Marlène Huissoud creates sculptural chairs as hotels for city-dwelling insects
French designer Marlène Huissoud asks humans to "Please Stand By" with her first chairs, which are designed to be refuges for insects. More
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Sidewalk Labs unveils Building Raincoat prototype for smart city in Toronto
A "raincoat" designed to protect pavements during harsh weather is among a series of design prototypes that Alphabet company Sidewalk Labs has revealed for its new smart city in Toronto. More
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SOM breaks ground on Alárò City in Nigeria
Construction has begun on Alárò City, which is being masterplanned by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, as an extension to Lagos in southwest Nigeria. More
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Refugio shelters aim to make solitary bees feel at home in cities
Mexico-based creative studio MaliArts has designed a series of three structures for solitary bees living in built-up areas to help welcome nature into urban environments. More
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Berlin's Hermannstrasse station to trial anxiety-inducing music in bid to reduce crime
Germany's national rail operator has announced plans to play atonal music in a Berlin station, in an attempt to deter criminal activity. More
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James Hughes creates Hostile Bench to show "ugly side" of urban design
Leeds Beckett University graduate James Hughes has made a bench with metal spikes embedded in its seat to highlight issues surrounding hostile urban design. More
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Moss-covered CityTree bench designed to combat urban pollution
A mossy "living wall" with the pollution-absorbing power equivalent to hundreds of trees has been installed in London's Piccadilly Circus in a bid to combat the city's unsafe air quality levels. More
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Renault unveils driverless Uber-style transport system
Renault has devised a concept for an autonomous, electric vehicle that would provide city dwellers with an alternative to public transport. More
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Inequality caused by urban renewal is "the central crisis of capitalism" says Richard Florida
The revival of great urban centres including New York, Los Angeles and London has caused unprecedented inequality and has led to the populism of Donald Trump, according to Richard Florida. More
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Henning Larsen's Etobicoke Civic Centre shelters public square from cold winds
Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects has won a competition to design a group of buildings in Toronto, with a proposal that channels wind to create a comfortable microclimate in a central plaza. More
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Facebook appoints OMA to masterplan new residential village next to its Gehry-designed campus
Facebook has announced that architecture firm OMA will masterplan a new village for the area adjacent to its Frank Gehry-designed campus in Menlo Park, California. More
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Minecraft video game used to design public space in more than 25 developing countries
Local authorities have been "amazed to see that young women from slums could design as architects or urban planners", according to the co-ordinator of a United Nations initiative using the video game Minecraft to get communities designing their own public spaces. More
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Glass facade invites participation at New Jersey community centre by Ikon.5 Architects
To revitalise a residential district in Newark, New Jersey, local firm Ikon.5 Architects has created a neighbourhood facility featuring basketball courts and classrooms for professional development. More
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The Climate Tile by Tredje Natur aims to stop cities flooding
A new type of modular tile promises to help reduce flooding in cities hit by increased rainfall due to climate change. More
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Amanda Levete's firm proposes multi-storey football pitches for central London
Stackable football pitches could be erected on disused or temporarily empty plots across London, according to Amanda Levete and her London-based studio AL_A. More
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Bouroullec brothers explore urban development in utopian diorama series
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created models exploring better ways for nature and cities to interact, which they are showing in an exhibition at the Zaha Hadid-designed Vitra Fire Station. More
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Büro North proposes ground-level traffic lights to prevent pedestrian accidents
Prompted by accidents involving players of Pokémon GO, Australian firm Büro North has devised a concept for in-ground traffic lights to prevent pedestrians using smartphones from walking out onto the road (+ movie). More
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Kiku Obata leads revival of historic district in a rural Illinois town
London and St Louis-based design studio Kiku Obata & Company is overseeing the redevelopment of an ageing downtown district in the US heartland, in a rural town where big-box stores have taken over (+ slideshow). More
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"Smart technology is a solution looking for a problem," says Rotterdam Biennale curator
Technologies like driverless cars and smart heating systems could end up making cities dysfunctional according to Maarten Hajer, chief curator of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2016 (+ interview). More
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Interactive dancing traffic lights make waiting more entertaining
An interactive installation in Lisbon aims to encourage pedestrians to wait until it's safe to cross the road by making the traffic lights "dance" using motion capture technology (+ movie). More
