The Guardian U.K.

The plan to create a floating public space along the Thames is a great idea, writes critic Rowan Moore, but the proposed London River Park will suffer from its private ownership and management.

The Prince of Wales, as covered here and elsewhere, has gotten a reputation for using his position to meddle in architecture and planning decisions in the U.K. The report now is he extends that power far deeper into U.K. politics.

According to this article in The Guardian U.K., fewer and fewer young adults age 17-20 are seeking a driver's license and car ownership, signalling "peak car".

Kiribati, a tiny island nation south of Hawaii, is facing a mounting threat from climate change. President Anote Tong is apparently seriously considering putting all 100,000 of Kiribati's people onto a manmade floating island.

After complaints about blocking the sidewalk and creating litter, the City of Istanbul has been cracking down on street dining, gutting the food industry in the process.

Looking at "urban acupuncture", a recent movement that eschews massive urban renewal projects in favor of smaller interventions.

A new poll of real estate experts reveals that businesses seeking office space are increasingly seeking buildings built with sustainability in mind.

In Samara, a Russian city on the Volga, a rich architecture of wooden buildings is quickly disappearing, thanks to corrupt government and thoughtless devleopers.

The front yard of a home in suburban Plymouth, England is completely enveloped by a leylandii tree. Neighbors say it's an eyesore, the owner says he's being unfairly targeted.

Reporting from the Venice Architecture Biennale, Justin McGuirk says that this year reflects a focus on the user experience of buildings.

Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa designed a utopian vision interweaving the city and nature. Three years after his death, his vision is complete. Rowan More of the Observer pays Astana, the new capital, a visit.

To publicize an urban agriculture project in Middlesbrough, England, organizers threw a town meal for 8,000 people sharing the food grown by the gardens. The growing experiment was so popular that many locals don't want it to stop.

Black Hawk, Colorado, population 100, has seen increased traffic since building a casino in 1991. Officials say their narrow, Gold Rush-era streets are not up to accommodating both bikes and vehicles, so bikes are verboten.

A new book documents great buildings demolished throughout Britain. Nicolas Lezard points out how many were lost not to German bombs but to poor planning decisions.

Rem Koolhaas and his practice have released a vision of Europe 50 years from now, connected by an extensive smart grid and utilizing solar, wind and other green technologies to power the continent.

While developers in the U.K. have fallen prey to the recession, Tesco supermarkets have been extremely successful. Now the company is planning several new developments of their own with homes and shops centered around the grocery store.

The booming real estate market in Beirut is causing the rapid disappearance of the city's history, says Guardian critic Deen Sharp.

In what The Guardian calls "the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era," enormous swaths of African land is being sold to foreign countries seeking agricultural lands to feed their growing populations.

France's highest court dealt an 'unexpected and embarrassing blow' to French President Nicolas Sarkozy by ruling his carbon tax, set to take effect on New Year's, unconstitutional on Dec. 30.

Britain is becoming increasingly privatized as urban regeneration projects put entire neighborhoods in the hands of developers. One project spans 34 of Liverpool's streets, putting public space in private control.