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Creative innovation and design that promotes sustainability and interactions with nature in architecture are more important than ever, as populations and carbon emissions in cities increase and the fear of gentrification prevents infrastructure change in America.

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While walking through the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, one might be forgiven to mistake Thorncrown Chapel for a grove of trees in the middle of the forest. The transparent glazed facade, combined with the timber trusses, creates the appearance of a grand forest rather than a carefully constructed chapel. It is only when one is inside the chapel that one starts appreciating the small details that set it apart as a paragon of architectural achievement: the steel joints on the trusses, the lanterns, the reflection of the glass, and the steel roof.

With all the contemporary emphasis on modern sustainable architecture, sometimes we seem to forget that environmentally friendly architecture has existed for a long time. Built in 1980, Thorncrown Chapel was created to highlight its location, which was - and still is - an attractive natural setting for tourists in the area. The owner of the site, Jim Reed, hired well-known architect and Frank Lloyd Wright alumni E. Fay Jones to design and build the project. The chapel is constructed from native timber to match the setting around it, and it was awarded the "Twenty-Five year award" by the American Institute of Architects.

The Thorncrown Chapel shows us how proper planning can reduce a building's impact on its site. The vertical and diagonal cross-tension trusses are made from lengths of pine cut to size so that they could be carried through the woods. The selection of materials was also an important consideration- all the timber came from local sources (this was before Forest Council Stewardship), the floor is made out of flagstone, and the building is lined with a rock wall that links it with its surrounding environment.

But the Thorncrown Chapel's most important feature is the way it completely blends into its surroundings. The glazed facade turns what could be a rather heavy object in the middle of the forest into a light, almost invisible structure. The transparent facade allows visitors to experience the forest while being inside the building. The building changes with the weather and the surrounding forest, ensuring that every visit is unique.

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Eureka Springs' Open-Air Thorncrown Chapel is a Paragon of Environmental Design

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While walking through the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, one might be forgiven to mistake Thorncrown Chapel for a grove of trees in the middle of the forest. The transparent glazed facade, combined with the timber trusses, creates the appearance of a grand forest rather than a carefully constructed chapel.

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Examples of great environmental incorporation

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Examples of great environmental incorporation

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Inhabitat - Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building

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Green design & innovation for a better world

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The study of architecture covers many areas, including engineering and design, but it is also important to remember the environmental impact buildings can have on the places we live.

Designing and building an architectural masterpiece will require plenty of inspiration and creativity, but first of all you will need a qualification.

As an architecture student, you will study everything from engineering and structural design, to building and project management, to graphics and design, and business.

In Australia, you have the freedom to choose a path that suits your particular goals. There are thousands of courses on offer. The Australian education system has a strong international reputation and is known for its effective structure and innovative policy developments.

Australia is also one of the best places to live. It is a young, vibrant and friendly country in which students can live, learn and grow. So if you want a quality education and a good lifestyle, Australia's the place to be.

Dr Henry Skates, a senior architecture lecturer at The School of Environment, Griffith University, Queensland, says there are a great number of benefits to studying architecture in Australia:

"Australia has a wide range of climatic conditions and associated challenges that provide for very interesting climatic responsive architecture. These range from drought conditions as found in the central desert regions, through to the recent extreme weather events that we have seen such as the floods and cyclone in the Tropical North. Having to deal with extremes of climates is just one example of how students of architecture in Australia are prepared for a wide range of career possibilities."

"Looking at how communities live together sustainably is also an important consideration within architecture study"

Sustainability is the key issue in studying environmental architecture, with energy efficient buildings, renewable energy applications, passive solar design and the use of environmentally responsible materials some of the more practical applications in Australia.

Other important considerations are surface water run-off from built-up areas and the ecology of building sites, as well as the health and wellbeing of building occupants, including daylight, exposure to direct sunlight and the use of healthy materials in construction.

"It's important, these days, that when buildings are designed and built, that people of all stages of life are taken into account," says Dr Skates. "On a larger scale, looking at how communities live together sustainably is also an important consideration within architecture study."

Programmes related to environmental design are focused on providing students with an integrated approach and skills in responding to this demand.

The themes of sustainability and social and cultural awareness are not simply treated as separate subject areas but wholly integrated into the design stream. An understanding of environmental design strategies and the impact they have on the social and cultural context is a key quality of graduates.

A degree is the foundation study for a career as an architect. Architectural Studies graduates may apply to progress into courses such as the Master of Architecture, designed to provide academic qualifications leading to accreditation for employment as an architect.

Whichever course you choose, you will experience a unique kind of education. Studying in Australia promotes innovative, creative and independent thinking. You will learn to work as part of a team, to communicate effectively with others and to develop the practical skills and intellectual abilities you need for global success in the field of architecture.

Written by Louise Durack (2011)
Communications Officer
SEET (Science, Engineering, Environment and Technology) Group
Griffith University

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The importance of environmental architecture - i-studentglobal

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The study of architecture covers many areas, including engineering and design, but it is also important to remember the environmental impact buildings can have on the places we live. Designing and building an architectural masterpiece will require plenty of inspiration and creativity, but first of all you will need a qualification.

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Look at the vertical gardens.

