Asia-Pacific

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?

Japan wants to end its spending on wasteful construction projects, which are the cause of the country's massive debt. But for one small town on the verge of losing a dam, the "wasteful" project is the center of the local economy.

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.

Guy Julier, designer and professor, talks about a number of design issues related to cities, including a detailed look at the pitfalls of waterfront development.

Many of the deaths of the past few rounds of storms and earthquakes are due to inadequate drainage systems, poor building regulation enforcement, and lack of emergency planning.

Residents of the city of Penjaringan in North Jakarta brought a proposal to the government to convert the area underneath a toll road into a public space.

Warren Karlenzig looks for the best examples of sustainable developments in Asia to serve as examples for the growing region.

The economic downturn has brought much development in Moscow to a halt. But for some preservationists, that's a good thing.

Edward Lifson talks to architect Tadao Ando about his work masterplanning Tokyo's bid for the 2016 Olympics.

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.

Rapid urbanization and dense cities with inadequate infrastructure are being cited as leading causes in the spread of dengue fever throughout Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.

Dr. Ming Zhang of the University of Texas at Austin says that Asian cities, despite their density, have a lot to learn from Western transit-oriented development practices.

Samoa is readying itself for a countrywide transition that is shaking up the island country's roughly 200,000 people. Beginning September 7th, Samoans will be required to drive on the left side of the road.

CPTED -- crime prevention through environmental design -- is catching on in Korea as a way to improve security.

Gas taxes, parking charges, toll roads - these are the ingredients to making transit successful, according to experts who state that it's not enough to offer good transit - driving must become more expensive. Add to that high density land use.

China, South Korea and Japan are all investing teh equivalent of hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy technologies, while the U.S. is debating a mere 1.2 billion in the Waxman-Markey bill.

Cities from San Antonio to Singapore are resuscitating waterways that once lay buried under rivers of concrete.

Tuk-tuks are mechanized rickshaws - a cheaper alternative to taxis - that can be found throughout the developing world, from Latin America to Africa to southeast Asia and India. Environmental think-tank Enviu is trying to reduce rickshaw emissions.

A New Zealand inventor has built a track for the world's first human-powered monorail called the Shweeb as part of an amusement park [Video]

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.