London got the green light it needed from a local borough council last week to construct the Garden Bridge—a walkway supporting 2 million pounds of dirt, 270 trees, and an array of plants—over the Thames River. The plan will now go to the city’s mayor for the final stamp of approval to begin construction late next year.
The “opaque, shellacked, monomaniacal” skyscraper that now towers over lower Manhattan has ”no mystery, no unraveling of light, no metamorphosis over time, nothing to hold your gaze” and “implies (wrongly) a metropolis bereft of fresh ideas.” These were the words of the New York Times’ architecture critic (paywall), Michael Kimmelman, in his gutting recent review of One World Trade Center, which stands close to where the original Twin Towers used to be and is their symbolic replacement.
Guggenheim museums around the world are known for their provocative architecture created by renowned figures such as Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Guggenheim in New York, and Frank Gehry, who designed the museums in Bilbao and Abu Dhabi. (The foundation’s Venice museum is housed in an 18th-century palazzo.)
If you aren’t ready to face the chaos and household chores of home right after giving birth, you might want to consider a move to South Korea.
For residents of Newtown, Connecticut, the small town devastated by a deadly school shooting nearly two years ago, replacing Sandy Hook Elementary School was going to require more than a tear-down and a simple redesign.
The South Korean government is going after sellers of uncertified camera extenders, threatening fines of up to 30 million won ($27,000) or prison time of as long as three years. According to Korea’s Ministry of Science, “selfie sticks” that have bluetooth functionality should be classified as frequency-emitting communications equipment and go through rounds of testing before being approved for commercial sale. On Thursday, the government asked citizens to help “root out” the distribution of these unapproved bluetooth-equipped selfie sticks by reporting on such sales. On Friday, authorities said they would begin doing checks on retailers.
Known for its simple Scandinavian design, affordable prices, and strangely beguiling meatballs, the international furniture behemoth IKEA has faced a bit of controversy as it expands into South Korea. Netizens there have complained that the company set its furniture prices higher in Korea—sometimes double the price of the same products in the US.
When the California-based clothing company Patagonia released a short animated video last month—”What the Pluck?”—it sparked a flurry of media coverage of the gruesome live-plucking and force-feeding that the geese who grow the feathers for down coats are subjected to.
Visuals are hard to shake. That’s why, on Nov. 20, the Danish Architecture Centre (DAC) will be addressing the issues of deforestation and other earthly destruction in an exhibition called Mind the Earth in Copenhagen, using images shot by none other than Google Earth.
US states spend billions of dollars to run lottery games, including the cost of advertising them. But the main ways in which the lottery is advertised—as a pathway to a better life, or as a source of education funding—don’t reflect reality. That’s the case British comedian John Oliver argued on his HBO show Last Week Tonight.
Used in sodas and salad dressings and even Clamato juice, sugar is a staple of the modern US diet. Despite its being linked to obesity, it is consumed in large quantities—about 20 teaspoons a day, or 76 lbs annually, for the average American.
If you live in a magical land where owls deliver your letters and packages, forgetting the address of your mail’s recipients or not having stamps is OK. For the rest of us, a sender address and proper postage are crucial to getting our mail to its final destination.
“Let me tell you one thing. In the world we live in, 98 percent of what gets built and designed today is pure shit.”
Magnetic levitation, or maglev, trains are something of a scientific marvel. Like planes, the trains start their journey on wheels and end up in the air. When they’re going fast enough, the magnetic force pushes and lifts the trains above the tracks. Without the friction between train wheels and tracks, they’re able to travel at hundreds of miles an hour.
Earlier this year, Old Navy, the lowest-priced retail brand of the Gap, opened its first stores in the Philippines and in China. In 2012, Old Navy expanded to Japan, which had 20 stores by the end of 2013, as part of its push in Asia. Now the company is taking its next strides in the Middle East: It announced today that it will debut in six countries in the region.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, interpreters working for the US military and other American organizations automatically become targets for terrorist groups. But when it comes to ensuring the safety of these people by providing special immigrant visas, British comedian John Oliver argues the US falls well short of its moral obligations.
Having earned a worldwide following for its simple, chic stationary and home items, the Japanese company Muji now offers a more immersive experience of its design sensibility, with three prefabricated home designs—much adored by design blogs of late.
The biggest fear among the Japanese is, unsurprisingly, nuclear weapons. People in South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda are most worried about AIDS and other diseases. And inequality is the deepest concern for much of Europe and the US.
With the rise of e-commerce, more retailers are scrambling to stay ahead of consumers’ evolving expectations about home deliveries.
Hours after Thomas Eric Duncan died of Ebola in Dallas the Obama administration announced new measures of protection against the virus at five major US airports: passengers from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where much of the outbreak has occurred, will have to undergo new screenings.
Paris has had driverless trains since it upgraded its Metro cars in 1998. Sixteen years later, London is looking to do the same, upgrading 250 trains on four of its lines to become driverless in the next decade—but the move is not without controversy.
London, one of Europe’s most congested cities, is the latest urban jungle to propose an elevated bikeway to solve its road problems. Elevated bikeways have become a hot item for urban planners, mainly because they take up less space than bike lanes on roads. They also cause less confusion and fewer cyclist deaths.
This post has been corrected.
The latest target of British comedian John Oliver is US law enforcement, who he accuses of robbing Americans in a perfectly legal process called civil forfeiture.
