At a moment when forced displacement has reached historic levels worldwide, some of the most urgent urban questions are no longer confined to emergency response but instead concern what it takes to ...

March 2006 is the fiftieth anniversary of the First Urban Design Conference at Harvard—an event that, under the leadership of José Luis Sert, marked a beginning of the self-conscious pursuit of urban ...

In the 2008 film Sex and the City, after Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big have agreed to marry, Big walks her through their textbook-luxurious apartment. At the conclusion of the tour, Carrie opens the ...

What is a home today? How do we reconcile our dire need for new housing with the fact that our needs will certainly change over time, and today’s buildings might soon be obsolete? How do we provide ...

Parsing distinctions between architecture and “mere” building has been a preoccupation of thinkers and practitioners since ancient times. The very difficulty of defining neat disciplinary boundaries ...

Gareth Doherty’s book, Landscape Fieldwork: How Engaging the World Can Change Design, was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2025. Photo courtesy of the University of Virginia Press.

In The Round. Courtesy of Iman Fayyad. While many installations address the harsh political climate with soft materials like inflatables and fabrics, Thin Volumes: In the Round by assistant professor ...

Architecture and design are at an ethical crossroads. On one hand, buildings alone cause over 40 percent of emissions: physical growth increases carbon demand and waste. On the other hand, every ...

A shading pavilion in the park. A pop-up chapel in a parking lot. A pollinator tower in a plaza. These architectural interventions differ in material, form, and scale, yet they share a common purpose: ...

Ancient pollen trapped in fresco wall-paintings, like a mosquito in amber, provides a historical ecological snapshot. Compacted grains of garden soil preserve 2,000-year-old footsteps. Even the ...

AI arrives at a time when the design fields face deep contradictions. How can concerns for sustainability reconcile with the need for growth? How can socially inclusive values find expression in ...