Fabric
Could zoning help the UK build its way out of a housing crisis?
A new report suggests a plan to address failures in the UK housing market.
In the Covid era, the relationship between cities and megadevelopments makes even less sense
The demise of Sidewalk Labs’ Waterfront Toronto project may only be the beginning.
British cities face a long overdue reckoning with racist monuments
Protesters in Bristol have opened the floodgates across the UK.
In Medellín, a museum takes an essential role in the city's pandemic response
Museo Casa de Memoria has leaned into its role as a clear communicator and witness to history.
The rare challenge of building a pandemic memorial
Unlike wars, terrorism, or other disasters, surprisingly little has been done to commemorate victims of disease.
In expensive cities, the future of residential construction is deeply uncertain
An adequate housing stock is crucial to any city’s health.
Covid-19 is highlighting cities' unequal access to green space
Our interactive tool shows how much green space people have access to across England.
This week's protests have already led several US cities to remove racist monuments
It's happened in Philadelphia, Alexandria and Birmingham.
We run housing policy for three European cities. Here's what governments must do next
Much more needs to be done to protect households from the long-term economic impacts of the pandemic.
Airbnb’s coronavirus crisis may be good news for renters in expensive cities
Some hosts are abandoning the platform.
On boarded-up storefronts, muralists offer words of hope
A public art project aims to bring a sense of liveliness to the streets during lockdown.
Liverpool looks to move hospitality industry outdoors
Cafe culture.
Brasília at 60: Behind one of the world’s most intriguing planned cities
The Brazilian capital remains a city of contrasts and disparities.
How the pandemic upended crime patterns
An examination of April crime statistics across eight US cities.
Scenes from Naples, Italy: A city changed by lockdown
People walking outside see a different city than the one they left two months ago.
A very American form of essential work: Gun-violence prevention
There's another epidemic in American cities, and it's only gotten harder to address.
How a shuttered London Underground station became a model for green energy
A groundbreaking new facility will power 550 homes with excess heat from public transport.
In Helsinki's climate plan, community comes before bureaucracy
The city reports success with encouraging people to enjoy the city in sustainable ways.
Medical workers' principle of mutual aid is a call to action for designers, too
The pandemic presents problems that require urgent, pragmatic action from the design profession.
Should cities be turning golf courses into parks?
Another unlikely question raised by the pandemic.
Slums are becoming a focal point of the Covid-19 outbreak
The coronavirus poses a special threat to these poor, dense, underserved communities.
Why US cities haven't just given every homeless person a hotel room during the pandemic
“We're in a build-the-plane-while-you-are-flying-it mode here."
As hospitals turn to tents, architects see promise in shipping containers
Customised "pods" may be a better fit for treating Covid-19.
How to think about loneliness in the midst of a pandemic
A conversation with the executive director of the Campaign to End Loneliness.
Cities are starting to report big declines in car crashes, but increases in speeding
Speed kills, even during a pandemic.
The coronavirus lockdown has changed my relationship to walking
Walking in a time of coronavirus.
Not enough space to social distance? Why cities should ban cars and make streets walk/bike only
Space for people.
Urban safety is as much about social relations as it is about technical fixes
One man’s safety...
London’s on-street parking takes up as much space as 10 Hyde Parks
We need to talk about parking.
How to escape quarantine without going outside
Remain indoors.
Here’s how we can recycle more buildings
The circular economy.
Here’s how cities can protect creative industries from gentification
A proposal for better funding of cultural infrastructure.
How better design could help solve the housing crisis
Beyond Milton Keynes.
In both India and South Africa, affordable housing was life-changing for the poor – sort of
Swings and roundabouts.
Minimum Space Standards are making the housing crisis worse
Over consumption and reduced supply.
What’s actually in the “Building Better Building Beautiful” Commission’s report?
“New places are designed by the wheelie bin operators.”
Older people need better homes – but then, so does everybody else
Beyond a ‘decent’ home.
The National Trust is 125 – so here are 12 urban properties it’s preserving
Beyond the country manor.
“Total athletes with six packs”: The shire horses keeping London’s parks going
Phwoar, look at the mane on that.
“When we plan for walkability, we need to factor in behavior”: the case for continuous pavements
An extract from a new book, Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life
Is co-creating beautiful places the one thing we can agree on?
A quiet consensus.
Why Charles Rennie Mackintosh's legacy is grander than designing the Glasgow School of Art
The man, the myth, the Mackintosh.
This is the local economies election
From Huyton to Hackney, it is now clearer than ever that the UK needs a new social and economic contract.
This election is our chance to treat housing as a right – but only if we listen to tenants
Ssssh. Listen.
In defence of... suburban skyscrapers
Going up!
We face an accessible housing crisis of our own making
And the next government needs to fix it.
Here’s how we get pension providers to help fix the housing crisis
Show me the money.
“It's a very friendly space and healing space”: the rise, fall and rise of Bristol’s waterways
Besides the floating harbour.
Will Ethiopia’s controversial new dam repeat the “world’s worst environmental disaster”?
Remember the Aral.
Letter: The case for developing metropolitan London’s golf courses
We love our readers.
Should Manchester pedestrianise Deansgate?
Let’s look at the evidence.
The lost East Anglian city of Dunwich is a reminder of the destruction climate change can wreak
Falling into the sea.
Driverless cars could spell the end for downtown parking – and cities need to plan ahead
Wide open space.
Le Grand Paris: Not for the first time, the city of light is rebuilding its infrastructure to remake its soul
Swallowing the suburbs
Building homes, not just houses, takes more than bricks and mortar
Home sweet home.
Jane Jacobs and Le Corbusier would agree on one thing: we need more social housing
The battle for the future.
Here are my five favourite London council estates
Housing porn.
Social not financial assets: What Britain can learn from Singapore’s housing market
A lesson in long-termism.
Barcelona’s car-free “superblocks” could extend lives. So will they catch on elsewhere?
Clearing the air.
London’s golf courses could provide homes for a million people, even at low densities
A contributor’s dad made us some maps.
The CPRE keeps lying about its support for affordable housing
Every year like clockwork.
Yes, Britain does have a bloody housing shortage – and we obviously do need to build more homes
Get real.
Pity the landlords: John McDonnell wants Labour to introduce a private sector Right To Buy
Here we, here we, here we go.
More than four years after the earthquake, Kathmandu is still fighting injustice to save its heritage
Aftershocks.
Fourteen years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is reviving – for some
An incomplete revival.
Abolishing Section 21 is a great first step – but rental reform has only just begun
Lessons from Scotland.
Street hustlers helped build Addis Ababa. Now they’re being pushed out
Gentrification, Ethiopian style.
The supply obsession won’t solve the housing crisis
The cast against more bloody houses.
Nearly ten years ago, I spent three days walking the Manchester Ship Canal. Here’s what I learnt
Take the long way home.
The case for a new Healthy Homes Act
No, the TCPA isn’t only interested in new towns.
Among private renters, the housing crisis is a more pressing concern than Brexit
Shocking new polling says obvious thing.
Women are being priced out of England’s private rental sector
Housing inequality.
As we celebrate 100 years of social housing, councils deserve more money and freedom
A call for greater radicalism.