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Architecture critic Philip Jodidio says that "the most interesting buildings of today are, almost without exception, respectful of the environment, sustainable and designed to consume the least energy possible." In the book 100 Contemporary Sustainable Buildings (publisher Taschen) Jodidio has collected the best examples of this architectural trend toward green, forced by the seriousness of climate change. Here are 10 examples of this architecture concerned about nature, which in some cases provides the latest technologies and in others turns to solutions as ancient and simple as maximizing the use of sunlight.
1. Selgascano Studio. Architects: José Selgas and Lucía Cano, Madrid (Spain) 2007.
The intention of the architects for the studio was simple: "to work under the trees." They placed a transparent part towards the north to avoid direct sunlight on the work tables and covered it with a curved transparent plexiglass plate. The architects note in an article in the specialized journal ARQ, "the unusual association of several catalog items" such as the curved plastic membrane, are taken from a list of components of a train car.
2. Chesa Futura. Architect: Norman Foster, Sankt Moritz (Switzerland) 2004.
"Chesa Futura" in the Swiss Romansh language means "house of the future", and that is what purports to be by merging the latest technology with traditional construction techniques of the region, Sankt Moritz, in the Swiss mountains. The Chesa Futura is a three storey apartment building in the shape of a bubble. Its exterior is made of a local wood, larch, that will last a century without maintenance, according to the architect, the famous Norman Foster. The south facade is open to allow light to enter, while to the north it is closed to save energy.
3. Papertainer Museum. Architect: Shigeru Ban, Seoul (South Korea) 2006
Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was awarded the 2014 Pritzker Prize, considered the Nobel of architecture, for his "elegant and innovative projects for private clients" and for employing this same innovative design "for his extensive humanitarian efforts." The Papertainer Museum in Seoul is an example of this innovation, combined with very simple materials. The building, a temporary installation, was created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Korean publisher Design House and its shape is, precisely, that of a D. It is built with 166 cargo containers and 355 paper tubes about 10 metres high. Its simplicity allows it to be quickly disassembled and transported to other cities.
4. Ecobulevar de Vallecas. Architects: Urban Ecosystem, Madrid (Spain) 2007
The young architects of the Urban Ecosystem studio conceived of three "air trees" to try to boost the social life of a new urban extension of Madrid. The structures, made from recycled materials and plants, mimic greenhouse systems for lowering the temperature by up to 10 degrees. They are also "exportable, so they can be reinstalled in similar locations or other places that require a reactivation of their activities." Since their implementation, they have become a gathering place for neighbours.
5. CaixaForum Vertical Garden. Creator: Patrick Blanc, Madrid (Spain) 2008.
The CaixaForum cultural center is located in the Paseo del Prado of Madrid, near the renowned Prado, Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza museums. To provide a space in the avenue, landscaper Patrick Blanc created a 24 meter high vertical garden, with 15,000 plants of 250 different species spread over 460 square metres. The green wall, without earth, survives on water and nutrients. This spectacular vertical garden completes the rehabilitation of a former coal power station designed in 1899, of which the original modernist industrial facade is preserved.
6. The garden that climbs the stairs. Architect: Balmori Associates, Bilbao (Spain) 2009.
The landscape architect Diana Balmori was invited by the city of Bilbao to design a temporary garden in an international competition of urban gardens. Her plot was located at the foot of the stairs but Balmori, instead of sticking to the flat ground, placed the garden on the steps. The result was a cascade of vegetation with native and exotic plants which reconfigured the stairs. In her view, "the garden was not designed for visitors just to go up and down, but rather for them to stop and simply be."
7. New Fountain Chapel. Architects: Alejandro Dumay, Nicolas Fones, Francisco Vergara, Lake Rupanco (Chile) 2006
In a sloping plot on the shore of Lake Rupanco, the architects designed a small chapel of just 20 square metres, built with low cost materials and for easy installation. According to one of the designers, Alejandro Dumay, the volume is conceived "as a whole, without making distinctions of its structural elements." Walls, ceilings and openings form a whole, thanks to a pinewood covering. Inside, the altar image is formed by the landscape itself: Lake Rupanco and the beautiful mountains.
8. Lego Greenhouse. Architect: Sebastian Bergne, (London) 2011.
In September 2011, visitors to London's Covent Garden market were able to see a greenhouse built with 100,000 pieces of Lego. Its creator, architect Sebastian Bergne, installed it with a sloping roof in reference to the architecture of the neighborhood, while the interior plants referred to the market's past as a business centre for the garden industry. For Bergne, the greenhouse shows the potential of using toy parts in the actual construction sector.
9. The Barony House. Architects: DRN Architects, Quintero (Chile) 2009.
The creators of The Barony House on the Chilean Pacific coast had to abandon the plan to create an idyllic home due to the extreme humidity and salt air. To address these constraints, they opted for an exterior dominated by glass and weathering steel, sheathed in the interior by warm wood. The building, designed as an austere family retreat, offers an incredible view of the sea through a window in the bedroom on the ground floor, while upstairs it is shaped in order to fit a balcony that juts out over the ocean.
10. BIP Computers. Architect: Alberto Mozo, Providencia (Chile) 2007.
This office building of three stories, built of wood, reuses two existing houses from 1939 and also allows for the disassembly of the group and its reassembly elsewhere. In this way the architect, Alberto Mozo, solved a request by his client concerned about a possible bid to build a twelve-storey tower on the site in the future. As the designer explains, the building uses thermal insulation to reduce heat loss through the glass in winter and employs only pinewood from renewable forests.
Ventana al Conocimiento (Knowledge Window)

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10 Buildings That Demonstrate Environmental Architecture Is Possible - OpenMind

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Architecture critic Philip Jodidio says that "the most interesting buildings of today are, almost without exception, respectful of the environment, sustainable and designed to consume the least energy possible." In the book 100 Contemporary Sustainable Buildings (publisher Taschen) Jodidio has collected the best examples of this architectural trend toward green, forced by the seriousness of climate change.

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Examples of architecture projects that incorporate the environment and strive to be sustainable.

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By Karissa Rosenfield
( Read the original story here)

In honor of Earth Day, we have complied a preview of the top ten most sustainable exemplars of U.S. architecture selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment ( COTE). Each project featured will be honored with a COTE Top Ten Award for "sustainable design excellence" at the 2014 National Convention in Chicago.

1. Arizona State University Student Health Services: Tempe, Arizona / Lake|Flato Architects + Orcutt|Winslow

The Arizona State University (ASU) Health Services Building is an adaptive reuse project that transformed the existing sterile and inefficient clinic into a clearly organized, efficient, and welcoming facility. The design imbues the new facility with a sense of health and wellness that leverages Tempe's natural environment and contributes to a more cohesive pedestrian oriented campus. The building's energy performance is 49% below ASHRAE 90.1-2007, exceeding the current target of the 2030 Challenge. The facility achieved LEED Platinum certification and is one of the best energy performers on campus as evidenced by ASU's Campus Metabolism interactive web-tool tracking real-time resource use.

2. Bud Clark Commons: Portland, Oregon / Holst Architecture

As a centerpiece of Portland's 10- Year Plan to End Homelessness, this LEED Platinum project provides a continuum of services to help transition homeless individuals toward stable, permanent living arrangements. The architecture helps achieve this goal with a walk-in day center with public courtyard and access to support services; a 90-bed temporary shelter; and a separate and secure entrance to 130 efficient, furnished studio apartments for homeless individuals seeking permanent housing. The building's design aims to de-institutionalize services and housing for the most vulnerable in our population. Sustainable features include large-scale graywater recycling, zero stormwater runoff, solar hot water, and a high-performance envelope, resulting in energy savings estimated at $60,000 annually.

