The Smartest Place I Know: Hong Kong in the early 1990s
Does bureaucracy hold cities back, wonders Grimshaw’s Keith Brewis
Under African Skies: Drones and Droneports
Jonathan Ledgard is seeking to build the world’s first droneport in Africa. By 2030, he predicts, there will be one in every town in the tropical world
Attention at the back! Interview with Martin Fischer
The Stanford engineering professor Martin Fisher talks about the challenges of teaching the instant-gratification generation to think
Beyond Cement: Geopolymer Concrete
Carbon-neutral alternative uses no Portland cement at all
The Secret Life of Design Meetings
A sociologist analyzes BIM
The Future of Education
Education is booming, the results of a growing global population with a keen thirst for knowledge. But how can today’s schools and universities prepare students for a world that doesn’t yet exist?
Inside The Headset: Can VR Replace Real-Life Education?
Immersive environments, with high-resolution 3D vision and haptics technology to simulate touch are starting to be used in education
Is CLT the answer for seismic zones?
CLT can create lighter, less variable structures
Tall timber: how high can CLT go?
There is considerable excitement about high-rise timber — has its time finally come?
Concrete Play-Doh overcomes ‘square thinking’
ETH Zurich and MIT explore digital casting for complex concrete forms
Marvellous Mutations: Adventures in Materials Science
Completely new materials may not come along very often, but scientists are remixing old ones — and it’s changing the shape of our cities
Five AS+GG Projects That Turn Architectural Wisdom Inside-out
Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill’s most groundbreaking designs — including the first building to be measured in kilometres
Interview With Gordon Gill: Searching for Better Answers
“We’re problem-solvers who happen to be architects. Sometimes the solution is not just a building”
Does hyperdensity pose a risk to mental health?
Researchers at Waterloo University use VR to test how dense environments affect mood
How can we live like this? The limits of urban density
By 2050, the urban population will almost double to 6.3 billion. Cities must accommodate 77 million new residents each year
Inconvenient Truths: Who Builds Your Architecture?
As construction becomes increasingly global, a coalition of New York-based designers and educators has formed to ask one urgent question …
Earthquakes: The Enemy Below
Governments and policymakers are in danger of ignoring one of the biggest threats to the built environment — and to human life, writes Alex Copley
The Possible issue 02: why do we do what we do?
This issue considers a vital question for anyone involved in designing and building cities
Plato for Plumbers: Philosophy and Engineering
In his award-winning essay for New Philosopher magazine, WSP’s Mark Bessoudo explains why engineers should read more philosophy.
Urban Capacity: How To Measure A Buzz
The new economy will flock to areas of high “urban capacity”. Teemu Jama and Tuija Pakkanen explain what it is and how to calculate it
Team Angst
We are all taught to believe in the power of collaboration, but what really drives the relationships that create our built environment?
The Future of Shopping Districts
The internet has transformed the world of retail. But commercial centres still have a vital role to play as we move towards an “Experience economy”
Alder Hey: Anatomy of a Modular Hospital
How Laing O’Rourke and WSP built a hospital out of 15,000 pre-assembled elements
Serious hardware: 3D printed concrete
Is this the solution to reconciling mass-production and creative architecture?
Early Riser: La Trobe Tower
Melbourne contractor Hickory’s 44-storey tower was completed in just 16 months
Ron Slade on “thinking diagonally”
An engineer’s view of creative problem-solving
Jean-Paul Viguier: “Creativity Happens When You Do Nothing”
The Paris architect on what helps him to think
Systems medicine: big data to the rescue?
Analyzing millions of patient records could aid diagnosis — if privacy issues can be overcome