Cities & Planning

In rural communities across the country, stacked challenges like housing costs, childcare gaps, and limited transit keep people on the sidelines of

Every now and then in histories of the 20th’s century’s earlier years, you will see pictures of cars and commercial vehicles equipped with bulky drums, contraptions to make their fuel f…

The Stirling engine is an alternative solution to produce cleaner energy in order to achieve the reduction of the fossil fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions. It comprises an external combustion engine that can convert any external heat source into mechanical power, through cyclic expansion and compression of a working gas in a closed-regenerative cycle, with or without driving mechanisms. The free-piston Stirling Engine is significantly preferred because of the absence of any mechanical linkage resulting in longer operating life, lower noise pollution, maintenance and vibration free, self-starting and high thermal efficiency. The aim of this paper is to summarize the research works on the free-piston Stirling engine technologies and models. First, the working principles of the free-piston Stirling engine are described, identifying different configurations. Then, several applications are presented. Finally, a detailed review of the models available in literature is given, pointing out the main assumptions and equations.

Revolutionize ultra-low temperature sysetm reliability with the Stirling engine. Requiring virtually no maintenance, simplify your freezer technology today.

MIT spinout Electrified Thermal Solutions developed an electrically conductive firebrick that can store heat for hours and discharge it by heating air or gas to temperatures high enough to power the most demanding industrial applications. The bricks could help hard-to-decarbonize sectors utilize renewable energy for the first time.

Restarting one of America's great factories via insane projects and products.

On Friday, the Jura-based company Panatere inaugurated the world's first two solar furnaces in La Chaux-de-Fonds NE that will produce completely recycled steel. The company calls it a project of "true circular sustainability".

A revolutionary battery technology is on the horizon, poised to disrupt the industry. But what is it and how will it change the game?

# The Seattle City Council added a series of series of height and density bonuses for stacked flats as they amended Mayor Bruce Harrell's proposed update to the City's Comprehensive Plan in September. The bonuses could unleash the city's former single family zones to create a stacked flat multiplex boom, ranging up to 12-plexes.

With top-tier tech talent and a deep farming heritage, Seattle and the broader Pacific Northwest are emerging as one of the country’s key hubs for agriculture technology.

How Switzerland Engineered Itself into Becoming the World's Greatest Transit Nation

Diversified economies are critical for cities to sustain their growth and development, but they are also costly because diversification often requi...

Even after almost two hundred years of technological change, U.S. cities continue to follow a consistent pattern that influences how they diversify and adapt over time. A new investigation from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) shows that across 170 years of U.S. economic history, the growth of ci

Circular retail is not just about what we buy, but how and where we buy it.

From the discovery of iron working techniques, about 3,200 years ago, up until the widespread exploitation of fossil fuels, about 250 years ago, iron and steel were rare, precious materials. The average person, across the whole world, almost certainly had less than 500 grammes of it. A knife, probably; some tool of their trade, possibly. Even members of the elite — warriors who fought in full armour, for example — probably owned no more than 30kg of iron and steel.The use of fossil fuel changed all that, of course. There's about one car for every two people in the UK, and the average car now weighs 1857Kg, so that's almost a ton per person in cars alone, not to mention all the steel we now have in buildings and infrastructure. But it's fossil fuels that have made that possible. In future, we can't use them. So how much steel will we have?

Russians developed trenching techniques to grow citrus well beyond its normal range. Photo: lowtechmagazine.com In a logical world, you’d growContinue Reading

During the first half of the twentieth century, Soviet citrologists grew (sub)tropical plants in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius – outdoors, and without the use of glass or any fossil fuel-powered assistance.

[Image: View larger! From “Celestial Detector,” 2025 Lisbon Architecture Triennale; all text by Geoff Manaugh, all images by John Becker/WROT Studio.] I had a new piece of short fiction commissione…

I was in Maastricht, Netherlands, for a couple nights last week, mostly as a way to break-up my trip across the Atlantic and thus help get over jet-lag before attending an archaeology conference (w…

Seattle is considering new rules for electric cargo bikes to help ease congestion while boosting the city's effort to reduce harmful greenhouse gases.

Editor’s Note: Reporting for this article was made possible by the Guerry Beam Memorial Reporting Grant award from the Institute for Journalism and

Over the past three decades, the Cuban people have made great strides in scaling out and up the practice, science and movement of agroecology. This ... read more

Facing eviction for environmental degradation, this Brazilian favela decided to go green – and prove that more sustainable slums can give back to their residents.

Energy experts — and even Greenpeace — underestimated solar power's rapid global growth. Now many believe solar is set to become the world's biggest power source within the next decade. But it is falling prices — rather than environmental benefits — that might be driving that change.

Following a history of disinvestment and destructive climate disasters, communities across the archipelago are developing living blueprints of food sovereignty.

The device is claimed to be able to capture 1.6 gallons (6 liters) of drinking water per day.

Over the past decades power grids have undergone a transformation towards smaller and more intermittent generators – primarily in the form of wind and solar generators – as well as smal…

Night City's urban design highlights the problems, and solutions, real cities deal with around walkability, housing, and mixed-use areas

Author and activist Bill McKibben says solar power's rapid growth and dramatic price drop is the biggest untold story of our times. He wants to change that.

# Despite the fact that LIHI's proposed affordable housing project has been advancing for nearly three years, public opposition has kicked up in recent weeks. The new campaign contends that such a prime Bainbridge Island site isn't appropriate for affordable housing.