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Cities

EcoLogicStudio's 430-square-foot gazebo, called the Urban Algae Folly, is on display at the Expo 2015 world's fair in Milan.

Will Buildings of the Future Be Cloaked In Algae?

Built by a London architecture firm, a new gazebo has a living “skin” that produces oxygen and absorbs considerable amounts of carbon dioxide

At the Mbad African Bead Museum in Detroit, Obscura Day visitors can see beads almost 400 years old.

Urban Explorations

This Obscura Day, Discover the Curiosities in Your Own Backyard

Creepy dolls, KGB secrets and unexpected pinball troves—media startup Atlas Obscura invites readers to explore their own hometowns on May 30

The World’s Largest Picture Frame?

The government of Dubai is taking this abstract structure to the next level

The sewer museum in Paris.

Urban Explorations

Urine for a Treat With a Tour of These Five Sewer Systems

Tunnels, drains and other wastewater structures to explore, from ancient Rome to present-day New York

How Food Truck Parks Are Making America More Like Southeast Asia

Pushing for nutritious options, as public officials in Singapore are doing, could boost the health of cities and their residents

Trending Today

In Three Years the Freedom Tower Will no Longer be America’s Tallest Building

New York’s Nordstrom Tower will be 1,795 feet tall

Umami Concepts, a fully stocked kitchen in Hong Kong, can be rented for an evening.

For Your Next Party, Rent a Kitchen the Size of Your Apartment

With living space shrinking, urbanites are paying for kitchen space to host special occasions

Traffic control centers like this one in Boston—a room cluttered with computer terminals and live video feeds of urban intersections—represent the brain of a traffic system.

Will We Ever Be Able to Make Traffic Disappear?

City engineers make changes in the timing of signals to keep cars moving, but cell phone data and vehicle-to-vehicle communication could ease the task

In a recent ad campaign, portraits of litterers made from DNA taken from tossed cigarettes, coffee cups and condoms were posted in public places around Hong Kong.

DNA Testing Could Identify Litterbugs and Dog Poop Miscreants

Anonymous crimes may not be quite so anonymous anymore

Future of Energy

6 Projects That Make a Sustainable Future Seem Possible

From an algae-powered building to a playground of recycled steel drums, these spots give designers, urban planners and others hope

Designer Ross Atkin has created pieces of street furniture—lights, signs and seats—that can adapt in the moment to fit a pedestrian’s particular need.

What If City Streetlights Brightened and Signs Spoke As You Passed?

A British designer has found a way to make urban areas work for all types of pedestrians

How Farms Became the New Hot Suburb

A new real estate trend has developments planted around working farms. But are these communities sustainable?

Signs with arrows pointing the way to popular destinations, along with average walking times, popped up in Raleigh.

Tactical Urbanists Are Improving Cities, One Rogue Fix at a Time

And city governments are paying attention, turning homemade infrastructure changes into permanent solutions

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

Cool Finds

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

Cool Finds

NYC Has So Many Coyotes Living There, They’ve Started Going to Bars

New York’s urban coyote population is booming — this week, one even ended up on top of a Long Island bar.

Jefferson Church, Walton Avenue at Jefferson, Los Angeles, 2012

The Passion of Christ, As Seen in Murals Around America

Photographer Camilo Jose Vergara looks at depictions of Jesus in murals across America

New Research

Population Growth Can Warm a City As Much As Climate Change

Urbanization in California’s Central Valley could raise local temperatures an extra one to two degrees Celcius

More than half of the drivers queried in a 2014 insurance industry survey said their cars had been damaged by potholes.

The War on Potholes Has a New Weapon

Researchers at Northeastern University have outfitted a van with sensors, microphones and cameras that can spot the early stages of potholes

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

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

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