#urban-design

#urban-design

The scale of the estate is felt in the sweeping view of its terrace blocks rising over the central green. Narrow balconies wrap the long facades, filled with red flowers, potted plants, and the everyday objects of residents. Below, a lawn dotted with picnics and a small playground softens the geometry, revealing the original intention of the architects to merge high-density housing with generous public space.

It's estimated that there are more than 9,000 of these "construction sheds" (another term for scaffolding) installed across the city, enough to stretch nearly 400 miles if they were put end to end. They do the important work of shielding pedestrians from potential falling debris during building construction and renovation projects, but they also shroud large swaths of sidewalk in dark and cloistered tunnels made of an unfortunate jumble of steel poles and plywood.

Moving walkways, or "people movers" as they're sometimes called, can be found in most major American airports. And, at least in theory, they serve a pretty important function-moving a bunch of very rushed people, very short distances, a little quicker than they can on their own two feet.

The basketball arena is hardly the second thought here, but it's much more a piece of this broader civic space than the typical pro sports facility. Especially compared to the U.S., where the stadium is often the only element of such a project, Roig Arena and its public amenities offer a refreshing take on a form of urban development that favors the "development" over the "urban." Open since September, the project was designed by the international architecture firm Hok and Valencia-based Erre.

When Hudson Yards opened in Manhattan in 2019, it promised a new urban neighborhood built from scratch. 16 towers with 4,000 residential units were erected in hopes of creating a strong community. Despite its lavish amenities and lofty public plazas, a peculiar emptiness persisted. The development felt anonymous, speaking to a fundamental truth about human social capacity. Where architectural ambition outpaces human cognitive limits, the potential for intimacy collapses.

We're talking about the so-called "protected bike intersection," or as a few outraged drivers have memorably called it, an "anti-car labyrinth," a "borderline anti-human" street treatment, and an "eco-fascist" "acid trip" of roadway infrastructure. So we especially love how Oh the Urbanity breaks down not just why those reactions are wrong, but why bike intersections are "the number one type of bike infrastructure that most cities are lacking."

From Greek Street's gilded snail to vintage adverts on a Poland Street car park - Soho's streets are alive with layers of visual heritage, and now, for the first time, all of that history has been brought together in one place. The Soho Heritage Map, created by the Soho Neighbourhood Forum, is a new website that maps the surviving heritage of the Soho area.

Blaz Cuk, born in Slovenia, is the founder of the Berlin-based fashion brand Obectra. stands at the intersection of sustainable fashion, urban culture, and subversive art. With a distinctive vision that blends innovative design with daring aesthetics, Cuk is redefining contemporary clothing while drawing inspiration from Berlin's vibrant techno underground scene and the BDSM subculture. Upon relocating to Berlin, a city celebrated for its dynamic fashion landscape and progressive ethos, Cuk founded Obectra.

Through a range of installations, models, and interactive elements, "Age of Nature" presents speculative yet achievable visions for future living. A tower of live mushrooms grows as a vertical field, freeing ground space for wilderness; facades are reimagined as miniature ecosystems; and filmmaker Liam Young's The Great Endeavor envisions a global workforce collectively removing CO₂ from the atmosphere using existing technologies. Together, these projects question how architecture can move beyond minimizing its impact to actively regenerate the environments it inhabits.

Last fall, Philadelphia's Center City District (CCD) launched Open Streets: West Walnut on a series of Sundays. One Sunday at a time, the program showed off Center City's innate vibrancy when it catered to people and not cars. CCD provided some light programming, such as musical acts and dance performances, as well as more casual DIY programming, such as corn hole and ping pong, and a few seating pods.

"The public square and civic infrastructure are the front lines against this kind of attack", proclaimed then-President of the American Institute of Architects, Thomas Vonier. The decades since 9/11 and mass violence have pressured cities, in the United States and globally, to reconsider what "safety" means. Is it about barriers, bollards, surveillance? Or is it about trust, visibility, evidence, resilience? Several projects confront these questions at various scales to demonstrate how architecture and forensic thinking can collectively protect communities and civic life.

Landscape architect Kongjian Yu, who passed away on September 23rd, 2025, in a small plane crash in Brazil at the age of 62, became globally renowned for pioneering the 'sponge city' concept, a design framework that uses natural landscapes and nature-based solutions to catch, store, and purify urban water. As cities around the world struggle with flooding, water scarcity, and the consequences of rapid urbanization, the Chinese architect and his practice, Turenscape, spent three decades shaping an alternative.

Christian de Portzamparc has been announced as the recipient of the 2026 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Créateurs Design Awards (CDA). The recognition honors his influence on architecture and urban planning, situating him among a lineage of practitioners whose work has shaped both the built environment and cultural discourse. The ceremony will be held in Paris on January 17, 2026, where de Portzamparc will accept the award in person.

In this episode, we explain how anchor plates help hold up brick walls; why metal fire escapes are mostly found on older buildings; what impact camouflaging defensive designs has on public spaces; who benefits from those spray-painted markings on city streets, and more. Drawing from stories in the book, we talk about everything from stoplights and crosswalks to speed cushions and easement plaques.

In 2021, Sanaa Shaikh was burned out. As a South Asian woman working in an overwhelmingly white and male profession, she had spent years experiencing her fair share of discrimination and microaggressions-while at the same time being tasked with designing housing developments for underserved communities where she routinely felt like her ideas and perspective were dismissed. She was ready to move on.

Streets that road users find boring and depressing are more likely to be the site of higher volumes of non-motorist car injuries than ones they rate as beautiful, a new study finds - and to be proactive about saving lives, transportation leaders might be wise to consider how their residents feel on their streets, in addition to how often they get hurt.

Habitar el Río creates a shaded pavilion for rest, observation, and exchange, transforming a neglected area into a site for ecological awareness and community.

The Timber Square development will transform a former railway site in Southwark into an office space featuring a new live music venue. The design integrates reused railway arches with modern structures.

Shade can lower the ambient temperature of the air by as much as 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit. It can cool surfaces by as much as 45 degrees.

The built environment is expected to reduce carbon emissions, support biodiversity, and respond to changing ecological conditions, all while providing housing for communities and reflecting their cultural values.