A measured masterpiece of nature and light, step inside this viridescent oasis from Kientruc O architects

In 1999, Ho Chi Minh was a modest city with a population of 3.95 million inhabitants. Today, Vietnam’s second-city has swelled to over 10 million people and has an average population density of over 4,500 per square kilometer-higher than Shanghai. The city is decorated with history and still carries architectural scars from its colonial past. It has become the symbolic face of modern Vietnam-an omphalos of culture and design in a forbiddingly ferocious humid climate. Despite its megacity status, the city limits high-rise residential…

Few would recommend running through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro after dark, but Christian Näthler writes about how Ghetto Run Crew is changing that

Cops can get testy when youths run through the famous favelas of the city at night. All the more reason for Júnior Negão and his crew to occupy the streets. “We are not a club, we are a crew, a cultural resistance,” announces Negão, who founded Ghetto Run Crew in Rio de Janeiro after a late-night run with his wife, Gisele Nascimento, in 2013. Today, many in the crew run after midnight. “Running at night…

Two architects from the Danish practice explore the future of design and reshaping urban spaces for the next generation

While preparing for another day of working from home on the dining table or escaping to the bathroom to take a zoom call in private (often the only room with a lock away from children), you might unconsciously be partaking in the next Industrial Revolution. Be it for better or worse, the pandemic has changed our relationship with work, space, and architecture. …

From the Ancient Greeks to new age joggers

The resurgence of running during the lockdown is a story told the world over. Whether cautiously following the snow-ridden path parallel to a frozen Berlin canal or pavement pounding through the sweltering streets of Hanoi, running has been the physical activity of the lockdown economy. The past year has awoken this passion in millions, acting as a meditative escape from the anxiety of staying inside for lengthy periods and also a lifestyle that connects you with new or like-minded people.

About two million years ago, when we were somewhere on the path…

Renzo Rivolta’s grand tourer captured the elegance of Italian design with an engine revved to the max with American power

For a company that began life by building refrigerators, few could have imagined one day creating a Corvette-powered grand tourer. Renzo Rivolta had come from a long line of successful industrialists when he took over the company Iso (Isothermos), who were best known for building appliances outside of Milan before World War II. But Italy changed after the war and so did Italians: they needed cheap transportation, and they were flocking to the cities. …

The co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar has transformed cities through transportation innovation and is now looking toward the future

Robin Chase’s work has reshaped mobility in cities and our understanding of how we can share resources. Offering a compelling vision for a greener and more multimodal future of transportation, she hopes to deliver more value to the lives of many through a communal ethos.

The American transportation entrepreneur is a pioneering thinker on the sharing economy, the future of transportation, and climate change mitigation. Chase believes these issues are not mutually exclusive, but interlinked. “It’s a very symbiotic relationship,”…

A surrealist safari of skeletons and chrome creations

“Art is the universal language used to evoke feelings of mixed thoughts and emotions,” says Blunt Action. The digital studio used this sentiment to describe its take on contemporary art. Working as a collective, they have become synonymous with depicting alternate, rendered realities that transport onlookers into a surrealist dream. Like a cosmic cocktail of nostalgic popular culture, music, and history, their work harmoniously shares a canvas with technology and futurism. Be it a post-apocalyptic Jurassic Park or a deliciously detailed chrome cake fit for the Terminator, their work commands your attention…

Writer Junyuan Feng on how the Chinese countryside is being revitalized with markets, libraries, and hotels

For decades, China’s modernization emphasized the growth of urban centers, the mass movement of people meant the countryside played second fiddle to the country’s new age of cities. But a new movement is rethinking rural areas to be a sustainable and serene contrast to the metropolises.

In early February 2020, just before COVID-19 took New York City by storm, an exhibition titled ‘Countryside: The Future’ opened at the Guggenheim Museum. Organized in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal from AMO-the think tank of…