Tokyo
Urban Agriculture Craze Boon to Farmers in Japan
Japan's yard-less city dwellers are increasingly drawn to "weekend farming" plots rented from commercial farmers on the urban fringe. Could it help the country's struggling agriculture sector? Kenji Hall reports.
The Top 10 Most Global Cities
Emily Peck counts down the top ten most global cities now that more than half the world's population is urbanized. The 21st century will be dominated by the city, writes Parag Khanna. “The age of nations is over. The new urban age has begun.”
A Flying Tour Through Downtown Tokyo
This video takes a futuristic tour of Tokyo -- through an editing technique that parallels the imagery to give the impression of weightless flight.
When Home Is 32.5 Sq.Ft: Tokyo Capsules
While the U.S. has its infamous Single Room Occupancy hotels, Tokyo has its "capsule" hotels - making SROs appear downright spacious by comparison. This article and accompanying slide show looks at life for one resident of Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510.
Japanese Women Shack Up
Sharing apartments as roommates is a foreign concept in Japan- single people have traditionally preferred their own tiny living quarters. A new glut of large, fancy apartments has created a new market for roomies.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Will Developing Nations Drive/Follow in our Faulted Footsteps?
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's Robotic High-Tech Bike Parking
Tokyo finds solution to commuter bicycle parking shortage by building high-tech robotic garages.
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.
Best Ideas of the Week
Another week has passed, and some more exciting and interesting ideas have taken root in the world of urban planning.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
