Sustainable Urban Development
With cities expected to host about 70 percent of the world's population, sustainable urban development is key to making communities worldwide more resilient against the growing threat of climate change. Find out about the latest urban practices from across the world aiming to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive in these good-news stories from The Optimist Daily.
The beautiful design of vertical forests is spreading to cities across the globe
The forest and the city may seem like opposites, but what if our architecture could meld our cities with our natural spaces? This is what architect Stefano Boeri’s vertical forest attempts to do. His prototype in Milan features two residential buildings with 20,000 trees, shrubs and plants. Read More...
North Miami is creating a park that doubles as a tool for flood prevention
There is no state that is more aware of the potential threats that the climate crisis poses than Florida. In particular, flash floods and rising sea levels could potentially leave millions at risk. Fortunately, urban designers are starting to plan ahead before disaster strikes. In North Miami, the Read More...
This London building has the world's largest living wall
For some time already, climate scientists have highlighted that our built environment has the potential to help mitigate climate change, support adaptation, and improve public health. The general idea is that the way we design and develop our cities can have a long-lasting positive impact on the Read More...
This Texas village gives the homeless a permanent home and a sense of community
The world looks a little brighter from the front porch of your own home. It’s a sight more than 200 formerly homeless people are waking up to each morning at the Community First! Village – a planned suburbia in Austin, Texas which provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive Read More...
Every Sunday in Colombia’s capital is car-free—and people love it
Cars may be the champion of travel on rural roads, but they are a pain in the ass in cities, creating congested streets and polluted air that pedestrians have to travel through. This is especially the case in the buzzing capital of Colombia, which is home to more than 1,600,000 private cars. Read More...
These former gang rivals are helping Dallas youth escape gang violence
Antong Lucky and Def D had nearly identical childhoods: both were raised in underprivileged neighborhoods in Dallas, both experienced gang violence at an early age, and both had family members who were in gangs. There was, however, one notable difference: they were raised one mile apart, in Read More...
Miami launches app that rewards citizens for ditching their cars at home
If you take the bus to work instead of driving a car, you can feel a bit of some self-satisfaction knowing your commute isn’t so harmful to the planet. But that’s about all you get—unless you live in Miami. This week, Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced a new app called Velocia that Read More...
Crowded cities finally have a way to bury their dead sustainably
Despite the expenses and environmental problems that come with burying the dead in urban areas, most people still want their final resting place to be close to where they lived most of their life. But fulfilling that desire in cities is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Take Hong Read More...
This geothermal-powered community will feature connected public roof gardens
Of all the “sustainable” communities that global cities are planning to build in the coming years, the blueprints for a new net-zero community in Hamburg are particularly striking. One main reason is that the community, which will be built in the formerly industrial borough Harbugh, will be Read More...
More cities around the world are starting to love car-free streets
Cultural attractions, walking through the city and gazing at plazas, buildings, and places—these are the things that make a city unique. And what particularly adds to the charm of a city is the absence of noise and air pollution coming from car-congested streets. With that in mind, many cities Read More...