DUCK Architecture / RESEARCH

Interactive: How Americans Get to Work. Image Courtesy of flowingdata.com In the US, most people drive alone to work. This isn’t surprising, considering

The lost spaces competition is a call for ideas to reframe how underused spaces in Calgary might be used. The aim is to address a particular challenge of public space - what to do with seemingly remnant pieces of public property. The challenge: what opportunities do lost spaces afford? A “lost space” is any space that remains under-utilized within our urban environment. They might be leftover pieces, a ghost of the planning past. Lost spaces are part of the public realm, rarely designed to function with both social and environmental benefit to the city. You may consider a lost space as a passageway, a roundabout, space between two buildings, a highway shoulder, or tenants of the city's history and memory. We'd like to ask you to dream, take risks and stretch what we think is possible. Submissions are due March 30, 2015. More about the competition, here.

What is the draw of the aerial view? Whereas architects and designers often find solace in this particular spatial perspective there is a more inclusive,

In their fifth annual

Piet Blom's Cube Houses - Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Image Courtesy of DigitalGlobe Earthrise, a photograph taken on Christmas Eve of 1968 by

London based practice Henley Halebrown Rorrison’s (HHbR) have unveiled a scheme for affordable housing based on a model inspired by Andrea Palladio's

CannonDesign's plan for Jaypee Sports City features a continuous 10-mile park woven through a dense urban fabric of high- and low-rise developments. This

Challenging the notion that beauty is subjective, Alain de Botton has made a case for attractive cities, believing that a city’s beauty is key to its

Courtesy of Jorrit Spoelstra Today we are facing environmental issues more than ever. While architects, urban designers, policymakers and thinkers

Witness the urban life of five stunning metropolises through the lens of Rob Whitworth with these

What possible use could architects have for a supercomputer? Well, of course it would be nice to produce that ultra-high-quality render in a matter of seconds rather than hours - but this post on the XSEDE blog recounts another use that is (arguably) much more important. XSEDE, an organization that helps researchers by providing them with access to supercomputers, has been working with a group from the University of Utah's Mechanical Engineering Department to simulate wind flow in cities, with the ultimate aim of providing architects and engineers with the tools to reduce wind tunneling effects, improve energy efficiency and lower pollution. Find out more about the research project here.

Chandigarh's Palace of the Assembly in the foreground facing the High Court in the background. Image © Flickr CC user Eduardo Guiot Dr. Vikramāditya

© scyther5 via Shutterstock In his popular post on how architects can

Image of the planned new capital of Egypt, masterplanned by SOM. Image Courtesy of SOM Threatening to end Cairo’s 1,046 year dominance as the

Architects: NArchitekTURA Location: Dobrodzień, Poland Architect In Charge: Bartosz Haduch Year: 2014 Photographs: Jakub Certowicz, Courtesy of Bartosz

Ever since last year, in response to the publication of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the hot topic in the field of economics has been inequality. Piketty's book, which argues that if left unchecked wealth will be increasingly concentrated into the already wealthy end of society, many saw the book as evidence for progressive taxes on the wealthiest members of a society. However, according to The Economist a new critique of Piketty's work is making waves among economists. A paper by MIT graduate student Matthew Rognlie argues that, since the 1970s, the only form of capital that has demonstrably increased the wealth of the wealthy is housing. With this in mind, The Economist suggests that, instead of focusing on taxation,