3. Bushwick Inlet Park: Brooklyn, New York / Kiss + Cathcart, Architects

This project is the first phase of the transformation of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront from a decaying industrial strip to a multifaceted public park. The design team integrated a program of playfields, public meeting rooms, classrooms, and park maintenance facilities, into a city-block sized site. The park building becomes a green hill on the west side, making 100% of the site usable to the public, and offering views to Manhattan. Below the green roof is a complex of building systems - ground source heat pump wells, rainwater harvest and storage, and drip irrigation. A solar trellis produces half the total energy used in the building.

4. Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt (EGWW) Federal Building Modernization: Portland, Oregon / SERA Architects with Cutler Anderson Architects

On track to be one of the lowest energy-use buildings in the U.S., EGWW is a model for U.S. General Services Administration nationwide. The project's goal was to transform the existing building from an aging, energy hog to one of the premiere environmentally-friendly buildings in the nation. With a unique facade of "reeds", light shelf /sunshades designed by orientation and a roof canopy that supports a 180 kW photovoltaic array while collecting rainwater, EGWW pushes the boundaries for innovative sustainable deign strategies. In addition to the energy improvements, the design reveals the history of the building, exposing the artifacts of the original builders.

5. Gateway Center - SUNY-ESF College of Environmental Science & Forestry: Syracuse, NY / Architerra

The SUNY-ESF College of Environmental Science & Forestry Gateway Center is a striking symbol of environmental stewardship and climate action leadership. This LEED Platinum campus center meets ESF's goal of reducing the overall carbon footprint of the campus through net positive renewable energy production, while creating a combined heat and power plant and intensive green roof that serve as hands-on teaching and research tools. The double-ended bioclimatic form exemplifies passive solar design. Net positive energy systems integrated with the design serve four adjacent ESF buildings, providing 60% of annual campus heating needs and 20% of annual power needs.

6. John & Frances Angelos Law Center: Baltimore / Behnisch Architekten and Ayers Saint Gross

The John and Frances Angelos Law Center is the first large-scale opportunity for the University of Baltimore to demonstrate its intent to pursue strategies that eliminate global warming emissions and achieve climate neutrality. With this in mind, the Law Center is a highly sustainable and innovative structure that strives to reduce reliance on energy and natural resources, minimizing its dependence on mechanical ventilation and artificial lighting of interiors. This is part of a larger comprehensive effort on the part of the A/E team to approach sustainability from a more holistic vantage point from the outset of the project.

7. Sustainability Treehouse: Glen Jean, West Virginia / Mithun with BNIM

Situated in the forest at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, this interactive, interpretive and gathering facility serves as a unique icon of scouting adventure, environmental stewardship and high performance building design. Visitors ascend indoor and outdoor platforms to experience the forest from multiple vantages and engage with educational exhibits that explore the site and ecosystem at the levels of ground, tree canopy and sky. Innovative green building systems-including a 6,450-watt photovoltaic array output, two 4,000-watt wind turbines, and a 1,000-gallon cistern and water cleansing system-combine to yield a net-zero energy and net-zero water facility that touches its site lightly.

8. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Headquarters: Los Altos California / EHDD

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation headquarters acts as a catalyst for broad organizational sustainability and brings staff, grantees and partners together to solve the world's most intractable problems. The Foundation's connection to the Los Altos community dates back to its inception in 1964. For the last two decades, as its grant making programs expanded locally and worldwide, staff and operations have been scattered in buildings throughout the city. This project enhances proximity and collaboration while renewing the Foundation's commitment to the local community by investing in a downtown project intended to last through the end of 21st century.

9. U.S. Land Port of Entry: Warroad, Minnesota / Snow Kreilich Architects, Inc.

This LEED Gold certified Land Port of Entry is the first to employ a ground source heat pump system. Sustainably harvested cedar was used on the entire exterior envelope, canopies and some interior walls and 98% of all wood on the project is FSC certified. Additionally 22% of the material content came from recycled materials and 91% of all work areas have access to daylight. Rainwater collection, reconstructed wetlands and native plantings address resource and site-specific responses. The facility proudly supports the mission-driven demands of US Customs and Border Protection while addressing the sustainable challenges of our future.

10. Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse: Grand Junction, Colorado / Westlake Reed Leskosky with The Beck Group

The LEED® Platinum renovation preserves an anchor in Grand Junction, and converts the 1918 landmark into one of the most energy efficient, sustainable historic buildings in the country. The design aims to be GSA's first Site Net-Zero Energy facility on the National Register. Exemplifying sustainable preservation, it restores and showcases historic volumes and finishes, while sensitively incorporating innovative systems and drastically reducing energy consumption. Features include a roof canopy-mounted 123 kW photovoltaic array, variable-refrigerant flow heating and cooling systems, 32-well passive Geo-Exchange system, a thermally upgraded enclosure, energy recovery, wireless controls, fluorescent and LED lighting, and post-occupancy monitoring.
The 2014 Jury:
Frederick Steiner, School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin
Catherine Gavin, Texas Architect
Bill Browning, Hon. AIA, Terrapin Bright Green
Thomas E. Simpson, PE, LEED® AP, US East Integral Group
Jennifer Yoos, FAIA, LEED AP, V J A A

>Project descriptions and images provided by the AIA.

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The 10 Most Sustainable Architecture Projects In The U.S.

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By Karissa Rosenfield ( Read the original story here) In honor of Earth Day, we have complied a preview of the top ten most sustainable exemplars of U.S. architecture selected by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment ( COTE).

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This post on an architectural blog gives a brilliant overview of the fundamentals of "architectural alchemy" and past projects that have utilized these tools.

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ALCHEMY - as defined by Studio E
The chief aim of alchemy - a pseudo-science practiced in the Middle Ages - was to turn base metals into gold. As modern-day architects/alchemists, we embrace the ordinary programs, left-over sites and modest construction budgets of our practice and seek to extract extraordinary and memorable results.

