Planet Earth is changing, transforming, and shifting faster than we can keep track of these days. Human development continues to spread, The Alps are turning from white to green, massive solar farms are being erected, and droughts are shrinking lakes and drying out … [Read more...] about Google’s new tool lets us witness the planet changing in near real-time
City Planning
Design firm turns old airport runway into beautiful park in Shanghai
Back in 2011, the Longhua Airport in Shanghai was closed and left abandoned. Now, more than a decade later, architecture studio Sasaki has finished transforming the runway of the former airport into an expansive linear park. The Xuhui riverfront area once hosted the airport, … [Read more...] about Design firm turns old airport runway into beautiful park in Shanghai
How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
While artificial intelligence (AI) is nowhere near ready to tackle the complicated task of designing an actual city, it can assist city planners, especially when it comes to the quantitative aspects of urban planning. In order to improve the urban planning abilities of AI, … [Read more...] about How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
The case for relocating small businesses back to residential areas
If you walk around some 1920s-era neighborhoods, it’s not unusual to see a tiny grocery store inhabiting the street corner. This used to be normal in residential areas, but as cars became more widespread, businesses relocated to more centrally-located commercial centers such as … [Read more...] about The case for relocating small businesses back to residential areas
This bill will require all new public buildings to be bird-friendly
Birds, often migratory ones, are known to fly into the reflective facades of glass buildings. In fact, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology estimates almost one billion birds are killed annually from collisions with buildings in the US. In order to protect birds from this fate, the … [Read more...] about This bill will require all new public buildings to be bird-friendly