Which four-letter acronym is worse for the housing crisis – the CPRE or the TCPA?
Four letter words not to say near children.
Has Jacob Rees-Mogg just come out as a YIMBY?
Build more blasted houses, if you please.
17 things the proposed “Tulip” skyscraper that London mayor Sadiq Khan just scrapped definitely resembled
Get your mind out of the gutter.
A Century after radical leftists were elected to its city hall, Vienna’s social democratic base is slipping away
The rise and fall of Red Vienna.
The British public have lost faith in the planning system – so how can we rebuild trust?
Developers are worried, a developer writes.
If the new prime minister wants to help renters, they’ll need to think big
We need another 3 million social homes.
The movement to democratise London’s public spaces
How do you create a city for everyone?
A short history of the drinking fountain
The thirst.
London is ageing. How can the city’s form and services keep up?
The caring city.
Can places make us healthier?
Sick city syndrome.
Britain’s housing policy must “ditch its relentless numbers game”
Quality, as well as quantity.
How US planners experimented with “the iron hand of power” over colonial Manila
A laboratory of monumental possibilities.
How can cities protect common green space for the future?
The uncommon common.
Grenfell was two years ago. So why are social tenants still waiting for their regulator?
The former Labour leader on a social housing scandal.
Hostmaker’s apology isn’t an apology – and short-term lets are an attack on ordinary renters
Oh those poor landlords.
How could a Labour government de-financialise Britain’s housing market?
Land for the many.
Housing secretary James Brokenshire doesn’t understand housing OR pensions
Very brave, minister.
Tokyo proves that housing shortages are a political choice
The case for turning Japanese.
It’s time to for London Underground to ditch the toxic Airbnb ads
Short term lets are ruining this town.
Residential segregation shouldn’t come as a surprise: in our developer-led housing system, it’s endemic
Predictable results are predictable.
Segregated playgrounds are just the start: inequality is built into the fabric of our cities
Divide and conquer.
When we left our shared house, our landlord demanded £10,000 for invented damages
Why do landlords get away this behaviour?
Inflexible, insecure, and losing them money: what the “tenancy trap” means for Britain’s renters
The case for expanding housing associations.
Le Corbusier was an anti-Semite – but we should condemn the architect, not the buildings
Buildings aren’t the product of a single architect.
13 things I learned from reading a list of 1,669 historically important English parks
Please, help me.
How Leonardo da Vinci designed an ideal city – and helped invent urbanism
Centuries ahead of his time.
Could a housing court fix the UK’s rental woes?
Reaching the steps of the courthouse is uncommon for most renters looking to address a housing case.
Is the era of multibillion-pound embassies in west London mansions over?
The real victims of the housing crisis.
Why do we find cathedral fires so disturbing?
Burning symbolism.
The loss of Notre Dame is devastating – but we should restore, not despair
We can rebuild her.
Park Life: A brief history of Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens
Early blogger Samuel Pepys was apparently fond of the lobster.
When did the CPRE start hating houses?
Before NIMBYism.
China’s ‘Silk Road urbanism’ is changing cities from London to Kampala
But can locals keep control?
22 other skyscrapers that we assume will be joining the Tulip on the London skyline
Social media will go CRAZY.
In Wakefield, regeneration is reliant on charity funding
Northern Powerhouse, where art thou?
Renters in England can now sue landlords over mouldy, cold or noisy properties – if they can afford to
About bleedin’ time.
Park life: Where are the world’s smallest and largest parks?
Some definitional issues.
Who is Syria’s reconstruction for?
In post-conflict Syria, reconstruction projects risk silencing local voices.
A housing estate in South London has a playground only richer children can play in
We cannot go on like this.
Why did we stop building at density? On planning, and why the CPRE is still wrong about brownfield
We need to be adding more homes everywhere
Is burying power lines underground really worth it?
Maybe, maybe not.
Neo Bankside v Tate Modern: A tale of two windows
People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones
What traffic lights can tell us about our cities
Ready, steady, cross.
The hidden star of Luther, Paddington, and so much more: London
A very versatile actor.
Park Life: On Burgess Park, the ever growing open space in south London
Highlights include: the absence of a canal.
“Gleaming skyscrapers built alongside medieval churches”
The Corporation of London’s chair of planning, on the future of the City.
“A Museum of Corruption”: inside the palace that was promised to Ukraine
After the revolutions.
Park Life: On the repeated incineration of Alexandra Palace
Fire and mini golf in north London.
“A story of incompetence, arrogance, privilege and power”: A brief history of the Garden Bridge
A plaything for the rich wrapped up as a gift.
How can we defeat NIMBYism? Here's a five-point manifesto
Build. More. Bloody. Houses.
Park Life: The Zürich park which decriminalised heroin
It didn’t go so well.
When holidaying goes very wrong: Paris, Jerusalem and Florence Syndromes
The French capital has a literal helpline for overwhelmed Japanese tourists.
In defence of moving to zone 4
I’m in a wide open space.
American cities are in crisis. So why is Richard Florida exporting their lessons?
The guru of the “creative class” thinks the developing world should follow America’s lead.
Germania: Hitler’s failed plan to tear down Berlin and build a Nazi Supercity
The first glaring problem is the obviously very boring name.
Liz Truss is wrong: planning is not a constraint on freedom, but a vital condition of it
Knees, jerking.
Park Life: In search of the lost palace of Wanstead Park
In the first of a new column, Ed gets lost in Epping Forest.
Two-thirds of single Britons in their 20s now live with their parents. Here’s what that means
This is fine dot gif.
What will the future of housing look like?
Some futurology, from House Network.
What should cities do with ‘dark sites’, where tragic or sinister events occurred?
Empty spaces, what are we living for?
Eritrea’s Modernist architecture: a striking reminder of years of oppression
After fascist rule in the 1930s, its capital Asmara is still a city of contrasts.
The Adam Smith Institute thinks size doesn’t matter when housing young professionals. It’s wrong
On a particularly annoying think tank report.
What does the Greater Manchester Spatial Plan mean for the region’s housing supply and green belt?
An example of a successful political collaboration.
“Mosquitoes” were designed to annoy all under 25-year-olds. It’s time to ban them
I mean, isn’t it obvious?
How Victorian newspapers helped shape the look of Britain’s towns and cities
Black and white and read all over.
Help to Buy is finally being scrapped. Here’s why it was a terrible idea
Bad news for developers, good news for first-time buyers.
“A blueprint for cities outside London”: The UK’s National Infrastructure Commission on its new cities programme
A commissioner writes.
In many ways, smart cities are really very dumb
But if we can change them, it could benefit us all.
Why Italy’s coalition government needs to go all-in on infrastructure
Build! Build! Build!
Yes, the Olympics are expensive – but they can also be an investment
Why do we not resent other similar large-scale projects?
Can Phillip Hammond’s Treasury really revive Britain’s high streets?
Retail isn’t enough.
Is there a way to fight the blight of urban decay before buildings are even constructed?
On the new discipline of “domicology”.
Why the government must start consulting locals before building
Big infrastructure, little democracy.
Lifting the council borrowing cap won’t address the biggest housing issue cities face. It’s time for land reform
The lie of the land.
Why I wrote an alternative masterplan for Newport, South Wales
Not just another post-industrial city.