Upon doing some research, I discovered that architectural alchemy is a principle embraced by not only Studio E, but by another buzz-worthy architect, Bjarke Ingels of the firm BIG from Copenhagen. I took this opportunity to share how another firm has interpreted this principle in their work and how this might inform the way we approach this principle.
"What I like about the term alchemy is that you take traditional ingredients that would separately be just "normal this" and "normal that," and when you combine them, because of symbiotic relationships, you get much more out of the mix than if you were to leave them separate." - Bjarke Ingels

I looked at 3 of his housing projects. The Mountain Dwelling, The Eight House - both built, and his latest proposal for a New York skyscraper called W57 but dubbed the Pyramid scheme, for obvious reasons.

In the Mountain Dwelling he takes the given elements of the program - parking and housing and stacks them in a unique way to give each living unit a penthouse condition with a view and provides its residents the suburban luxuries of a garden within an urban, dense context. Nice to see another way of dealing with the interaction between parking and housing.

The Eight House is a hybrid of offices, shops, townhouses and apartments in the form of a figure-eight-shaped perimeter block. Analysis of the different program elements and their specific requirements such as the depth required for offices and shops v. housing, led to opportunities such as the inclusion of space for gardens and public pathway that ascends the perimeter of the building. This transforms an ordinary mixed use program into something more extraordinary - a community of rowhouses along a mountain path that ascends from the ground to the top of the building allowing people to bicycle all the way up. Public life in mixed use buildings is usually restricted to the ground floor. Not here.

W57 looks different because again he is trying to combine disparate ideas to get something new out of the mix - the density and views of a skyscraper-the efficiency-with the idea of a courtyard. The building is a hybrid between the European perimeter block, with the buildings surrounding a central courtyard, and a traditional Manhattan high-rise, the tower in the park.

Like most of his projects, the form looks wild but it has been born of logic and rigorous thought. He presents diagrams to explain how the pragmatic requirements such as height restrictions, the site plan, the need to maximize views, and the need to create both public and private outdoor spaces for most of the apartments were limiting principles directing him towards a specific massing.
"Architecture seems to be entrenched in two equally unfertile fronts: Either naively utopian or petrifying pragmatic. We believe that there is a third way wedged in the no mans land between the diametrical opposites. Or in the small but very fertile overlap between the two. A pragmatic utopian architecture that takes on the creation of socially, economically and environmentally perfect places as a practical objective." - Bjarke Ingels
Conicidentally, a few weeks after this presentation I was lucky enough to attend a lecture given by Bjarke in San Diego. His lecture was built around his latest slogan "Hedonistic Sustainability" - the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city can in fact improve our quality of life.

You can watch a video of this lecture here. Enjoy!

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Bjarke Ingles & Architectural Alchemy - Studio E Shared Principles

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ALCHEMY - as defined by Studio E The chief aim of alchemy - a pseudo-science practiced in the Middle Ages - was to turn base metals into gold. As modern-day architects/alchemists, we embrace the ordinary programs, left-over sites and modest construction budgets of our practice and seek to extract extraordinary and memorable results.

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To explore projected projects that use the systems of sustainable architecture, feel free to click through this site. It is a list of projects from the architecture firm BIG.

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Neutral & Economic

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Understanding urbanization: The World Bank is conducting research on urban spatial development, housing, and urban environment, focusing on regional, as well as country specific Urbanization Reviews that aim to support national and city-level policymakers in thinking strategically about the opportunities - and addressing the challenges - of urbanization.

Other recent analytical work and tools to help cities manage urbanization and support sustainable, inclusive growth include:

Resilience: The World Bank Group (WBG) is helping cities adapt to a greater variety of changing conditions and withstand shocks while maintaining essential functions through urban resilience programs. For example, the City Resilience Program (CRP) is an effort to support the Bank's city-level engagements by providing a platform to support the development of comprehensive resilience-building investments, while crowding in a range of sources of private and official capital to finance these investment programs. Similarly, the CityStrength Diagnostic enhances cities' resilience and has been successfully implemented in 28 local governments in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Vietnam.

"Investing in Urban Resilience: Protecting and Promoting Development in a Changing World" discusses the urgent need to scale up the amount of financing that flows to cities and toward projects that increase resilience of urban areas. The report discusses constraints that currently limit the amount of private investment in this space, and makes the case that the World Bank Group can and should deploy its various analytical tools and powerful financing products to attract more private capital into projects that increase resilience of urban infrastructure.

Finance: The City Creditworthiness Initiative provides local authorities with comprehensive support to promote urban infrastructure investments. The engagement begins with learning programs for leaders called "City Creditworthiness Academies."The Academies have provided training on fundamentals of creditworthiness and municipal finance to over 600 officials from over 200 cities in 25 countries, including Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Rwanda, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda, and West Bank & Gaza.
Convening
Cities in a changing climate: The World Bank's work on urban development has been instrumental in advocating for addressing climate change issues during COP21/22/23 and the One Planet Summit. In recent years, the World Bank has worked in more than 7,000 cities and towns across 130 countries, investing $4.2 billion during fiscal year 2017 in disaster risk management, and committing over $50 billion through more than 900 projects with climate-related activities.

Sharing city experiences: The Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC) is a knowledge platform established in partnership with development banks, UN organizations, city networks, think tanks and local agencies. It is a new initiative that helps increase cities' overall capability and "readiness" for attracting investment and preparing bankable projects. It aims to promote an integrated approach to urban planning, financing, and implementation.

Metrolab is a World Bank-convened partnership in which metropolitan cities from all over the world share action-oriented knowledge on urban and regional strategic planning and management through peer-to peer-learning.
Financing
In rapidly urbanizing Vietnam, the Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project - with $382 million financing from the World Bank - improved the lives of 7.5 million urban poor with better water and sewage connections, as well as improved roads, sewers, lakes, canals, and bridges. In Indonesia, the Indonesia National Slum Upgrading Program, which includes substantial additional finance through co-financing from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), is improving access to urban infrastructure and services in targeted slums. In Argentina, the Metropolitan Buenos Aires Urban Transformation Project is supporting the improvement of living conditions for around 48,000 residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area.

In Jordan and Lebanon, two related projects are supporting local authorities and communities hosting Syrian refugees, and include strong consultation and feedback mechanisms. The Jordan project to address the urgently needed rehabilitation of municipal infrastructurehas benefitted about two million people, including 250,000 Syrian refugees. In Lebanon, interventions to release tensions reached 250,000 people within a year - three times the initial target - particularly those in the host communities close to refugee camps, and also improved service delivery to more than one million Lebanese people.

