-
+1 +1
As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains
As Chinese officials are developing a megalopolis that will contain more than 130 million people, some suburban residents cope with difficult commutes and shortages of public services.
-
+1 +2
The evolution of the American home [infographic]
Significant as well as subtle differences mark homes built in 1994 and 2014.
-
+28 +2
Detroit side lot sales help battle blight
Linda Gadsden spent years living next door to an overgrown and weed-filled dumping ground. By next summer, the 63-year-old Detroiter says it will be a lush garden with pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce and greens. It cost Gadsden less than two hours and $100 to snap up the property next to her corner lot home on Indiana Avenue during a Detroit Land Bank Authority side lot sale fair last month.
-
+17 +1
Why boring cities make for stressed citizens
Boring cityscapes increase sadness, addiction and disease-related stress. Is urban design a matter of public health? By Colin Ellard.
-
+17 +2
Ghost Cities of China
An interview with Wade Shepard, who spent two and a half years traveling to China's ghost cities to find out why governments are building empty metropoles.
-
+15 +2
Lives Displaced By Central Park Take Center Stage In New Play
The land that became New York City's Central Park was once home to Manhattan's first-known community of African-American property owners. A new play explores how eminent domain forced them out.
-
+24 +1
Silicon Greenery: World's Largest Green Roof to Span City Blocks
Aiming to turn Cupertino into the green center of Silicon Valley, this expansive green roof design rolls over 30 acres of central urban real estate, capping a massive mixed-use redevelopment project. The resulting street-crossing expanse is set to include miles of walking trails, vineyards, orchards, playgrounds and an amphitheater.
-
+19 +1
What I Learned From Talking to My Neighbors About Gentrification
How conversation helped me connect with longtime residents in my rapidly changing neighborhood.
-
+31 +1
China's first glass-bottom bridge opens
It's called Brave Men's Bridge for a reason. The recently completed span is a glass walkway suspended a stomach-flipping 180 meters (590 feet) above a sheer drop in China's central Hunan Province. Haohan Qiao, as it's known in Chinese, is the latest in a series of glass-floored attractions to open in China and the rest of the world. Despite its terror-inducing appearance, its creators say the bridge in the Shiniuzhai National Geological Park is perfectly safe.
-
+34 +1
Tiny town in Norway built to boost body builder's confidence
-
+24 +1
Chicago was raised over 4 feet in the 19th century to build its sewer
In the middle of the 19th century, Chicago embarked on a quest to literally lift itself out of the mud. Water couldn't drain from the low-lying city, so its streets became impassable swamps. The most reasonable solution, Chicago decided, was just to raise the whole goddamn city by 4 to 14 feet.
-
+23 +1
Are Our Brains Hard-Wired to Prefer Boring Buildings?
The architect Ann Sussman argues urban design should pay more attention to cognitive science.
-
+32 +1
When Neighborhoods Gentrify, Why Don't Their Public Schools Improve?
“Gentrification, it turns out, usually stops at the schoolhouse door,” the reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones has argued.
-
+32 +1
Does America Really Need The National Mall?
Center stage for many historic protests and demonstrations, the National Mall has fallen on hard times.
-
+25 +2
Nigerians Are Building Fireproof, Bulletproof, And Eco-Friendly Homes With Plastic Bottles And Mud
These colorful homes are bulletproof, fireproof, and can withstand earthquakes. They also maintain a comfortable temperature, produce zero carbon emissions, and are powered by solar and methane gas from recycled waste. Plastic is everywhere. In fact, the environment is so riddled with it, researchers predict that 99% of all birds on this planet will have plastic in their gut by the year 2050.
-
+26 +2
New York is for the rich only: “Inequality in housing has reached Dickensian dimensions”
Jane Jacobs' worst fears are slowly being realized. Gentrification has created a "high-rent blight" on the city
-
+44 +1
Surveying the Ghost Cities of China
China has been building like crazy. Parallel to rapid, gargantuan urbanization -- 300 million Chinese people moved to the city from the country in the past 2 decades -- land development and construction has boomed. As Vaclav Smil has noted, from 2011 to 2013, 6.6 billion tons of concrete were used in China -- that’s about 2 billion tons more than were used in the United States over the entire 20th century. But as it turns out, even in China, 6.6 billion...
-
+35 +1
The world's tallest building will be one kilometer high
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai currently holds the title of world's tallest building, but its architects are now looking to overtake it with a new project in Saudi Arabia. Known as the Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, the building will rise at least 3,280 feet when it's completed in 2018, making it the world's first to reach a full kilometer into the air. (The Burj Khalifa is 2,716 feet tall.) This week, the Saudi government announced that $2.2 billion in...
-
+43 +1
Detroit tries unconventional approach to restoring its housing market
For Jazley Trouser, a 25-year-old Home Depot worker who has endured her share of hard times, the opportunity to become a homeowner was too good to pass up. With a $1,000 bid on the city’s online auction site, Trouser bought a four-bedroom Tudor plundered by thieves. A $25,000 grant from a community bank covered her renovation costs. Now she owns the 1929 home, restored to its former glory, mortgage free.
-
+24 +1
Welcome to the Age of Shadowless Skyscrapers
A weeklong series of ideas for improving urban life. Whenever a new tower starts muscling its way toward the sky, it drains a bit more light from the streets and parks below, so walking along a sidewalk can sometimes feel like pacing the bottom of a deep well. But what if, even in the densest thickets of Manhattan, skyscrapers could be designed to shrink, or even bleach out, the shadows they cast? Imagine a structure that bends like a rubbery dancer...
Submit a link
Start a discussion