Urban Design

May 20, 2020

Inside the World’s First Regenerative Highway

Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on Interior Design Magazine’s Innovation Channel as part of a content partnership. It has been edited for clarity. Since ancient times, humans have been altering the environment to create throughways for the transport of food and goods, not to mention travel and military defense. But over the course of…

June 22, 2018

Biophilic Design in Urban Architecture: The Oasia Hotel in Singapore

The Oasia Hotel Downtown, designed by Woha, a Singapore-based architectural firm, is one of the most stunning skyscrapers in Asia. There is, first, the signal-red mesh envelope, a splash of color unlike anything in its neighborhood, and then the surreptitious patches of green that seem to slowly envelop the building. Planted façades are not new…

July 20, 2017

Shifting the Game: A Discussion on Climate Change

“Are you really a carpet company?” asked the City of Toronto’s Chief Planner, Jennifer Keesmaat. “I am just so inspired by what you are doing and that is an unexpected outcome of being here this afternoon.” That’s just one of the comments I heard during an event that Interface and the David Suzuki Foundation convened…

September 15, 2016

Building Biomimetic Cities: An Interview with Melissa Sterry

Melissa Sterry is a design scientist and systems theorist. We interviewed her on biodesign, biomimetic cities, and more. Melissa is recognised as a world leading authority on the science, technology and thinking that could help build a better world. We tend to focus on the macrocosm of the city but you’ve shown there’s much to…

May 22, 2016

Artful Restoration: Creating an Arts Hub in Southside Chicago

Last October, during the first weekend of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, artist and social activist Theaster Gates pulled back the curtain on his latest endeavor: the Stony Island Arts Bank. The highly trumpeted project entailed the conversion of a derelict bank building on the city’s South Side into a public cultural venue, brimming with galleries,…

October 19, 2015

The Role of Landscape Architecture in Creating Biophilic Environments

When we think of biophilic design, we think of nature. Its primary intention to reintroduce nature into our built environments. Yet much of the project and literature focus of biophilic design has been on interior environments. What about applications of biophilic design to the external built environment? There is a noticeable bias towards architecture and…

June 10, 2015

Flourishing Biophilic Urban Housing

According to the UN by 2050 nearly 70% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas, there will be more cities and more mega-cities. As our contact with rural landscapes decreases our alienation from greenery and living elements will increase unless we green the urban environment and the spaces in which we live.…

January 15, 2015

The Biophilic Approach to Building Communities

Over the last six decades we have added so many regulations in an effort to organize the chaos of rapid sprawl. Today, these regulations and surrounding social perceptions that govern the development of our built environment sit in silos. This leads to a basic lack of understanding among governing sectors and the public about the…