World

City leaders are constantly told technology is making the world smaller, and they need to make sure their city competes on a world stage, but how? Here are 10 traits cities must have in order to be "globally fluent."

November 4, 2013 - Future Cities

Cities designed for one type of mobility - the car - result in residents impaired by multiple types of ailments. To create a happier and healthier city, the solution is to facilitate many ways of getting around, especially alternatives to the auto.

November 4, 2013 - The Guardian

The leaked draft of a new report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns of the disturbing affect a warming planet will have on food production. The panel's last report had been more sanguine about the impacts.

November 3, 2013 - The New York Times

A new report published by the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre sees the slowing growth of global CO2 emissions as an indication that we may be headed towards an eventual emissions decline.

November 1, 2013 - BBC News

Cities and businesses are looking to reduce waste from demolition sites and increase the amount of recycled material used in new developments.

November 1, 2013 - Future Cities

Apparently ghost towns aren't only found in America's Old West and at former nuclear test sites. Lifestyle website Thrillist has collected seven of the world's creepiest ghost towns.

October 31, 2013 - Thrillist

Kaid Benfield muses on the question of whether architects are more interested in making statements than serving people, a topic raised in a recent commentary by Christine Outram. He uses Toronto’s deconstructivist “Crystal” as an entry point.

October 31, 2013 - NRDC Switchboard

In honor of Halloween, the Geographic Information System (GIS) software company ESRI has mapped the locations of more than 200 of the top-rated horror films of all-time.

October 31, 2013 - ESRI

Haunted houses are benign. If you want real evil, suggests Keith Eggener, look to the sentient houses in fiction and film that are "born bad". From Poe to Siddons, he explores examples of "architecture gone terribly wrong".

October 31, 2013 - Places

Not only are car-oriented environments ugly, they're costly from an environmental, health, and public investment standpoint. Elly Blue finds that for comparative pennies, bike-friendly cities get happier, healthier, and less broke residents.

October 29, 2013 - The Guardian

With retail tastes changing faster than a window display at the Gap, communities across the world are developing creative solutions to refresh their vacant and underutilized retail centers. Ten projects show what's possible.

October 28, 2013 - Urban Land

More than five years ago, the collapse of overinflated housing markets brought the global economy to its knees. Though some countries are still struggling to recover, the bubbles are back in others. Here are 5 of the world's largest housing bubbles.

October 27, 2013 - Quartz

Community engagement efforts increasingly look to harness mobile devices and mobile applications to access, inform, and empower the public. However the mobile market is evolving at a fast pace, which complicates our understanding of what works best.

October 23, 2013 - This Big City

Charles Birnbaum, founder of TCLF, discusses the challenges with preserving and managing significant Modernist landscapes, lifting the veil on the field’s key contributors, and why its easier to love a landscape than a building.

October 21, 2013 - Charles Birnbaum

According to a recent Rand Corp. study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, fancy redesigns or new equipment may not be necessary to spark more usage in existing parks. Adding a few signs may do the trick.

October 20, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Across the United States and around the world, groups of Roman Catholic nuns are quietly supporting a supposedly extra-religious cause: environmentalism.

October 20, 2013 - The Atlantic

For the first time, the World Health Organization has identified air pollution, in its entirety, as a cause of cancer, putting it on par with tobacco smoke, asbestos and arsenic. In 2010, 223,000 people died from lung cancer caused by air pollution.

October 18, 2013 - Quartz

Apparently there may be a subconscious reason why so many people are attracted to the architecture of Frank Gehry. Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have found that our brains are hard-wired to enjoy curvilinear forms.

October 18, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Design

Have you ever noticed that the image of little man (it's usually a man) in pedestrian traffic icons differs depending on which country you're in? Artist Maya Barkai has, and her new project seeks to explore what these guys say about their culture.

October 17, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

News of a secretive, and vague, software platform developed by Google X, the company's research and development wing, has design and construction bloggers abuzz. An internal report claims "Genie" could halve construction costs and project timelines.

October 17, 2013 - ArchDaily