“Upon land soaked with the blood”: on the architects planning the reconstruction of Syria
After the war.
An official and objective ranking of the seven bridges linking Newcastle and Gateshead
A southerner writes.
After Brexit, the case for more powerful local government in England will become stronger than ever
The odd nation out.
Uncertainty is the new normal: the case for resilience in infrastructure
Adapt and evolve.
Look up! Among the skyscrapers! On superheroes and the American City
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s some guy out of a comic.
What should the UK do with the iron skeletons of Victorian gasworks which still tower over it?
Gone, but not forgotten. Because they’re massive.
Egypt is building a brand new capital. Brasília highlights the dangers
Unequal divisions.
Literally just 21 great street names from York
Bloody Vikings.
In defence of ‘brownfield-first’ housing policies
The co-ordinator of the Smart Growth UK coalition on the case for prioritising brownfield sites.
Letter: Brownfield sites are often the most challenging and expensive to develop
Back into the postbag.
A warped mirror: on gentrification and deprivation on London’s Caledonian Road
From Bemerton to Blair.
No, there isn’t enough brownfield land to solve England’s housing crisis
Yes I’m still banging this drum.
A brief history, and the murky future, of Britain’s almshouses
Many still require residents to hold specific religious beliefs.
The National Planning Policy Framework was a missed opportunity for cities
Also, for anyone who needs a house.
Boris Johnson wants a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. But he’s not the first to suggest it
Oh look, bridge-loving Boris has another great idea.
More than a bridge: on Newcastle and Gateshead’s Tyne Bridge at 90
Happy birthday, bridge!
Replenishing eroded beaches may prevent cities from properly adapting to climate change
A case of moral hazard.
Increasingly unequal cities are building housing on flood plains, and it’s a terrible idea
Under water.
In London, cranes can be as significant as what they build – or destroy
On the true meaning of the capital’s cranes.
London’s construction skills shortage makes innovation more urgent than ever
The case for modular.
Degrowth and Christiania: on Copenhagen’s collective living experiment
Alternative models.
Better shelter design can help people recover from homelessness
A place to call home.
We walked 18 miles along the Crossrail route. Here’s what we learned
Walking with Elizabeth.
An art installation in Derry/Londonderry will double as a suicide prevention tactic
Rethinking the Foyle.
Indian women are confined to the home – because their cities designed for men
Poor planning at work.
Could rubber tyre foundations help protect buildings during earthquake?
Well shake it up baby now.
Regional English cities are suffering from the rise of short-term rental services like Airbnb
Changing characters.
Building the future requires massive small change
An extract from Kelvin Campbell’s new book.
Africa’s Great Green Wall: 8,000km of trees that could save millions of lives
Finally, somebody’s building a good wall.
Bothies: the abandoned huts that’ll make the ideal post-Brexit holiday home in the Scottish Highlands
As if you’re still going to be able to afford Ryanair.
Meet the Sheffield social enterprise using shipping containers to tackle the housing crisis
REACH for the stars.
The number being helped by Help to Buy is at a record high. That’s not a good thing
Oh good, higher house prices.
Why do bridges collapse – and how can we prevent it?
After Genoa.
Why making London a National Park City risks diluting the value of the national park brand
Other ways to go green.
In Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, feminists are campaigning to name more streets after women
Merci, Simone.
Why are so many people being evicted from the slums of Nairobi?
A legacy of colonialism.
Podcast: Lies, damned lies and the CPRE
Today we are angry.
Who owns London’s major parks – and why does it matter?
Grace and favour.
Is increasing population density the solution to the land-squeeze in successful cities?
Risks and opportunities.
The CPRE is wrong: there are not 460,000 homes planned for England’s green belts
If only there were.
Bridging the divide: landscapes and lawmakers in Ronda, home of Spanish romanticism
Officials prize the bridge, locals prioritise convenience.
Here’s the science behind 3D printing in construction
How to print a building.
I jogged the entire length of Thames path through London. Here’s what I learned
The path to enlightenment.
In Barcelona, buy-to-leave properties have criminal consequences
Shooting galleries in empty homes.
Network Rail is selling off Britain’s railways arches. Small businesses could pay the price
Underneath the arches...
Some thoughts on why Sheffield’s economy has struggled
Hard times in the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire.
How your neighbourhood’s regeneration can impact your mental health
Dye of the beholder.
“London needs community land trusts – and 2018 could be our year”
Not just London, either.
Do British cities have grid systems? We used science to find out
Well, science-ish.
Here are four reforms the British planning system needs to support growth
Worse for NIMBYs; better for growth.
Developers shouldn’t just treat canals as an aesthetic bonus. It’s time to use waterways for construction again
The old ways are the best.
A reform of the Green Belt is long overdue. Here’s how it should be used
We’ve been saying it all along.
5 ways London’s waterways will be shaped by the Canal & River Trust’s new mooring strategy
With an extra 1,500 boats expected by 2022, the report affects everybody’s access to the capital’s canals.
Here are three planning problems currently crippling London – and some ideas on how to fix them
Not everyone needs to see St. Paul’s.
In Canada, it’s time to challenge the myths about millennials and housing
No, they don’t all want to live in cupboards.
Britain’s Victorian pleasure piers are unique – and under threat
Oh I do like to be besides the seaside.
The pressure on the British government to reform the green belt is growing
Time for a change.
Why are there so many unsheltered homeless people on the West Coast of the US?
It’s lack of affordable housing, stupid.
Developers can no longer over-pay for land to wriggle out of their affordable housing commitments
The road to Holloway Prison.
Five species that have quietly adapted to urban living in London
No, it’s not all pigeons and rats.
“Does the front of the house look nice?” is not a question about good design
Build More Beautiful Houses.
Glass in architecture once represented transparency. In today’s hyper-gentrified London, it means the opposite
See right through you.
How a dam in Volgograd has almost killed off the caviar fish
Swimming upstream.
What caused the Glasgow School of Art fire? Here’s what we know
The second time around.
Welcome to Northbank and Midtown: Why it’s not enough to simply rebrand London
Shoreditch? Eastown. Stratford? Really Eastown.
Building regulations leave tower blocks prone to disaster – but residents can fight back
After Grenfell.
What caused the Grenfell fire? Here’s what we know
One year on.
Meet the ‘architectural detective agency’ investigating the Grenfell fire
Forensic Architecture.
How innovative home design could revolutionise dementia care – and even slow down symptoms
Without a miracle drug on the horizon, architects are getting creative.
Podcast: Victoriana
Bazelgette and co.
A very brief history of council housing
A review of Municipal Dreams, by John Boughton.
Lava in Hawai'i is creating new land. It also might kill you
So, mixed reviews, then.
Facebook is building its own town in Silicon Valley. It won’t be the first
Imagining dystopia.
How disgruntled Tottenham residents triumphed over a developer planning to build more unaffordable housing
Is START just the beginning for community-led housing?
“No longer merely suburbs, but part of the edgeless city”: on Toronto’s northern expansion
In the Boomburbs.
California needs to rethink its urban fire strategy
Beyond containment.
Could modular housing help Britain build the homes it needs?
One housing associations is trying.