In Kenya, the Bank is supporting devolution through lending and technical assistance programs, most notably the recently approved Kenya Devolution Support Program (KDSP) and the Kenya Accountable Devolution Program (KADP). Through both projects, the Bank is playing a key role in supporting the implementation of the National Capacity Building Framework (NCBF) to bring about enhancements in local accountability and basic service delivery.

In Belize, the Bank supported the national government in developing and implementing the National Climate Resilient Investment Plan (NCRIP) through the Climate Resilient Infrastructure Project, which helped position the country to leverage additional climate financing from international financing institutions. In the Eastern Caribbean countries, the Bank has mobilized over $200 million for enhancing climate resilience and strategically reducing their vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters, including $83 million from the Strategic Climate Fund, and immediately following natural disasters (e.g., Saint Lucia Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project).

In Georgia, the Regional Development Project assists the country's regions in improving their infrastructure in order to capitalize on a growing tourism market; thus assisting in improving their local competitiveness and economic development. In Azerbaijan, The Bank has supported the national government in improving solid waste collection and disposal operations in the Greater Baku area - cleaning and closing the main Balakhani landfill and 50 wild dumps - and a new solid waste management agency for Greater Baku has been established. A national solid waste management strategy and an investment plan are now under preparation with the Bank's support.

In Pakistan, the Bank is helping the five largest cities in the province of Punjab improve their systems for planning, resource management, and accountability through a $150 million results-based financing. The city governments are developing and implementing medium-term, integrated development and asset management plans with evidence-based prioritization for municipal infrastructure and services, resulting in increased revenue collection and reduced expenditures, providing financial headroom. Automated systems for public access to information and grievance redressal, as well as updated websites with information on budgets and procurements, are ensuring greater accountability.

Last Updated: Jan 02,2018

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Today's urban population of about 3.5 billion people is projected to reach 5 billion by 2030, with two-thirds of the global population living in cities. City leaders must move quickly to plan for growth and provide the basic services, infrastructure, and affordable housing their expanding populations need.

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Neutral & Economic

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If cities fail to build their resilience to disasters, shocks, and ongoing stresses, climate change and natural disasters will cost cities worldwide $314 billion every year by 2030, and 77 million more people-or more than the entire population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-will soon be living and laboring in the shadow of poverty.

The low resilience of growing cities is particularly dangerous to the urban poor. Globally, 881 million urban residents are living in slums, up by 28% since 2000. These informal and unplanned settlements are often built in high-risk locations, such as slopes or floodplains, and lack basic risk-reducing infrastructure.

But there is reason for optimism. Almost 60% of the areas that will be urbanized by 2030 haven't been developed yet, which means that the world has a brief window of opportunity for investment-but it will take a significant amount of funding. Research has estimated that, worldwide, the need for urban infrastructure investment is $4.5 trillion per year, and that making this infrastructure low carbon and climate resilient will take a premium of 9% to 27%. Much of this demand comes from cities in the developing world.

The funding to do it is out there: between public, private, and philanthropic sources of funding, there is $106 trillion of private institutional capital available worldwide. Yet, right now, only 1.6% of it is invested in infrastructure at all, let alone in making that infrastructure resilient.

Why such a large funding gap?

"Investors are struggling with a range of obstacles when it comes to investing in resilience," said Francis Ghesquiere, Head of GFDRR. "More often than not, the capacity of municipalities to integrate risk reduction components in their programs, and to access funding, is limited. We need to find innovative ways to overcome these challenges if we are to avoid the disaster of tomorrow."

In fact, developing cities face a number of major barriers when trying to fund resilience investments, including:

Lack of government capacity. Cities may struggle with political uncertainty, regulatory systems that deter private investment, and difficulties planning, financing, and implementing projects.

Lack of private sector confidence. Private-sector investors are frequently concerned about limited institutional capacity, weak governance, currency risk, and limited benchmarking data that can be used to measure an investment's performance.

Challenges in project preparation. The technical capacity and upfront costs needed to prepare projects mean that cities are able to offer few ready-to-go urban resilience projects to investors for financing.

To help cities overcome these barriers and boost investment in urban resilience, the Bank has invested an average of $2 billion a year in building resilient cities over the past five years, working on 79 projects in 41 countries. In Istanbul, for example, the World Bank and GFDRR helped improve the city's earthquake preparedness by making more than 1,000 buildings-including schools and hospitals- safer for over 800,000 people.

The Bank also aims to make a global impact on the worldwide urban resilience agenda through its far-reaching partnerships, including the 100 Resilient Cities network and the Medellín Collaboration on Urban Resilience.

These multilateral partnerships are crucial for leveraging private funding. But it's going to take more than money to increase urban resilience: it will take a focus on improving the policy environment in cities so that investors are willing and eager to fund resilience projects, and boosting the capacity of local governments to implement them.

These are the key themes that the World Bank and GFDRR will bring to Habitat III, where their will share the Investing in Urban Resilience report and help forward the conversation about how to build the resilient cities of the future.

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How Can We Finance the Resilient Cities of the Future?

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If cities fail to build their resilience to disasters, shocks, and ongoing stresses, climate change and natural disasters will cost cities worldwide $314 billion every year by 2030, and 77 million more people-or more than the entire population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo-will soon be living and laboring in the shadow of poverty.

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http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

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Amanda Burden and the Rezoning of New York

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Amanda Burden and the Rezoning of New York

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Somewhat-Pro, Burden uses the interactions of people and public places to improve the city.

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Amanda Burden, Planning Commissioner, Is Remaking New York City

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"Creating fine-grained open spaces in combination with remaking the city's land-use blueprint is what I'm most proud of," Ms. Burden added, perched on a seat at the enormous round table that dominates her well-worn second-floor office at 22 Reade Street, zoning maps on the wall behind her, a photo of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront in Brooklyn propped in the corner.

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Interesting look from the Smithsonian of innovative city living.

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Interesting look from the Smithsonian of innovative city living.

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Pro. A look into innovation and city design and that relationship with people.

