Fat stigma can take the form of overt discrimination, but it is often insidious, pervasively entrenched into our society and environment.
(Shutterstock)
Weight stigma doesn’t have to be malicious or targeted directly at a person to cause harm. Fat microaggressions lead to poorer health, well-being and life outcomes among fat people.
The 19th-century starry ceiling of Carlisle Cathedral, last painted in 1970.
Nina Alizada|Shutterstock
The UK government aims to enforce beauty through the planning system’s design codes. But intangible qualities like beauty are best achieved by challenging architects – not constraining them.
Our buildings and infrastructure can only become sustainable if the sector shares, leases, reuses, repairs, refurbishes and recycles materials and products. A new report maps out out how to get there.
Workers in one of the poly-tunnels of an urban farm in South Africa.
Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images
A systematic review of thousands of studies around the world has found many aspects of our cities affect loneliness. But people’s relationship with their environment is complex and highly individual.
A so-called smart building. What will become of our free will when choices are made for us by technology embedded in the building?
(Shutterstock)
Having the ability to decide either to do something or not, and to act accordingly, is a basic definition of freedom. Smart buildings challenge this freedom.
Constructing and running buildings accounts for roughly a third of global energy use and emissions. So it’s alarming that a report to COP27 shows the sector is veering off course for net zero by 2050.
Some physical developments contribute to crime in Nigeria.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images
Aaron Hinz, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa and Rees Kassen, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
As we move through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, new predictive methods of testing can help monitor the spread of the disease. Environmental testing, like swabbing floors, is a useful tool.
New research has found that low-rise urban environments are more space and carbon efficient than high-rise buildings which have a drastically higher carbon impact.
Jako Nice, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The study of two hospitals was a first for researching the microbiology of the built environment in South Africa – a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how to design healthier buildings.
A block of sand particles held together by living cells.
The University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science
Researchers are turning microbes into microscopic construction crews by altering their DNA to make them produce building materials. The work could lead to more sustainable buildings.
Professor of Architecture and SARChI: DST/NRF/SACN Research Chair in Spatial Transformation (Positive Change in the Built Environment), Tshwane University of Technology