Sustainable cities need more than parks, cafes and a riverwalk. They need equity, too
The missing piece.
Here are several dozen of the depressingly high number of bits of British infrastructure named after the royal family
Well, they work bloody hard.
Here’s why living without living rooms is no way to solve the housing crisis
Not everyone is out networking, 24/7.
England is short of 4 million homes. Here’s how we can build them
The true scale of the crisis.
How the future of farming lies in our inner-cities
It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
So what infrastructure does a city need to host Eurovision?
Europe’s biggest party.
Warsaw is rebuilding itself – but its foundations remain unstable
Rebuilding Poland.
Reforming the land market can help deliver 300,000 homes per year
Unleashing market forces.
Inside PATH, the 30km network of walkways, tunnels and malls beneath Toronto
Going underground.
Maputo, Havana, Tokyo, Rotterdam: Four urban planning experts name their favourite cities
Okay, now I want a holiday.
How can cities ensure healthy architecture in an era of rapid population growth?
Sick building syndrome.
Enough squabbling over supply versus demand. Let’s build the social housing that Britain needs
It’s social housing, stupid.
Liverpool city council can find money for a new Everton Stadium. So why can’t it build homes or offices?
Dave’s letter from Liverpool.
Here’s how developing world cities can plan for the next half century of rapid urban growth
A more resilient future.
The hidden wartime history of London’s fences
These metal railings are more interesting than they look, honest.
How the Commonwealth Games helped turn Australia’s Gold Coast from resort town to major city
Game on.
A brief history of the Olympics and the city
No more playing Games.
A fifth of private tenants suffer from fuel poverty. So why are energy efficiency standards so soft on landlords?
Out in the cold.
“I think they’re pretty”: Inside the strangely heart-warming world of pylon fandom
British ones are boring, apparently.
Can Brighton really save its West Pier?
“It’s fallen in the water!”
What should the north of England do with its disused textile mills?
Northern-ness in bricks and mortar.
Here are five lessons on the future of co-living
All together now.
“We are missing out on £80m each year”: Why landlords should pay interest on tenants’ deposits
Fair’s fair.
Can you defeat NIMBYism by bribing NIMBYs?
Let’s find out.
Nine things we learned from this population density map of Europe
Where is everybody?
The history of Brick Lane Mosque tells the story of the East End’s immigrant past
From Protestant Church to Jewish Synagoge to Great Mosque.
If Britain wants more self-build housing, we need to change its planning system
Sisters are doing it for themselves.
Could a notorious prison offer an escape route from London’s housing crisis?
And what does it tell us about the next Labour government?
In Washington D.C., zip codes still determine futures
East vs west.
Can developers make a place? On London’s industrial regeneration
A new piece of city.
Is aerotropolis Songdo really the city of the future?
Spoilers: no.
Within 2km of a station, south east England has golf courses with room for 500,000 homes
Still, golf is important too I guess.
When the congregation has gone, what’s to become of our city churches?
Mmmm, jägerbombs.
When oppressive governments want to destroy civil society, they destroy public spaces
Why walkable cities are more free.
“A mirror of history after the genocide”: on the streets of the Armenian capital, Yerevan
“A city that would save the nation.”
Home ownership rates will keep sinking – until the government gets involved in housing again
Here’s how.
Can better planning fix the problems that led to Brexit?
The best of the 2018 Awards for Planning Excellence.
What does Battersea Power Station signify?
Signs and signifiers.
So is the north of England really getting an enormous new forest?
Fifty million trees.
Lessons in building for mental health from Tokyo and Hong Kong
Futureproofing our sanity.
Why estate residents should get to vote on regeneration schemes
And not their landlords.
How Beirut is breaking down the divisions of its past
Campaigning to protect war-era buildings.
Estate regeneration ballots can’t be a referendum of whether to build new homes at all
The Labour mayor of Hackney on the role of democracy in regeneration schemes.
The rise and fall and rise again of the Incas’ capital city Cusco
Shaped like a what?
What I learned by watching French property programmes
Recherche appartement ou maison.
The government of Jersey once tried to build its own bridge to France
You’re not original, Boris.
Urbicide: the killing of a city is an attack on the human condition
City scapes remain the plaything of the powerful.
How does the humble street bollard connect Napoleon to Carillion via Welsh devolution?
A brief history.
Stoke shows why selling homes for £1 gives councils the power to revive deprived communities
Giveaway.
16 things we learned from a list of every single road name in Great Britain
We swear we didn't just look for the rudest names.
34 reasons concrete tubes are not the solution to the housing crisis
I hate visionary architects.
So how can we prevent fatbergs?
Monsters beneath our feet.
“You need only look up to see you’re rarely alone”: on the owls of Leeds
Civic identity through birds on buildings.
Small sites, green belt and growth corridors: Six things you need to know from the draft London Plan
Apparently we ain’t building on the green belt.
“What is legacy? Can it even be measured?” On the failings of London’s Olympic Stadium
“The legacy discourse.”
Here are three projects which demonstrate architecture’s power to build and sustain communities
The architecture of social engagement.
Beijing’s mass eviction programme is leaving workers out in the cold
A brutal way to keep the population down.
How can city governments ensure better public health?
Better incentives, better design.
“He assumed I was as opposed to new housing as he was”: what a Christmas party taught me about planning
The hangover.
After thirty years of Canary Wharf, how has it changed the geography of East London?
Rising in the east.
Inside Antigone, Montpellier’s postmodern dystopia
Who knew that naming things after tragic heroines would end badly?
The view from Hastings Pier: On the difficulty of regenerating Britain’s seaside towns
Pier into the future.
On Walter Benjamin, and the “Arcades Project”
The greatest urban theorist you’ve never heard of.
The River Lea: London’s forgotten defensive line
You shall not pass.
To fix the housing crisis, we need to decide what success would look like
Mass ownership may be over.
Cities can now measure tranquility, on a scale of 1-10
What is measured doesn’t move.
Seseña and Ordos: Two speculative cities that are still standing empty
Is there anybody out there?
Europe in Africa: Could a new city state on a man-made island save refugee lives?
Might help us escape Brexit, too.
Sadiq Khan’s new London Plan has set out ambitious housing reforms. But can he deliver?
The rising suburbs.
67 thoughts on a hilariously misleading tweet sent by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England
I almost admire their commitment to shame-faced lying.
“All the world’s a playhouse”: A brief history of the Globe
London’s most famous theatre.
Here’s how gaming can help plan the cities of the future
All to play for.
Artists and architects in Montreal are upcycling old subway cars
New lease of life.
What is to be done? Some modest suggestions on solving the NIMBY problem
Do you have a licence to oppose this development, sir?
To transform Australia’s cities, it should scrap its car parks
Wide open space.
Meet the YIMBY campaigners hoping to ease the housing crisis
Yes in my back yard.
Owning public space is expensive. So why do developers want to do it?
Attracting the ‘right sort.
New Zealand has a worse housing crisis than the UK. So what’s its new Labour government going to do about it?
Grow up, Auckland.
Pedestrianising Oxford Street is good. But humanising it would be better
The rhythm of the place.
“It’s hard not to see them as lose-lose”: the problem with co-living spaces
Crumbs from the table.
Here are some maps of the London that could have been after the Great Fire – and the one we actually got
The roads not taken.