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A new show at the Cooper Hewitt reveals the process behind designer Thomas Heatherwick's projects

smithsonian.com

Shortly before his first New York show opened at Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, Thomas Heatherwick realized he had a problem.

"They told us the bus wouldn't fit!" he exclaims. But the bus in question (really just the rear section of a bus) was one of the key items in the show, an example of Heatherwick Studio's design diversity-from buses to handbags-and ubiquity.

In 2010 his studio was asked to redesign London's iconic double-decker bus; today, thousands of these buses putter and roar down the city's streets. He decided to bring the bus to New York from London anyway. It ended up just barely fitting through the front doors. "It's jammed in," says Heatherwick of the bus' placement between two staircases, "but jammed in more interesting than not here."

Even if the bus hadn't fit, it's hard to imagine Heatherwick not finding a solution. Variously described by others as a designer, inventor or artist, he sees himself as a problem solver.

"Once you define the problem," he explains. "That gives you a basis for working."

The show at Cooper Hewitt, Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio, reflects this approach. Everything is labeled with the problem it was designed to solve. The plaque next to the bus poses practical questions: "Can a London bus be better and use 40% less fuel?"

A few questions displayed are simply functional. For example, "Can a drawbridge open without breaking?" accompanies a working model of a bridge (the real thing was built at London's Paddington Basin in 2004) that curls up on itself like a pillbug. Others are philosophically complex. "How can a building represent a nation?" reads a plaque next to a model of the Seed Cathedral, a dandelion puff of a building designed for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Sixty-six thousand acrylic rods shimmer on the outside while, inside, the rods' tips display 250,000 seeds from London's Kew Gardens.

This project, according to curator Brooke Hodge, is what put Heatherwick on the map.

"When we started to plan this show in 2009, I'd tell people about it and nobody knew who he was," she says. "He doesn't give lectures, he doesn't promote. But after Shanghai I'd say, 'He did the Seed Cathedral,' and architects would go, 'Ohhhhhhhh.'"

"Then, of course, he did the 2012 Olympic cauldron," she adds. "And the general public began to know who he was."

Cauldron and bus, buildings and bridges, join handbags, furniture and landscape design to create a body of work that's difficult to sum up "Heatherwick's difficult to categorize, [and that's] part of what makes his work exciting to me," says Beth Altringer, a professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Design. "His diverse body of work leaves us questioning whether and how it makes sense to separate specialist forms of design."

Heatherwick explains that his broad range of projects is partly a function of his upbringing. "I grew up around craftspeople," he explains. "My mother was a jeweler, so I spent quite a bit of time with people who were making things, whether it was glass blowing or stone carving." But his "passion for public projects" comes, he says, from his maternal grandfather, Spanish Civil War veteran Miles Tomalin, who "was fascinated with engineering and industry." Among Tomalin's many projects was a book called Coal Mines and Miners and a campaign to prove fellow Welshman Richard Trevithick was the rightful inventor of the steam locomotive.

For his part, Heatherwick "grew up being interested in ideas," he says. "I liked to tinker. But in Britain 'inventing' was always connected with the mad scientist character, like Caractacus Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." It's an association he's mentioned in several interviews, and, in a sweater vest and baggy patterned trousers, eyes enthusiastically wide under tousled curls, he does look the part of a 19th century inventor. It's easy to picture him riding his recumbent bike (a Victorian invention) to the Royal College of Art, where he got his masters in art in design products, a program that encompasses everything from textiles to appliances to cars. While at RCA, he showed his design for a Victorian-inspired gazebo to visiting lecturer Sir Terence Conran, the design entrepreneur who founded the Habitat home store. Conran was so impressed that he invited Heatherwick to build the gazebo on his estate.

Soon after graduation, with Conran as a mentor, he founded Heatherwick Studio. What was then a small undertaking-just Heatherwick and fellow RCA graduate Jonathan Thomas-is, 20 years later, a bustling warren of nearly 200 designers, architects and "makers." This diverse staff is the other reason Heatherwick's range of projects is so broad: the team is highly collaborative, and because their skills are so varied their projects can be too. "It's more stimulating to always be doing something different," he explains. "We never want the illusion of solid ground."

Though none of their projects is the same as the last, the studio has its own form of consistency. "Our process is the only thing we've done over and over, really refined it, and it works," Heatherwick says.

The process has two main components: a team and a problem. Each incoming project is assigned a project leader and a small team. Together, they identify the problem to be solved and brainstorm ways to solve it. Heatherwick goes from project to project, depending on where he's needed. "It's a sort of pushing and pulling in every direction," he explains. "I feel we're not experts at any one thing, but we are experts at not being experts."

It's this outsider approach that makes Heatherwick's work so innovative, according to Clifford Pearson, an architecture historian and editor at the Architectural Record: "He has this childlike quality, in a good way, of looking at things and asking why, why, why-questions that go to the heart of the problem."

"There's a freshness and an energy to his work," continues Pearson. "That said, we haven't really seen him do many big projects from scratch [Heatherwick has done several large remodels]. It will be interesting to see if he can translate this inventiveness to a larger scale."
"Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio" is on view at the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City through January 3, 2016.
Big projects are on the way. In November 2014, Heatherwick Studio's commissioned designs for Pier 55, a floating park and performance space on Manhattan's west side, were made public. Four months later, Google announced that Heatherwick Studio, in collaboration with the Bjarke Ingels Group, is redesigning their Mountain View, Californian, campus.

When asked it if it's difficult to maintain his process while collaborating with another firm, Heatherwick shakes his head. "I find the external collaborations are really good for the mix of things," he says. "We're collaborating willy-nilly at the moment. It's like that saying: 'A problem shared is a problem halved.'"

About Mary Mann

Mary Mann is a freelancer who has written for The New York Times The
Believer Magazine, Matter and other outlets. She is currently at work on a book
about boredom, forthcoming from FSG Originals.

Read more from this author | Follow @whoaaamann

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the innovative spirit at the smithsonian

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A Look Into the Innovative Mind of One of the World's Most Inventive Architects

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smithsonian.com Shortly before his first New York show opened at Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, Thomas Heatherwick realized he had a problem. "They told us the bus wouldn't fit!" he exclaims. But the bus in question (really just the rear section of a bus) was one of the key items in the show, an example of Heatherwick Studio's design diversity-from buses to handbags-and ubiquity.

