Three innovative projects set to be completed this year are geared toward strengthening communities that have been left out of the economic recovery.
The Ballarat Road project in Maidstone and Footscray, Melbourne, will transform vacant land into housing for people at risk of homelessness.
Schored Architects
An innovative collaboration between government, a non-profit group and philanthropists has found a way to provide urgently needed housing on land that would otherwise be left vacant for years.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, in Cape Town.
Nic Bothma/EPA
From a heritage perspective, the transformation of Cape Town’s grain elevator into an art museum delivers an innovative and creative solution to retaining and reusing industrial heritage sites.
Digital media on building facades are changing the appearance of our cities. This creates a need for new urban policy guidelines to retain architectural quality and promote social engagement.
The city of Vancouver is set among a beautiful background, but the scenic wonder masks other problems.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
Vancouver may be one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but the president of Emily Carr University says the city could benefit from the discipline of design.
Q1 on the Gold Coast is currently Australia’s tallest building.
Flickr/Ben Low
Tall buildings are an increasing feature of Australia’s city landscapes, although they’re still relatively small compared to overseas. But is there a limit on how high we can build?
“I don’t think there are many women who think, ‘Oh, my ideal project would be a massive tower.’ ”
Anthony Delanoix/Unsplash
Cities aren’t just a male creation, but women’s contributions have been sidelined. There are ways we can rediscover and restore these women to their rightful place in the stories of our cities.
The Paul Klee Centre in Bern, Switzerland, looks great, but where are the people?
Richard Gomez Angel/Unsplash
By putting the users of buildings – people – at the centre of the process of designing buildings and infrastructure, we can create healthier, more human-centred spaces.
A photograph of Penn Station’s interior from the 1930s.
Bernice Abbott
We asked five architecture experts to name one building or structure they wish had been preserved, but couldn’t resist the tides of decay, development and discrimination.
The city of Dortmund is seeking citizens’ input on plans for this 44-hectare brownfield site of Hoesch Spundwand und Profil in Dortmund.
Robing Chang
Pop-up parks and tiny houses are just a few of the innovative solutions that can help post-industrial cities across Europe and North America adapt to the future.
The glass fibers that make up the Euplectella aspergillum sponge are surprisingly strong and flexible.
Michael A Monn
Bio-inspiration takes cues from natural structures that do certain things very effectively. One example: the strong but flexible fibers that sea sponges use to anchor themselves to the ocean floor.
Cities have always been more than a dense collection of people. They are labs of innovation, hotbeds of crime and inequality, architectural stunners, decaying ruins and everything in between.
Dancing sunlight patterns reflected onto an interior ceiling from a wind-disturbed external water surface.
Kevin Nute
Research shows that bringing nature indoors, in the form of movement created by light, wind and water, makes occupants calmer and more productive. It also could promote interest in sustainable design.
German artist Edgar Mueller poses with his 3D pavement painting in West London.
EPA/Felipe Trueba
When the young Wright moved to Chicago to work for the architect Joseph Silsbee, he was introduced to Japanese prints. It changed his career, and very possibly the course of American architecture.