The Brilliant Avant-Garde Movie Posters Of The Soviet Union
These extraordinary avant-garde movie posters are from the pre-Stalin days of the Soviet Union before Soviet Realism took a hold on graphic design. The period of artistic freedom in the Communist Soviet Union was relatively brief but some of these posters are amongst the greatest ever created.

Is The Hidden Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Ready To Open To The World?
The ‘hidden kingdom’ of Saudi Arabia has been mostly closed to journalists and travelers…until now. In a glitzy PR push, the country wants to promote itself as a tourist destination. Foreign Correspondent rides the magic carpet to extraordinary sites, thousands of years old, holding mysteries archaeologists are just beginning to uncover.

Hard Truths: Will Museums’ Digital Plans Make Curators Obsolete?
As art institutions continue to raise ticket prices and roll out blockbusters, we may come to see shows that will be curated entirely by optimized algorithms. What happens when a museum becomes curator-less? Will this be the end of art history as we’ve known it, or the dawn of a techno renaissance?

Lucie Rox’s New Zine Captures The Quiet, Soft Side Of Life In Japan
SIGNS, a new zine of pictures taken in Japan from Paris-born photographer Lucie Rox, is about the joy of exploring new places. It’s a series that encapsulates the feeling of traveling and “being taken by the novelty of the streets, objects and people living their everyday life in front you.”

The German Island With A Population Of 16
The 16 residents who live on the tiny German island of Oland must cope with extreme flooding on a regular basis. But they have no intention of leaving.

Could This Gorgeous Electric Plane Be The Tesla Of The Skies?
Called the “ZER0”, it’s an electric plane designed for efficiency rather than speed. The vehicle is only a concept, but it’s a compelling case study in how we might reconsider air travel to help the environment, developed by designer Joe Doucet.

What Will An Ice-Free Arctic Look Like?
Several years in the past decade have reached new lows for summer sea ice extent, raising questions about what will happen in this new Arctic as the ice declines and retreats. How will the ecosystem respond? Can treaties keep fishing in the central Arctic in check?

How Rwanda Is Becoming The Singapore Of Africa
Rwanda is now the 15th fastest growing economy in the world as its government has set out a clearly defined mission—they want to become the Singapore of Africa. To understand what this means, though, you have to understand what Singapore is.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics Art Posters Revealed
Since the early 20th century, posters have been created by Organising Committees of the Olympic Games to promote and advertise this major sporting and cultural event. Tokyo 2020’s official posters have been created by internationally renowned artists and designers

Stacked Straw Bales Form Walls For Conceptual School In Malawi By Nudes
Indian architecture office Nudes has developed a concept for a secondary school in Malawi, with a modular wooden structure and curved walls made from straw bales. Nudes, led by architect Nuru Karim, created the concept for the Straw Bale School.

Striking Street Photography In Japan By James Takumi Shyegun
Stunning street scenes by James Takumi Shyegun, a talented photographer, videographer, and model from Tokyo, Japan. Takumi focuses mainly on urban, architecture, and street photography.

The Problem With Being A Long-Term Expat
People on long-term foreign assignments often find it hard to adjust once they return home. Many leave their company within a few years, and some leave the country entirely. Long absences can play havoc with a person’s sense of identity, a feeling that is intensified by the length of time away and how often they visit home.

A Trek Through The Mysterious Accursed Mountains
Springtime in northern Albania sparks the herding of goats from the lowlands up to the towering mountainsides. Follow Prek Gjoni and his 160 goats on a grueling four-day journey across the spectacular Valbona Valley, a land that seems to exist out of time.

Living Off The Grid In Paradise
Warrick Mitchell lives deep in one of the world’s most remote locations: Fiordland, New Zealand. His home in the country’s oldest national park is nestled in a vast wildness accessible only by boat or airplane, a four day’s walk from the nearest road.

China’s Man-Made Forest In The Desert
In 1986, the city of Aksu in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region began an ambitious tree-planting project that looked to turn swaths of desert into forest. The result was over 13 million acres of green that became the Kekeya greening project.

Secret Trysts And Lost Weekends At The Chateau Marmont
How a run-down Hollywood hotel achieved legend status. The Chateau Marmont is a psychic landmark as well as a physical one: you go there to see it, but you also go to try to use it to see through time.

Smithsonian Artefacts Offer Insights Into Climate Change
Institute’s collections are helping to provide an understanding of how global warming affects specific locations. Paintings of Venice show rising sea levels and tracking France’s vanishing Mer de Glace in paintings and daguerreotypes.

Architects Turn Empty Parking Lot Into Los Angeles’s Densest Urban Forest
SecondHome Hollywood, a Los Angeles workspace, boasts a 50,000-square-foot garden of 6,500 trees and plants and 700 tons of soil and vegetation. It is Los Angeles’s densest urban forest and is also home to 112 native species.

How Advertising Conquered Urban Space
In cities around the world, advertising is everywhere. We may try to shut it out, but it reflects who we are (or want to be) and connects us to the urban past. Local signs connect us to the past, to vernacular styles, to folklore. The best examples catch our eye as children and stay with us.

Adam Gibson Captures Tasmania’s Modern Architecture in Gorgeous, Moody Hues
Based in Tasmania, Australian photographer Adam Gibson documents the stunning work of the island’s architecture scene in his unique style that often straddles the intriguing border between architectural and lifestyle photography.

Dubai: Expectation vs Reality
Dubai – perhaps the best-known city of the United Arab Emirates, with a reputation for attracting the glamorous and the wealthy. Less than 5% of its GDP comes from oil, but it essentially has made its success through diversifying into property real estate, aviation, trade, banking and finance. But what’s going on beneath the surface?