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A look into gentrification that puts a speed bump on the line of city revitalization.

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Cities are the place to be these days, which means big changes for the historic communities that have populated urban cores. While much of the urban renewal experiments of the 1940s through the 1960s have been deemed disasters, word is still out on the new wave of "urban revitalization" that began in the 1990s and continues through to today in most of America's cities. The supporters of revitalization say rising tides lift all boats. As wealth has come back to cities, everyone benefits. But critics of revitalization simply call it gentrification, and, as one speaker at the EcoDistricts Summit in Washington, D.C. said, "gentrification is a crime." Furthermore, new discussions of turning existing urban neighborhoods into "ecodistricts" may just be gentrification in a green dress. How can cities encourage growth but also provide a sense of continuity? How can over-taxed city planning departments accommodate the forces of change while also respecting local communities and cultures?

According to Charles Hostovsky, a professor of urban planning at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., the speed of revitalization in D.C. has been extraordinarily rapid. Every neighborhood has cranes, signifying new development. There has been a corresponding shift in the demographics of the city. In 1970, the city was 77 percent African American. Today, it's just 49 percent. "The number of people who have been displaced equals a small town." Indeed: in the past decade, approximately 50,000 young, white Millennials have moved into the city while 35,000 African Americans have left.

Reyna Alorro, who works for the DC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning, said revitalization has even spread east of the Anacostia River, perhaps the last hold out to gentrification. There, the city is supporting the redevelopment of Barry Farm, 25 acres of public housing, into a new mixed-income, mixed-use development that they hope will be an example of equitable revitalization. As HUD Hope IV funds have diminished since 2005, the District has started its own program of revamping public housing. "We want to target the areas with blight, crime, high unemployment and turn them into mixed income communities." The theory is that reducing the concentration of the poor in communities, and relieving their isolation, will improve their conditions.

Barry Farm, a historic African American community founded by freed slaves, currently has some 400 units, with 1,200 people. The population of the housing development is 93 percent single mothers; some 86 percent are unemployed. "This is not a friendly, welcoming site." There is only one over-priced corner store, with a bullet-proof glass wall separating the store owners from customers.

The $550 million redevelopment plan, said Kelly Smyser, DC Housing Authority, will create 1,400 public and affordable apartments at the same site. New apartments will face each other, creating open public thoroughfares that enable "eyes on the street." There will also be a recreation center, with an indoor pool, basketball courts, and computer labs, as well as a charter school. The nearby Anacostia Metro station will get a full upgrade, with improved access to the station from the development. "We want to bring opportunity to residents. We will make the connection to Metro easier and safer."

The District government calls this project "revitalization without gentrification," as all current residents will be allowed to come back to the new development. "There will be zero displacement." The city also promises it will undertake a program of "build first before demolition." To increase the diversity of the development, some 300 of the new units will be affordable housing, rentals, or for sale. The city also wants to encourage small businesses to locate in Barry Farms. They are creating "live-work" sites that will enable people to live above their stores. "We need to get rid of the bullet proof glass."

The neighborhood is rightly concerned about how they can preserve the best of the local culture with all the change. One example of this is the Goodman League, a basketball tournament that happens in the neighborhood every year. "People have a good time, barbequing, sitting in lawn chairs. There are no beefs on the court." The basketball courts where this happen will remain untouched.

While Smyser was convinced this upgrade will benefit the community, one conference attendee seemed equally as convinced that with the District's multimillion dollar investment, the city will simply be opening the neighborhood to opportunistic developers and further gentrification. Word is still out on how this urban redevelopment story will play out.

Hazel Edwards, a professor of planning at Catholic University, outlined some examples of successful revitalization without gentrification in other parts of the U.S. She pointed to Melrose Commons in South Bronx, where a group of local residents banded together in the early 1990s into a group called Nos Quedamos (We Stay) and fought back New York City government's imposed urban renewal plan. With the help of an altruistic architect, Nos Quedamos forged their own urban design that respected the community's unique cultural heritage. The plan and design resulted in 2,000 units of affordable housing. "There was no displacement in the community."

In Portland, Oregon, Edwards told us about a project called Cully Main Street plan, which helped preserve one the most diverse neighborhoods in Portland, with some 40-50 percent people of color. They devised a plan to equitably bring in commercial activity to their main street while accommodating an influx of new white homeowners and preserving the neighborhood diversity.

Edwards said the key to revitalization without gentrification is "bringing residents and the community to the table often and at the beginning." This kind of public planning process requires a great investment of time and resources by city governments, but without this investment, the only result may be inequitable, developer-led urban revitalization. "Cities have to form diverse, inclusive partnerships, foster openness, and collaborate on goals and outcomes."

Quoting the urban leader and author, Kaid Benfield, she said, "we have to work towards a balanced solution," and also track our progress to see whether we are living up to our goals.

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Is Urban Revitalization Without Gentrification Possible?

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Cities are the place to be these days, which means big changes for the historic communities that have populated urban cores. While much of the urban renewal experiments of the 1940s through the 1960s have been deemed disasters, word is still out on the new wave of "urban revitalization" that began in the 1990s and...

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This page has a map of Portland that shows areas able to undergo gentrification and has charts that project the financial capabilities of certain cities and gentrification.

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Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C., is one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in the country. (David Kidd)

Dramatic changes are playing out across parts of urban America, making many neighborhoods hardly recognizable from a relatively short time ago. A new class of more affluent residents is moving into once underinvested and predominately-poor communities. Development has followed, typically accompanied by sharp increases in housing prices that can displace a neighborhood's longtime residents. It's a scenario known as gentrification, and one that presents a growing dilemma for policymakers.

To assess the extent to which gentrification has reshaped urban communities, Governing analyzed Census tract data for the nation's 50 largest cities. Main findings from the neighborhoods examined include:

Gentrification greatly accelerated in several cities. Nearly 20 percent of neighborhoods with lower incomes and home values have experienced gentrification since 2000, compared to only 9 percent during the 1990s.

Gentrification still remains rare nationally, with only 8 percent of all neighborhoods reviewed experiencing gentrification since the 2000 Census.

Compared to lower-income areas that failed to gentrify, gentrifying Census tracts recorded increases in the non-Hispanic white population and declines in the poverty rate.

