Metropolis Magazine

The Living Building Challenge is a new environmental rating system that focuses on required environmental design elements, diverging dramatically from the credit-based approach of the built environment's dominant rating system, LEED.

MIT researcher Jeffrey Warren has just released the latest version of Cartagen, a software platform for interactive mapping. Julia Galef takes a look.

Julia Galef takes a look at Secure Cities, a new website that maps the effect of security measures on public space since 9/11.

A look at the progress in New York's Lincoln Center, as architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro look to refresh the aging public space.

An interview with Eric Gordon, who was part of a team that recently won a MacArthur grant for using Second Life as a community planning tool.

Emilio Ramirez proposed a single family power plant in Metropolis’s 2009 Next Generation competition.

In an exhibition called Global Street Food at the Vitra Design Museum, portable kitchens from all over the world are presented.

Building Happiness, a new collection of writings on architecture, concludes that the connect between beauty and happiness is unfounded.

A team of French designers are the winners of Metropolis’s 2009 Next Generation competition with their design for a combined electrical-transmission tower and landfill.

Metropolis Magazine interviews David Gibson about his new book, The Way­finding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places.

The author of this article offers a few ideas on how to better use our 46,000 miles of highway. From the integration of rail lines to the development of electricity distribution grids, the interstate has more potential than it seems.

Writer Karrie Jacobs (no relation) tours the rapidly-urbanizing cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Dubai. As development forces small neighborhood cultures out, she can't help but wonder what Jane Jacobs would think.

One lighting artist's work has helped revitalize and make nightlife possible in a number of European cities.

Shopping malls are rarely architectural gems. Architects, especially big-name architects, typically try to stay away from designing them. But now architects are rethinking how malls should be, and looking to examples of the distant past for guidance.

This special issue of Metropolis Magazine highlights "citizen architects" working on small-scale projects to improve local communities.

Three teams of landscape architects were given 24 hrs. to develop a master plan for the growing Michigan town of New Buffalo.

Metropolis Magazine talks with bus rapid transit pioneer Jaime Lerner about the gradual global spread of his successful ideas from Curitiba.

Metropolis Magazine visits Ground Zero as building begins, and finds that the bold plans and architectural dreams have fizzled.

With some predicting that this fast growing metropolis will run out of water within the decade, the head of the region's water authority has a tough job ahead.

Smaller, environmentally friendly homes -- ranging from as much as 1000 to as little as 70 square feet -- are a hot trend in modern architecture. Eco-conscious (and wallet-conscious) buyers are increasingly interested in these new "micro mansions".