World

Carolyn Steel gives a talk inspired by her new book "Hungry Cities," about the history of feeding urban areas, and the ways in which food might reach increasingly urban populations in the future.

The problem with white roofs is that while they keep apartments and the atmosphere cool, come winter people want that heat to absorb. A new high-tech roofing material switches from white to black when needed.

The availability of information in the city is creating a new opportunity for adaptive and interactive urban spaces. As Carlo Ratti of MIT's SENSEable City Lab discusses, the key is people.

Avi Friedman has some ideas of how to make housing more affordable. He says that the focus is too much on the mortgage and subsidies side and not enough on lower building costs.

As part of GOOD's Top 100 Ideas of 2009, author Jacob Gordon celebrates the fact that other standards of efficiency are gaining traction abroad and in the US.

These maps are distorted to emphasize areas with higher populations. Check out the warped US and bloated Australia.

The theme of this year's International Architecture Biennale is "Open City: Designing Coexistence". Places Journal talks with the biennale's chief curator about what that means to planners, designers and architects.

At a recent conference, international architects explained their ideas for designing and planning compact, shared, and flexible housing to meet the needs of today's households.

Renewable energy production takes a lot of water. With droughts and shortages plaguing many areas, the limited supply could crimp the ability of renewable energy providers to create green energy.

Climate change is now being visualized in 3D maps on Google Earth.

The Infrastructurist dissects the poor judgement behind GE's recent ads for supposed clean coal technology that feature scantily clad models posed as coal miners (offending video included).

Different cities have different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. A new study looks at how they are different and why.

The relationship between poverty, poor health and obesity is complex, writes Daniel Engber. However, research is showing that "obesogenic" environments and social inequality play leading roles in all three.

WebEcoist has pulled together a fascinating gallery of imaginative designs for green dwelling and living spaces, including a design for co-op housing inspired by Anasazi cliff dwellings.

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.