The growth in hybrid car sales is a welcome sign that a major change in the automobile industry is afoot. The shift to transport infrastructure that is not based on the archaic complexity of an internal combustion engine, with its hundreds of moving parts and compressed fuel explosions, has been long put off by an automobile industry, happy with status quo, partnered with oil cartels with the power to price their product as if it were in endless supply. But with smack-in-the-face-reality fuel prices last summer, the collapse of the so-called “Big Three” over the winter, and the simultaneous heralding assertion of alternative energy technologies (Daimler AG bought a 10% stake in Tesla Motors last month!), the fallout of western economic near-collapse has changed everything we’ve known to be sacrosanct; Leonard Lopate even waxed nostalgic about the “Death of the Car Song” yesterday on National Public Radio’s local station, WNYC.
Tokyo
Japan's Transit-Oriented Graveyards
Japan is running out of places to store the remains of its dead, so what better place than in the city, near transit stations in high-tech, high-rise facilities?
BBC News
Aliens Invade Tokyo Subway
A public art piece installed in the Tokyo Subway imagines that an alien race has lived underground since long before the subway was built and have come out to interact with commuters.
ArchiCentral
Olympic Impact on Chicago Likely Modest
High hopes for city change are attached to Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Even if the city wins the bid this Friday, the impact is likely to be modest, according to Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin.
Chicago Tribune
What Today's Cities Will Look Like in the Future
Imagining cities of the future can bring about some pretty wild predictions. But when they're visions of existing cities, these futuristic predictions can be almost realistic.
io9
Room for Improvement in Prospective Olympic Host Cities
A new report from the International Olympic Committee has evaluated the four host candidates for the 2016 Summer Olympics and found many places for improvement ahead of its October 2 decision.
The Chicago Tribune
Does Destroying a Building Erase History?
The Nakagin Capsule Tower, designed in Tokyo in 1972 as part of the Japanese Metabolism movement in architecture, is facing destruction. Residents of the building have voted to demolish it and replace it with a modern structure.
The New York Times
Tokyo's Robotic High-Tech Bike Parking
Tokyo finds solution to commuter bicycle parking shortage by building high-tech robotic garages.
The Washington Post
A Cup of Coffee and A Calico, Please
"Cat cafes" are popping up all over Tokyo, giving patrons the company of a cat -- without the burden of actually owning one. There are at least seven cat cafes in Tokyo.
The Christian Science Monitor
Best Ideas of the Week
Fri, 04/04/2008 - 16:00
Another week has passed, and some more exciting and interesting ideas have taken root in the world of urban planning.