I spent an afternoon exploring Milton Keynes. Here’s everything I learned
An American city that got lost on its way to Ohio.
“A massive cliff with windows”: on the regeneration of Sheffield’s Park Hill estate
Making a splash.
Tfl is pedestrianising Oxford Street. But what’s it doing with all those buses?
This bus is on diversion.
“Lyra’s Oxford is not my Oxford”: paean to a changing city
Town, not gown.
The experience of Vancouver highlights the importance, and the difficulty, of building better cities
City of Glass.
Here’s how councils can jumpstart housebuilding
An ambitious package of policy reforms.
In 1948, the UK government produced a propaganda cartoon to sell New Towns, and it is mindblowing
Wotcha, Charley!
The Thessaloniki dig problem: How can Greece build anything when it’s swarming with archaeologists?
History vs progress.
New Urbanism isn’t dead – but thanks to climate change, it is evolving
Climate change breathes new life into the movement’s mission
“Earlier this year, a boy hit me on the street near my house.”
If women built cities: a personal reflection.
What are the factors that give a place value?
I’m in a wide-open space.
Oh good, another pretty picture which won’t solve any of London’s actual problems
Do you want to be responsible for the next Thomas Heatherwick? Do you?
Relaxing green belt laws might work for London – but what about the rest of the UK?
Supply and demand.
Here’s what Scandinavia can teach our cities about parks
Wide open space.
To fight the fatbergs, we need to reinvent the sewers
All together, now.
Can Sadiq Khan really take on London's housing crisis?
Sadiq you stay, or sashay away?
“It can be instructive to look at how past Londoners have imagined the city’s future”: on unbuilt London
Muddling through.
Berlin offers a model for how cities can cope with increasingly regular extreme floods
Stadtschwamm; or how to stop the stadt from schwimming
As urban housing gets squeezed, it’s time for smart street furniture
Oh sit down next to me.
How much land can we ‘create’ at London’s stations?
Go up, young man.
DCLG is about to launch its Brownfield Land Register. Here’s why that matters
Everything changes.
How can compact cities keep house prices under control?
The problem of density.
Australia is dominated by flat-white urbanism. There must be better ways to create street life
Oh good, another cafe.
Between 2008 and 2012, a vast lake in Phnom Penh was made to vanish. The resulting protests changed Cambodia
A Cambodian Spring.
Migrants don’t undermine communities – and four other lessons from the best planning research
So, what did we learn?
This is how stations can be at the heart of urban housing supply
Future-proofing.
Where did Liverpool start?
A castle by a pond.
Can Britain’s councils still protect their listed buildings?
The price of austerity.
How can we judge infrastructure spending?
Infrastructure investment ≠ growth.
The next step in sustainable design is bringing the weather indoors
It's getting hot in here.
Bricking up Beijing: Could the end of the hutong mean the end of street life in the Chinese capital?
The ominous pile of bricks.
21 places that could really do with not being part of Greater London
England's green and pleasant London.
How 'used' really are the trendy repurposed shipping containers we find in cities like Bristol?
Hipsters before shipsters.
Why do people respond better to some places than others?
More than a feeling.
Here’s how science can help you build the perfect sandcastle
Oh we do like to be beside the seaside.
On Las Ramblas: the symbolic heart of Barcelona
The centre of it all.
“We’re denser than Manhattan!” The Isle of Dogs responds to claims of NIMBYism
“London’s new mega-city.”
23 reasons the CPRE’s campaign to cover south east England in houses is the best thing that could ever happen
Bring on the bulldozers!
Sure, smart cities are compact. But are they really that smart?
Being a bit dense.
With an “urban diary,” everyone’s a city planner
Look and explore.
Where’s the oldest part of Birmingham?
In search of Ye Olde Brumme.
As UNESCO threatens Liverpool’s World Heritage status, must it choose between heritage and economics?
At a crossroads.
NIMBYs near Canary Wharf just blocked 2,000 homes to protect a petrol station
The worst people on earth strike again.
To solve the housing crisis, we should give councils freedom to borrow
The short way round.
The forgotten history of Beijing’s first Forbidden City – and the dynasty that founded it
Remember the Liao?
Where’s the oldest part of Manchester?
Starting points.
Can you spot the green belt on this map of housing supply increase?
Yes. Yes you can.
“Love Happens Here” – but how do we keep it that way? On the threat to LGBT venues
Keeping the pride.
Is Inner London actually more green than Outer London?
Parks and recreation.
The view from Sacré-Cœur: on Paris, London and the case for urban density
“London should not be afraid to outgrow its own trees.”
The lost colony of Roanoke: Whatever happened to British America’s first city?
A cheery story for Independence Day.
Here’s why growing cities should tax land to pay for essential services
The infrastructure gap.
What kind of wildlife flourishes in cities?
Urban nature.
How do we make our main roads better, bigger and more beautiful? We need to Create boulevards
Create Streets on the need to rethink London’s highway.
Edinburgh's Calton Hill shows that not even buildings are safe from the tide of populism
Can the past be populist?
“The only colony in modern history to swallow its own empire”: how the Portuguese royal family remade Rio
A brief imperial history.
Sidelining planners makes for poorer urban policy. Future generations will pay the price
Unplanned disaster down under.
The British housing crisis, in five charts
Or: why the Conservative party is in huge, long-term trouble.
“Finsbury Park won’t be divided by terror”: notes on a diverse north London community
All together now.
How a lack of zoning messed up Houston in more ways than one
Where the streets have no rules.
The Grenfall Tower fire highlights a broken social housing system
The ugly side of the regeneration agenda.
Planning generates valuable intellectual property. It’s time cities used it
Money money money.
Moscow residents are rallying against the mass demolition of Soviet apartment blocks
And they all came tumbling down.
Mumbai’s slumdog recycling works surprisingly well – unless you’re one of its workers
City of Trash.
The real losers of this election were landlords, apparently
Won’t someone think of the rentiers?
Activists in Cape Town have occupied an abandoned hospital to show how unused spaces could be transformed
Occupy Everything.
How can we make venues safer?
After Paris, after Manchester.
Paris's mayor wants to go down under to give the city a new lease of life
Cata-come out for a drink.
The ghost malls of Athens are icons of an urban crisis – but they could be the start of a Greek comeback
Aggro in the agora .
The smartphone app placing virtual statues of women on the map
There’s an app for that.
China’s cities are trying to buy their way to cultural prestige, and it’s really weird
Building the Great Halls of China
“An eye-watering waste of public funds”: so what went wrong with London’s garden bridge?
tl:dr: everything.
Inside the weird world of Canada's discriminatory anti-family housing policies
No condos for young men
Rebuilding Homs: how to resurrect a city after six years of conflict
The lessons of history.
How can Europe’s coastal cities cope with rising sea levels?
A rising tide.
On the naked entitlement of Thomas Heatherwick
The last word, I hope.
The Garden Bridge was a symbol of everything wrong with modern London. I'm glad it's dead
Where did it all go wrong?
Platforms and Plateaus: on the Chinese & Mayan influences on Sydney’s famous opera house
“A little overcooked”.
Private tenants are so scared of eviction that they’re putting up with dangerously cold homes
Brrrrr.
