...
A skyscraper made of bones: How biomimicry could shape the cities of the future
In her lab at Cambridge University, the bioengineer Michelle Oyen has been busy making samples of artificial bone and eggshells. The samples are only centimeters in length, but she hopes that they’ll someday make up high-rises and skyscrapers. And in that way, cities of the future will Read More...
'Transformative technology': 3D-printed reefs
If architect James Gardiner is even half right, 3D printing is about to launch a digital design revolution. Dr Gardiner believes it will transform our world like the industrial revolution did in the 18th and 19th centuries. Using similar technology to that which could be employed to Read More...
Green rooftops are helping U.S cities prevent floods
Covering the roof of a building with soil and vegetation can look beautiful, but that’s not why cities across America are having green roofs installed on their buildings. As climate change continues to create more intense storms, green roofs are a good way to prevent flooding by stopping storm Read More...