Anthropocene Shelter

Albina Yard, a 16,000-square-foot office building in Portland, uses wood, not steel and concrete, as its structural support.

Move Over, Steel: The High Rises of Tomorrow Are ‘Plyscrapers’

Light, strong and renewable, wood may change how tall buildings are built

Tokyo is the world's largest city...for now.

Five Things to Know About Megacities

Urbanization is happening fast—here's what to know about the world's largest cities

Cubicles: Not just mind-numbing, but unhealthy too?

How Climate Change Could Make Office Work Even Unhealthier

"Sick building syndrome" and other indoor concerns could be exacerbated by climate change

Germany, Hamburg, Speichrstadt and Hafencity district

Coastal Cities Need to Radically Rethink How They Deal With Rising Waters

"Transitional architecture" is both a futuristic solution to sea-level rise and a hearkening back to older ways of living

Zacharia Muinde of Map Kibera Trust shows teachers and students their school's page on Open Schools Kenya, a mapping project that helps residents find information on local schools.

DIY Cartographers Are Putting Slums on the Literal Map

When a community makes its way onto a map, it's that much harder to deny, say activists.

Bigelow Aerospace's proposed space station, Alpha, would be made up of sausage-link-esque blocks, each the size of a school bus.

We Thought We'd Be Living in Space (or Under Giant Domes) By Now

An inflatable space habitat test highlights the futuristic visions we've had for housing, from cities under glass to EPCOT

A free-standing, double-hulled steel shelter was installed beneath the front yard of Mr. and Mrs. Murland E. Anderson of Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

Dig Into the Nuclear Era's Homegrown Fallout Shelters

In 1955, the head of Civil Defense urged everyone to build an underground shelter "right now"

An Indian Municipal Corporation sanitation worker fumigates as part of a drive to curb breeding sites for mosquitoes causing a dengue outbreak in New Delhi in October 2015.

The World's Megacities Are Making Dengue Deadlier

Outbreaks are more common now thanks to bigger cities and more places for mosquitoes to live

Outrigger canoes race in the Majuro lagoon in the Marshall Islands. Traditional Marshallese wave piloting uses the feeling of the ocean to navigate precisely across vast stretches of open water.

Science and Tradition Are Resurrecting the Lost Art of Wave Piloting

Can Marshall Islanders’ unique heritage help them navigate a rising ocean?

This casket was made from reclaimed wood. At "green cemeteries" around the country, there is a movement to use fewer harmful chemicals and non-renewable resources in funerals and burials.

Could the Funeral of the Future Help Heal the Environment?

A traditional ten-acre cemetery holds enough embalming fluid to fill a small swimming pool. But there may be a greener way

A bat box stands over the Herdade do Esporão vineyard in Portugal.

Winemakers Are Building Houses for Bats to Make Vineyards Greener

Attracting the right species can help get rid of vine-munching insects and allow farmers to cut back on pesticides

Checking the plants in Nemo's Garden

Off the Coast of Italy, Two Divers Are Building Underwater Greenhouses

The biospheres could provide an alternate means of farming in regions with unstable growing conditions

Industrial designer Shin Kuo thinks everyone in a building should be able to live in the penthouse for a time.

Six Architectural Ideas That Could Change the Way We Live in Cities

Whether in response to polluted air or shrinking space, architects keep coming up with novel approaches to reshaping urban life

The dense metropolis of Tokyo sparkles like an urban playground at night.

Are Megacities Friend or Foe in the Fight Against Climate Change?

Like the people who call them home, cities have the potential for good and bad when it comes to adapting to a warming world

Paris has spread along the banks of the Seine since 1900.

Make Cities Explode in Size With These Interactive Maps

From Los Angeles to Lagos, see how megacities have been taking over the planet during the past 100 years

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