Value capture isn’t going to solve Australia’s infrastructure problems
A tax is a tax is a tax.
The falls in central London’s luxury property prices could make housing even less affordable
Oh, goodie.
Garden Bridge unlikely to raise enough private funding to protect the taxpayer, says official review
He's dead but he won't lie down.
What are the biggest cities in Germany?
A Ruhr-ly tricky question
Secure and affordable housing is an increasing worry for elderly Australians
A housing crisis down under.
How can the world provide informal settlements and slums with sanitation and clean water?
Drip, drip.
“Residents were woken by the sound of bulldozers”: in Lagos, gentrification can mean midnight demolition
Beware of the leopard.
What makes an urban space feel safe for women? Australian researchers have been finding out
Happy places.
A brief history of urban anti-terrorism measures
Aesthetics vs security.
Tucked away in the East End, the bell tolls for a piece of London history
For empty cash deposit boxes, probably.
Old Damascus has a long history of rising from the ashes
The road to recovery.
Which is the largest city in Europe?
The dark star meets its match
President Trump could win big on infrastructure – if he rethinks his stance on climate change
A new deal.
Sadiq Khan just put out a smug press release about delivering four days’ worth of housing
Protecting the green belt, mind.
Cairo has a dangerous growth problem – but how can it be fixed?
Getting fatter.
Unbuilt Moscow: the utopias that never arrived
Forgotten dreams.
We’re not building skyscrapers in Stratford to protect the views from Richmond Park
Long-distance NIMBYism.
How can cities make the most of the space unlocked by driverless cars?
Planning revolution.
Is it time for a new generation of nuclear bunkers?
Protect and survive.
Mexico City is drinking itself into the ground
The soil beneath the city can't Az-tec it anymore.
In the coming urban era, engaging people in planning will be a vast and complex challenge
More than just NIMBYs versus YIMBYs.
It's been housing Londoners for 150 years – but what is the Peabody Trust?
“Charity at three per cent.”
How leaving padlocks became a modern-day romantic ritual
The lock of love.
Pembrokeshire's innovative new eco-hamlet is great. But it should be the size of a city
Getting cosy.
Six months on, what did Rio de Janeiro gain from hosting the Olympics?
Olympic states of exception.
How can we build healthier cities?
Breathe easy.
Space for 8,000 new homes, most of them affordable... Why it's time to demolish Buckingham Palace
Sling yer 'ook, Liz.
Quiz: Can you identify the city by its map?
Go on, it's easy.
Why are carbon emissions so much higher in Swansea and Middlesbrough?
Fossil fuels and loathing
Glass towers will be great for Greenwich Peninsula – but it still needs a bridge to Canary Wharf
Rough crossings.
The new green belt atlas shows quite how much space England has left for housing
A golf course is just a housing estate you haven't met yet.
To solve the housing crisis, we need to rethink transport and regeneration, too
It’s the infrastructure, stupid.
To build a strong nighttime economy, our city planners need to learn to feel the music
Can sick beatz make cities great again?
Architecture was an early victim of air pollution – and an early protagonist in combating it
On pollution and parliament.
The Polish government is super-sizing Warsaw. But bigger might not mean better
When gerrymandering is the best option.
Dementia-friendly places benefit us all – so we should start planning for them
An issue that touches everyone.
We think sustainable urban planning is new – but the ancient Romans were recycling buildings millennia ago
Spolia studies.
Lessons from slums show why our cities need to go on a resource diet
Sustainable cities.
Fifty years on, has Milton Keynes lived up to its utopian ideals?
Half a century of concrete cows.
What can we learn from how the Soviet bloc tackled its housing crisis?
Back in the USSR.
This is why the Garden Bridge may never actually happen
Accounting for problems.
The government is promising £3.7bn for affordable housing – but will this solve the housing crisis?
Baby steps.
A Belgian graphic designer has published a brutalist colouring book
Fifty Shades of grey.
The city that doesn’t exist, and when Angela Merkel made a joke – the story of Bielefeld
Y'all Germans corny with that Illuminati mess
Paris has a watery dream of swimming in the Seine – but can the planners take the plunge?
Paris is a man in his twenties in love with swimming outdoors, after all.
“If 2016 was the Year of Bullshit, then the Garden Bridge could be its monument”
On Bullshit and the Garden Bridge, part II.
London's skyscrapers are a monument to the city's worship of finance
All praise Mammon!
“Wherever you go will be the same”: how the over-curated city may mean the boring city
Co-boring spaces.
How can city car parks help solve the housing crisis?
Build high for happiness.
How should we regenerate London’s estates?
Best practice.
Does Trump Tower represent the future of urban development?
You'd be surprised.
London should create its own boulevards – even if it doesn't look like Paris
Euston Road is the new Champs Elysees.
Beirut's last public beach has become a battleground in the city's fight for public space
“There is nowhere for me”.
Where are the right places for England's new homes?
More importantly: where do we want them to be?
London’s brutalist estates are back in fashion – but there’s a downside
This brutal house.
Modern cities are forcing skyscrapers to evolve
Ch-ch-ch-changes.
No, co-living spaces probably won't solve the world's housing crisis
Reinventing density.
“We call for more wine without investing in the vineyard”: why we should care more about construction skills
Australia downskilled.
From lintheads to high tech: the Sun Belt, and why America continues to head south
I'll follow the sun.
Will Brexit pose a risk to British architecture and design?
A consultant writes.
“Parkour offers a way to actively engage in the city physically, emotionally and socially”
The city as playground.
Is it quicker to build homes on large sites, or small?
And you shall know our velocity.
Protecting the view: how St Paul's Cathedral has been shaping the rest of London for centuries
If you really like looking at St Paul's that much, go marry it.
Here's how Australia's cities have grown over the last 30 years
Sprawl within limits.
What happens when urban development corporations inexplicably decide to make terrible pop music?
The worst development corporation pop anthems in the UK… ever!
How London lost its Eiffel Tower
It could have been a contender. It could have been some city.
Australia abolished its slums a hundred years ago. They might be coming back
Trouble in paradise.
7 other things we should consider building in front of Euston station for no particularly good reason
That arch you like is going to come back in style.
“The council destroyed more than the Blitz”: For the third time in a century, they're rebuilding Coventry
The end of our Midlands odyssey.
Bohemian Saudis and ex-banker hotel clerks: What happens to a city when its offices die out?
Imagine there’s no photocopier.
How a new playground is helping Rotterdam deal with its flooding problem
Building resilience.
“Rarely has a project to bring a city together been so divisive”: why do people hate London's Garden Bridge?
A highly regulated quasi-private space.
To improve the fabric of our cities, we need to give their residents more say
Building social capital.
“A premature memorial to the death of public housing in Britain”: this year’s Stirling Prize is an embarrassment
Blue blue electric blue.
Department of Transport boss warned ministers about risk Garden Bridge posed to taxpayer five months ago
Letters from last May.
Four thoughts inspired by three days in Birmingham
Oh yeah, I went there.
How can we engineer our cities to protect against the threats of the 21st century?
Roger Nickells, CEO of BuroHappold Engineering, discusses the threats facing 21st-century cities and how we can protect against them.
