The New York City Subway Map As You’ve Never Seen It Before
In 1979, responding to complaints from riders that the subway map was difficult to use, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority hired the Manhattan design firm Michael Hertz and Associates to create a new map. The M.T.A. subway map is a record of how graphic design, politics and geography have shaped the city over the last 40 years.
How Cities Became Childless
American cities are getting more expensive, and families are being pushed out. Welcome to the future of urban living, where young people have to make a choice: money or babies?
The Four-Letter Code To Selling Just About Anything
As the father of industrial design, Raymond Loewy had an uncanny sense of how to make things fashionable. He believed that consumers are torn between two opposing forces: neophilia, a curiosity about new things; and neophobia, a fear of anything too new.
Japan’s Lost-and-Found System Is Insanely Good
The scheme for reuniting unlucky people with their wayward valuables relies on a complex mix of infrastructure, carrot-and-stick legal encouragement, and cultural norms. Taken together, they form a shockingly efficient system that has long been a source of wonder for Western observers.
Inside A Secretive $250 Million Private Transit System Just For Techies
Today, there are an estimated 1,020 private commuter shuttle buses in the Bay Area, according to unpublished data from the San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Add that up and you have a private transportation system worth more than $250 million.
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?
The Beautiful Hidden Logic Of Cities
Driving around your city, you’re probably somewhat aware of Avenues and Boulevards and Streets and Roads and so on. However, it’s hard to get an overall view of how all these road designations knit together. By coloring them, we can suddenly see a new, stunning view of what we normally take for granted.
MIT’s Color-Changing Ink Lets You Jazz Up Your Art, Clothes, Car Every Day
If you’ve ever purchased two articles of the same clothing because you couldn’t decide on a color, here’s a game-changer: color-changing ink. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a “reprogrammable ink” that lets you change the color of objects whenever you wish by exposing them to light of various wavelengths.
Artist Creates Daily Toast Designs Inspired By Japanese Traditions
For Japanese designer Manami Sasaki, making toast is a time to slow down and get creative. Every morning, she’s been using slices of bread as her canvas to create incredible breakfasts that look too pretty to eat.
Inside The Sale Of The Record-Obliterating $31 Million Patek Philippe Watch
The motion made the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime the most expensive watch ever sold by a wide margin. The Grandmaster Chime is a modern watch made specifically for the Only Watch auction, which donates 100 percent of its proceeds to Duchenne muscular dystrophy research.
The Art Of Eviction
In Brooklyn, the median rent has gone up about 10 percent in the six years since Quick Evic was founded, allowing the company to expand aggressively. In 2014 it brought in $20,000 in revenue, which ballooned to more than $300,000 by 2017. How one company helps landlords exploit a loophole in New York’s tenant laws.
TRS Studio Envisions Shipping Containers As Affordable Housing In Peru
Two shipping containers are joined together and topped by an angular polycarbonate extension in this conceptual design for low-cost housing by Peruvian firm TRS Studio. TRS Studio designed the speculative dwellings for communities that struggle with housing issues and lack resources to devote to buying construction materials.
The 737 Max Skyscraper Vertically Stacks Boeing’s Planes To Turn Them Into Residential Complexes
Designed as an entrant for the 2020 eVolo Skyscraper Competition, the 737 Max Tower turns one of the world’s most controversial aircrafts of modern times into housing.
Mapping America’s Stark Wage Inequality
One of the most important economic stories of the past couple of decades is the rise of economic inequality in the United States and around the world. Since 1980, economists say, wage growth for the highest-paid workers has been roughly triple that for the lowest paid. In some cities, the disparity is wider.
How ‘Landscape Urbanism’ Is Making Gentrification Look Like Fun
The High Line and its imitators are examples of “landscape urbanism,” a growing design movement that places green space in collision with old infrastructure. Rehabilitation projects follow a familiar playbook, aestheticizing the labor of the past even as they support a gentrified future.
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.
How The Dumb Design Of A WWII Plane Led To The Macintosh
For all the triumph of America’s new planes and tanks during World War II, a silent reaper stalked the battlefield: accidental deaths and mysterious crashes that no amount of training ever seemed to fix. At first, pilots took the blame for crashes. The true cause, however, lay with the design. That lesson led us into our user-friendly age—but there’s peril to come.
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.
This Breathtaking ‘Tree Tower’ Is The Changing Face Of Toronto’s Cityscape
Inspired by Montreal’s renowned Habitat 67 building, this incredible proposal for an 18-story timber tower block in Toronto shows that high-rises can be built sustainably and still connect with nature, even in a hectic urban environment.
What Happened When Oslo Decided To Make Its Downtown Basically Car-Free?
It was a huge success: Parking spots are now bike lanes, transit is fast and easy, and the streets (and local businesses) are full of people. Several other cities are also working to reduce car use, such as Madrid, which limits access to the city center for anyone other than the people who live there.
Slice Of Prime Zurich Real Estate Sold For $134 Million On Blockchain
A building on Zurich’s most exclusive shopping street has been converted into a blockchain-powered investment following its CHF130 million ($134 million) sale. It is the latest attempt to unlock the value of bricks and mortar using digitally-coded tokens.