Architecture

The yurt, a portable, circular hut, has been a part of Central Asian nomadic culture for centuries. During the Soviet era, metal was abundant and cheap, so metallic yurts frequent Kyrgyzstan ancestral cemeteries. An Islamic crescent tops this yurt, and a Kyrgyz hunting eagle spreads its wings in the background.

Kyrgyzstan’s Otherworldly Cities of the Dead

Photographer Margaret Morton traveled to the remote corners of the Central Asian nation to document its city-like ancestral cemeteries

In an eerie green hue, this upside-down Medusa head threatens to turn onlookers to stone. The color seems to come partly from a slick covering of algae.

Two Eerie Medusa Heads Watch Over Turkey’s Waterways

Why the Greek monster stares out from an ancient cistern in Istanbul

The newfound ruins could outshine their neighbor, the underground city of Derinkuyu (pictured).

Archaeologists Unfold World's Largest Underground City in Turkey

Archaeologists find evidence to believe a site just discovered in 2012 could be a complex subsurface labyrinth

This structure serves as everything from a climbing wall to a bench to a meditation space.

A Bus Stop Climbing Wall and Other Wild Ideas That Just Got Funded

Unbreakable shoelaces? They come in stylish colors and patterns

Palazzo Italia

Smog-Eating Buildings Battle Air Pollution

Sunlight triggers chemical reactions in the façades of buildings in Mexico City and Milan to improve air quality

Houston's futuristic Astrodome is home of the first skybox and an animated scoreboard,150 yards wide.

Remembering the Astrodome, the Eighth Wonder of the World

Fifty years after its grand opening, the spectre of the Houston stadium still looms large

This particularly charming street in Colmar, France looks straight out of a fairy tale.

The 11 Most Endearing Small Streets Worth Visiting

These tiny corridors around the world invite you in with their charm and surprising level of bustle

A TV tower on Burnt Island in Fife, Scotland, reaches just 410 feet -- but others of its kind top 2,000

The Fourth Tallest Man-made Structure Isn’t a Building at All

TV towers and power station chimneys are some less well-known record-breakers in the history of super-tall structures

This Dutch Wind Wheel Is Part Green Tech Showcase, Part Architectural Attraction

A giant structure proposed in Rotterdam puts cutting-edge energy tech inside a rotating observation wheel, with room for a hotel and apartments

Someone Built a Bold New Font Out of Buildings

Created out of aerial photography, you'll never guess where the "O" comes from

Exterior of Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings Nominated for Unesco World Heritage Status

It's the first time the United States has nominated works of modern architecture

Amager Resource Center, Copenhagen, Denmark. Under construction. This power plant, which turns household waste into electricity, is the cleanest in the world. "Normally, you want to be as far away from the power plant as possible because of the toxins, but in this case you literally have fresh mountain air on the roof of the building. Since we have snow in Denmark, but we don't have hills, we made the roof into a big ski slope," Ingels explains. The chimney puffs a giant steam ring each time a ton of carbon dioxide is emitted.

Designing Buildings For Hot Climates, Cold Ones and Everything in Between

A decade's worth of sustainable projects by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels and his firm, BIG, are now on display at the National Building Museum

The Taj Mahal Gardens Have a Special Relationship to the Solstice

On the day the sun climbs the highest in the sky, careful alignments within the gardens and buildings of the beautiful mausoleum appear

The soaring choir at Beauvais Cathedral was first constructed in the 1200s.

Europe's Great Gothic Cathedrals Weren't Built Just of Concrete

The designers and builders of Europe's great Gothic cathedrals weren't actually so innovative

(Clockwise from top left) Katrin Macmillan, Ashutosh Saxena, Richard Lunt and Horace Luke are hard at work on exciting new projects.

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2015

From food science and robotics to solar tech and sustainable architecture, these folks are poised to do big things

After the devastating 2011 tsunami, the Japanese government spent billions of zen to build this sea wall along the Sendai Coastline. It's almost 20 miles long.

In an Era of Superstorms, This Exhibit Captures Our Shifting Relationship with the Earth's Rising Seas

"Sink or Swim" shows how we're learning to be smarter and more resilient in our response to increasingly unpredictable oceans and rivers

One of the hapless burglars in "Home Alone" unwittingly stepped on Christmas ornaments placed by Kevin

Architects Analyze Kevin McCallister's "Home Alone" Booby Traps

Overanalyze Home Alone in every way possible — and it still stands up, all these years later

Pollution Is Turning the Taj Mahal Brown

Workers must periodically cover the Taj Mahal in clay to remove the pollutants stuck to its marble walls

Amphitheater and mountainous landscape in Red Rock Park, Colorado.

When America Invested in Infrastructure, These Beautiful Landmarks Were the Result

Explore eight of the Works Progress Administration’s most impressive structures.

The Hunger Games cornucopia from the first movie.

The Architecture of the Hunger Games' Horns of Plenty

What inspired the architectural object at the center of the Hunger Games arena?

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