Researchers define gentrification differently. For this report, an initial test determined a tract was eligible to gentrify if its median household income and median home value were both in the bottom 40th percentile of all tracts within a metro area at the beginning of the decade. To assess gentrification, growth rates were computed for eligible tracts' inflation-adjusted median home values and percentage of adults with bachelors' degrees. Gentrified tracts recorded increases in the top third percentile for both measures when compared to all others in a metro area. ( Read complete methodology)

Where Gentrification Is Occurring

A select group of cities experienced extensive gentrification in recent years. Perhaps nowhere were changes more visible than in Portland, where 58 percent of eligible tracts gentrified - more than any other city reviewed. Comparing 2000 data to the most recent Census estimates suggests at least half of lower-income neighborhoods also gentrified in Minneapolis, Seattle and Washington, D.C. In terms of raw totals, the highest number of tracts (128) gentrified in New York.

The following table shows cities' gentrification rates and tract counts for the period since the 2000 Census:

While it has become much more prevalent, gentrification remains a phenomenon largely confined to select regions, not yet making its way into most urban areas. In the majority of cities reviewed, less than one-fifth of poorer, lower priced neighborhoods experienced gentrification. If all city neighborhoods are considered -- including wealthier areas not eligible to gentrify -- less than one of every ten tracts gentrified. Cities like Detroit, El Paso and Las Vegas experienced practically no gentrification at all.

How Gentrification Accelerated

The initial seeds of gentrification date back several decades in some communities. In fact, a British sociologist first coined the term "gentrification" in 1963.

Gentrification particularly accelerated, though, in recent years as growing numbers of Americans opted to pursue urban lifestyles. The gentrification rate, or share of eligible lower-income tracts experiencing gentrification, was 20 percent for the period following the 2000 Census, more than double the rate of the 1990s. Rates increased in 39 of the 50 cities reviewed.

Some cities experienced rapid gentrification after decades of little or no economic growth. In the District of Columbia, for example, 54 neighborhoods were found to have gentrified since 2000. Back in the 1990s, just five neighborhoods had gentrified in a decade when the city was dubbed the nation's "murder capital."

Other neighborhoods began their transition decades ago. In San Francisco, for instance, few tracts were eligible to gentrify by 2000 as much of the city's housing stock had already increased in price.

It's important to note that Census Bureau estimates provide only snapshots of different times. So, depending on when a neighborhood gentrified, it may or may not be reflected in data over a 10-year period.

Characteristics of Gentrifying Neighborhoods

Distinct differences emerge between neighborhoods that gentrified and those that haven't. Neighborhoods gentrifying since 2000 recorded population increases and became whiter, with the share of non-Hispanic white residents increasing an average of 4.3 percentage points. Meanwhile, lower-income neighborhoods that failed to gentrify experienced slight population losses and saw the concentration of minorities increase. They have also experienced different economic fates: Average poverty rates climbed nearly 7 percent in already lower-income tracts that didn't gentrify, while dropping slightly in gentrifying neighborhoods.

Neighborhood Type

Tract Count

Total Population Change

White Non-Hispanic Share of Population Percentage-Point Change

Poverty Rate Percentage-Point Change

Gentrification-Eligible Tracts Not Gentrifying

3,802

-2.4%

-5.0

+6.7

City Gentrification Maps and Data

Profiles of Select Cities

Minneapolis: After experiencing little change during the 1990s, 39 Minneapolis neighborhoods gentrified over the past decade.

Key drivers of the city's transformation are fairly typical of other gentrifying cities. Kjersti Monson, the city's director of long-range planning, cited the role of infrastructure investments, particularly light rail, the parks system and new sports stadiums downtown. The timing of these investments, she said, coupled with recent national trends in valuing urbanity, set the table for the city's demographic shift.

"There has been a huge renaissance downtown," Monson said, "and it has brought a lot of wealth, empty nesters and investors." Young professionals seeking urban amenities also are attracted to the area's affordability.
Minneapolis Gentrification Map: 2000 Census - Present
Portland: Northeast Portland is home to some of the city's oldest neighborhoods. Once characterized by an abundance of affordable housing and several predominantly African-American neighborhoods, it is today one of the hottest parts of one of the hottest cities for young professionals.

Other parts of the city experienced similar revitalization. In all, 58 percent of Portland's lower-priced neighborhoods gentrified since 2000, the highest rate of any city reviewed. An initial wave started back in the early 1990s, and young professionals continue to flock to the city today. "Portland, in some ways, was at the forefront of the return to urban living," said Lisa Bates, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Portland State University.

The city contends with significant pressures in maintaining housing affordability and neighborhood diversity in the face of gentrification. Bates said many former residents of Northeast Portland were displaced over the years, eventually moving to outlying communities on the city's east side. "There is a lot of conversation here looking at other cities," she said, "and saying that we don't just want to be a playground for wealthy people."
Portland Gentrification Map: 2000 Census - Present
Washington, D.C.: The District is home to some of the county's fastest-gentrifying communities. Neighborhoods gentrifying in recent years include Columbia Heights, NoMa, Navy Yard, Petworth and Southwest. For an in-depth look at changes to the Columbia Heights neighborhood, see our story in the February issue.
Washington, D.C., Gentrification Map: 2000 Census - Present
Data Sources

For current demographic data, the Census Bureau's most recent 2009-2013 American Community Survey estimates were used. Historical data was obtained from the US2010 project of the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University, which includes estimates for tracts whose boundaries have changed over time. See the methodology for more information.

Report Contact

Mike Maciag, Data Editor

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Columbia Heights in Washington, D.C., is one of the fastest-growing neighborhoods in the country. (David Kidd) Dramatic changes are playing out across parts of urban America, making many neighborhoods hardly recognizable from a relatively short time ago. A new class of more affluent residents is moving into once underinvested and predominately-poor communities.

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https://www.designboom.com/architecture/bjarke-ingels-group-big-architects-studio-visit-01-08-2014/

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About the public opinion in America on the important aspects of public infrastructure.

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Sign in with your credentials to access the EBSCOhost premium information resources provided by your subscribing institution.

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"The Mountain" by Studio BIG is a great example of inventive architecture providing space and interactions with nature.

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"The Mountain" by Studio BIG is a great example of inventive architecture providing space and interactions with nature.

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https://www.architonic.com/en/project/big-bjarke-ingels-group-the-mountain/5100164