Cities & Planning

TOKYO -- In a quiet residential area in the capital's Nakano Ward is an atelier doubling as a house that is a registered national tangible cultural pr

Marco Polo noticed an interesting feature in the architecture of Hormuz: “The heat is tremendous, and on that account their houses are built with ventilators to catch the wind. These ventilators are placed on the side from which the wind comes, and they bring the wind down into the house to cool it. But for this the heat would be utterly unbearable.” This technique has been used for thousands of years, originally in ancient Iran and now throughout West Asia: By catching the prevailing wind and directing it through the interior of a house, the residents can greatly increase air...

Well, I'm not sure this book could be any further up my alley; I mean: The life and legend of New York City, from the size of i

While indigenous communities, farmers, and those living close to the land have known for generations the role that beavers play

Scientists have developed an all-season smart-roof coating that keeps homes warm during the winter and cool during the summer—without consuming natural gas or electricity. Research findings reported in the Dec. 17 edition of the journal Science point to a groundbreaking technology that outperforms commercial cool-roof systems in energy savings.

Faced with worsening floods and a shortage of housing, the Netherlands is seeing growing interest in floating homes. These floating communities are inspiring more ambitious Dutch-led projects in flood-prone nations as far-flung as French Polynesia and the Maldives.

Much of America isn’t built for walking. Alex Wolfe is doing it anyway.

Although the Central Washington city's car culture reigns, intentional planning in similar small cities might be the ticket to getting environmental best practices to stick.

The belief in hydrogen as the future of green power should be based on where it is most needed, not on a near-religious faith in its universal abilities.

This is my book of the year. It delivers on so many things that we want a book to do–it could never be replicated by a website or even a film. The audiobook is even better… It’s e…

The decline of “baseload” has been predicted for many years, now South Australia is showing a grid can operate without it.

Like many suburban American cities that saw major growth in the second half of the 20th century, Lynnwood lacks a defined central commercial area. Businesses are grouped instead as strip malls alon…

I once visited White Sands National Park in New Mexico, and even with sunglasses on, it was positively blinding. At least the sun goes down in New Mexico. Imagine being in the similarly all-white landscape of the Arctic during that time of the year where the sun sticks around 24-7.

Apps are telling us how to get around our cities faster. But if each person acts only in their own interest, society at large gets stuck in traffic.

Posted on Friday 26 Nov 2021. 1,173 words, 5 links. By Matt Webb.

BY DANIEL SJOHOLM Every day, scores of American teens celebrate their 16th birthdays, and, like clockwork, head off to the DMV in hopes of passing their driver’s test and getting their driver’s license. It’s a tradition as American as baseball and apple pie. After all, owning a car is all but necessary for life in America — it’s nearly impossible for many of us to even imagine how we would go about our day-to-day lives without access to one. But their ubiquity obscures the damage cars do to our

Some areas of British Columbia received as much rainfall in 24 to 36 hours as would normally fall in the entire month of November.

Rail advocates argue new lines will grow the economy, shrink mobility inequalities and help decarbonize the region.

As innovative models for reclamation unfold, and federal funding nears, there is new hope for the communities that once depended on coal mining.

I ran across this quote while reading about what makes Tokyo work as a city: A developed country is not a place where the poor ha

A citizens’ assembly tried to make policy -- and clashed with President Macron.

Consumers want, and governments demand, less of the non-biodegradable substance. These manufacturers are looking for alternatives.

I love this: the local recycling center in the town of Kamikatsu, Japan is itself made of recycled and upcycled materials. Most pr

We consulted architects and planners to create an achievable, replicable plan — one suited to a city embracing its public spaces as never before.

24,000 years of climate history, with our current warming being unique in the record.

An effort to generate energy along the Columbia through a concept called 'pumped storage' has drawn pushback from tribes and environmental groups.