How did an ancient clock tower survive Italy's deadly earthquake?
I'm still standing.
Can green or cool roofs provide relief for over-heated cities?
Depends where you put them.
1666 and all that: How did the governors of London respond to the Great Fire?
Just like starting over.
Here's everything we learned from this gif of London's growth since 1900
Metroland, metroland.
There used to be Olympic medals for town planning, except they kept giving them to sports facilities
Thanks, IOC.
Against the modernist nightmare: the legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs
Turn, turn, turn.
The five technologies that changed the way we build cities
The march of progress.
Crossrail 2, green belt & the CPRE: how the Queen could stop her successor getting his own tube line
A right royal mess.
The Olympics can hurt host cities. Here's how we fix that
A dubious honour.
Rio’s Olympics of urban planning disasters: Which one will win the gold?
A competitive field.
Could modular housing solve London's housing crisis?
Well, it’s a start.
20 photos which prove that hosting the Olympics is a great way to regenerate a city
Everything's going to be fine.
The mayor of Tower Hamlets on why London’s councils need power to crack down on rogue developers
When developers go rogue.
11 times Heatherwick Studio declined to comment
Sorry, we don't do that.
The first modern metropolis: How Shanghai was born of a refugee crisis
A curious wisdom.
Here's why we need to talk about public toilets
Caught short.
Can shipping containers really help solve Australia's housing crisis?
No. No, they probably can't.
Where did Pokemon Go get its maps from?
Gotta map 'em all.
A group of domestic violence activists has occupied a flat in Hackney to protest the demise of council housing
"It sounds old-fashioned, but we just want proper council housing."
Build up or build out? How to tackle urban density
The sky's the limit.
In pictures: the bridges of Baghdad
Iraqi infrastructure down the years.
“Sicilian villages are selling homes for €1 each”: How can we save Europe’s dying communities?
Also, a mayor passed a law banning dying.
Caroline Pidgeon: A 30-year-old Londoner will be 90 by the time the Garden Bridge is paid off
One year on.
“In 2014, over one million tourists visited a township, a favela, a barrio or a slum”: on the rise of slum tourism
Slumming it.
In 2008, the Baltic Triangle barely had street lights. Now it’s Liverpool’s most cutting-edge creative quarter
Community interest.
“This is going to show the excellence of Islamic culture”: Manhattan's Ground Zero Mosque is finally going ahead
A victory for New York City's tolerance.
How has the Garden Bridge cost £37.7m already? Here's a breakdown
Let's run some numbers.
Will Habitat III defend the “Right to the City”?
A new approach to human rights.
Where are the world's largest cities?
For all your demographic needs.
The four year old estate, where two buildings have just been condemned
Building for the future.
Will it really cost the taxpayer twice as much to cancel London's Garden Bridge as to build it?
Hmmmmmmmm.
Here's how architects can use design to help cool over-heating cities
Feeling hot, hot, hot.
What can music venues learn from betting shops?
I have a cunning plan.
On “A Burglar’s Guide to the City”: a tale of architectural innovators
Cops and robbers.
Tales from Za’atari: Inside the refugee camp that’s becoming the fourth largest city in Jordan
Temp to perm.
“The i-sore”: Will Brighton’s new i360 observation tower ever win over the public?
I can see for miles and miles.
Manchester is the engine of the Northern Powerhouse. But it’s not ambitious enough about housing
Build high for happiness.
Could co-owned homes help solve the housing crisis?
Building for generation rent.
Young people can’t afford to buy or rent, so they're building their own houses
Running for the hills.
“Cities are organisms, not objects in need of completion”: Lessons in living heritage, from Tokyo to Adelaide
Progress vs heritage.
Don't build castles without planning permission: a cautionary tale
A man's home is his illegal mock Tudor castle.
City centre living has made a come back – and Manchester is leading the way
It's cool up north.
To solve London’s housing crisis, we need to think small – and empower the planners
Small buildings, small sites.
ISIS destroyed Palmyra. Should we 3d print a new one?
The ethics of reconstruction.
Britain doesn’t simply need to build houses. It matters where it builds them
Location, location, location
Can Brisbane keep its character without protecting landmark views?
As I look out over this magnificent vista...
7 reasons Historic England is wrong about turning the Thames into one big Conservation Zone
Great help, guys!
Why the dark world of J.G. Ballard's High-Rise is not so far from reality
Cities in the sky.
“A good week for the music scene”: so what do changes to permitted development mean for Britain’s nightlife?
The music goes on.
Could the buildings of the future be grown, instead of built?
Such stuff as dreams are made on.
What would happen to cities if there were no urbanists?
Just another brick in the wall.
This author/architect/space tourist has designed a skyscraper shaped like a cobra
Because one career is never enough.
Newly available pictures of the Barbican under construction are basically brutalism porn
Building the Brutal.
Zac Goldsmith is wrong about Crossrail 2 and housing. And government documents say so
Lies, damned lies and the green belt.
China’s urban policy unit just met for the first time in 38 years. Here’s what it recommended
Seven lessons.
Can London's farmers survive the housing crisis?
The fat of the land.
On New Orleans, and the resurgence of the American city
Tough times in the Big Easy.
Gentrification is killing Berlin's techno scene
Techno techno techno techno.
A short history of Las Vegas, the ultimate American city
On the strip.
Here's why solving London's housing crisis will mean rethinking the green belt
Breaking new ground.
Could we really 3d print buildings using drones?
Future is now.
China bans "weird" architecture in cities
No more Eiffel towers.
Mice ate the plans for Brussels' tunnels upgrade
Mice at the end of the tunnel.
The fall and rise of the terraced house shows how far our attitudes to architecture can change
History repeating.
More accidents and less economic growth: the case against shared space
Slow down, you move too fast.
This one chart explains why young Londoners are so angry about housing
Actually there are three charts, but... oh, you’ll see.
Estate regeneration can be done well. Here’s how
Seven habits of highly effective regenerations.
Quiz: Can you identify these cities from their light pollution?
Astronaut's eye view.
Street art is great, but don't try it on crosswalks
Buzz killed.
What exactly is “architecture for the common good”? The new MacEwen Award just found out
Upcycling in Stockwell.
Australia's cities need more trees – but that means cutting some down
Two steps forward...
“Last time buyers”: Britain needs more retirement housing, too
Boomers and bust.
Could a new city and a mile-high tower prevent natural disasters in Tokyo?
"But, like, harvesting water from the clouds, yeah?"
David Cameron is correct: the right to live somewhere beautiful matters
The case for beauty.
The places that maps forgot
The tea caddy that wronged New Zealand, and other sad tales.
Kings Cross, Sydney – and how urban planning can reduce drunken violence
Extraction, distraction.
2015: The year we built more skyscrapers than ever before
Because steel and glass phalluses still mean power.
You can use Google Maps to look at city skylines in 3d and somehow we never noticed
And you didn't tell us?
What is a garden city, and why should you want one?
Going green.
Here are five good reasons not to host the Olympic Games
Oh, the pain. The pain of it all.
We challenge you to look at all these leaning buildings without feeling a little sick
Leaning tower of nausea.
How can we learn to stop worrying and love bad architecture?
"Oh, it's... charming."
How green is your skyscraper? Why the most sustainable buildings might be low-rise
Blowing hot and cold.
Here are eight thoughts on David Cameron's £140m “sink estate” revamp policy
We're trying to be positive, but...
Why we should install wind turbines under bridges
Wind under the bridge.
Here are our favourite articles on architecture and demographics
Round up, round up.
Here are our favourite map stories from 2015
We all know what you're here for.
How we ended up exploring a church through the windscreen of an X-Wing
Happy Star Wars Day, Earth.
How poor maintenance of London's social housing created the conditions for its demolition
A tale of two estates.
USA! USA! Or - where are the biggest cities in the United States of America?
As easy as one, two, three.
South London's Half Moon pub has been a music venue since the '60s. It's sitting empty
After the flood.
1 Undershaft – and a selection of other skyscrapers that are not in any way phallic
Minds like sewers, you lot.
“Three million people move to cities every week”: so how can cities plan for migrants?
Roll up, roll up.
How good is Isis at running cities?
Or: why Luton really needs to up its bin collection game.
London could be getting a whole new set of pedestrian bridges
Walk on through to the other side.
I tried to build a self-sufficient "microhome" in rural Shropshire, only no one would pick up the phone
Prefabs sprout?
Communal living rooms and a “disco laundrette”: Is shared living really the future of affordable housing?
Truly affordable or yet another marketing stunt?
This new tool lets you map Manchester's new future housing and construction sites
Visions of the future.
Five new buildings changing the tone of their cities
New directions in putting things on top of other things.
Forget “pedestrian fast lanes”: we should be slowing our cities down
Take the long way home.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England is now campaigning to protect London's sewage farms
Seriously?
The 20 year battle to demolish Chicago’s notorious Cabrini-Green housing project
Gentrification on the Near North Side.
To end London's housing crisis, we should be building on top of schools and libraries
There! Up in the sky!
From dissidents to decoration: how street art sold out and gentrified our cities
Does it offend you, yeah?
Dubai and New York are both grand, vertiginous cities. So why is only one of them full of surprises?
"If you find other people irritating, Dubai is very attractive."
"Friends" has a lot to answer for: 11 things we just learnt about city centre living in England & Wales
Also: everyone hates their neighbours.
Shock news: street names are sexist
And last we checked, the Pope's Catholic.
Everyone loves pedestrianisation – but what if it made all retail districts look the same?
Pros and cons.
The Catacombs of Paris: Underneath the city of light lies a chamber of darkness and death
Spooooooooooooooooooooooooky.
These giant flower streetlights in Jerusalem bloom when you walk past
Blooming brilliant.
Game: Can you guess which of these cities is further north?
How hard can it be?
How can you build a city fit for a 50℃ heatwave?
Feeling hot, hot, hot.
"Half the houses will be demolished within 20 years": On the disposable cities of China
Knock it down, start again.
Where are Britain's largest metropolitan areas?
Asking the big questions.
What are the largest urban areas in Britain?
Britain's cities, ranked.
In Yemen, there's a city full of 500 year old skyscrapers made of mud
Mudbrick Manhattan
These electricity pylons are designed to look like giants
The corridors of power.
How did the financial crash affect the populations of Britain's cities?
To he that hath shall more be given.
Ninevah, Antioch, Lepcis Magna: The "global cities" of the Ancient World
Three ancient cities to rival London, Paris and New York
Santiago’s new skyscraper, the tallest in Latin America, is an engineering marvel. It’s standing almost empty
The southern hemisphere's premiere white elephant.
Game: Do you know which city is bigger?
Size matters.
“Why aren’t we relevant?” Architects and their place in Britain’s housing crisis
The forgotten profession.
What are "piggyback homes", and could they help ease London's housing crisis?
The only way is up.
Game: Can you identify these cities from space?
CityMetric goes interactive.
During its long boom, Chinese cities demolished an area the size of Mauritius every year
Clearing the Land.
Building a better Britain: Why it’s time for a return to architectural idealism
Architecture for the common good.
Where are the largest cities in Britain?
Asking the big questions. (Geddit?)
"The urban ecosystem": How should we design cities to make the most of green space?
Land sharing or land sparing?
Only bottom up development can end the housing crisis and regenerate our cities
Start from the bottom.
Housing renewal as art: Assemble, the architecture collective that made the Turner Prize list
"It's revolutionary."
Rebuilding Coventry: the Blitz, the building boom and the people left behind
Lessons from history.
Architecture’s love affair with psychology is overdue a revival
Healthy minds in healthy spaces.
Good transport links will be the foundation of new homes for London
The property problem.
These before and after pictures show how people-centric development can transform public spaces
Street views.
London's Walkie Talkie building is officially the worst
Architecture's wooden spoon
Australia's public transport is better than Australians think
The grass is always greener.
Ordnance Survey has turned its maps into printable colouring sheets
Colour me Milton Keynes.
What "ruin porn" tells us about ruins – and porn
Debbie does decay.
"When a house is demolished, more than the home is lost": On North America's demolition derby
Crash, bang, wallop.
The rebirth of Britain's inner cities, mapped
The city is up, and the suburbs are down.
“The gift from the sea”: through land reclamation, China keeps growing and growing
Making land and making money.
No. 4: Ross-shire and Cromartyshire, two Scottish counties for the price of one
A tale of pedantry and Restoration social climbing in the Highlands.
Residents at London's new Nine Elms development will be able to swim IN THE ACTUAL LITERAL SKY
Sky's the limit.
This map shows quite how little land London has left to build housing on
Land use restrictions-palooza.
Here's an open source transport and planning map of Greater Manchester to play with
Don't say we never do nothing for you.
Experiments in socialist urbanism: From Red Vienna to Red Bologna
Two different examples of what happens when socialists control urban policy.
Climate change means we can't keep living and working in glass houses
Throwing some stones.
Making smart cities work for people. No 3. Bangalore's digital planning tools
Beyond "Beware of the leopard."
Climate change means delta cities face a rising risk from sinking land – even the rich ones
Goldfish shoals nibbling at your toes.
These maps show that Britain is building too few homes, in the wrong cities
Looking for homes in all the wrong places.
Here's the transcript of our interview with "Imaginary Cities" author Darran Anderson
The whole story.
Video: Lego got adults to build a futuristic Singapore, then let kids have a go
Branded content alert.
Alain de Botton is wrong. London needs more tall buildings
Don't fear the 'scraper.
The site of the world's tallest skyscraper is currently a fish farm
Something fishy going on.
Can this “rolling shelter” help improve lives for the homeless?
A room of one's own.
Everything you thought you knew about cities is wrong
Urbanisation and its discontents.
No. 3: Baarle-Hertog, the Belgian town inside a Dutch town, Baarle-Nassau
Bit of the Netherlands inside bits of Belgium inside the Netherlands
Interview: Darran Anderson, author of Imaginary Cities, on architecture, power & The Jetsons
"You can tell what the predominant ideology is by what the tallest towers are".
How architects Charles Correa and Nek Chand Saini redefined India's public space
Changing the world, one courtyard at a time.
An economic history of the north of England. Part 3: The industrial revolution arrives
Time to rethink the north.
An economic history of the north of England. Part 2: Cottage industries and market towns
The early modern north.
