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When the streets get naked, the pedestrians come out to play. It sounds strange that road accidents are reduced when you remove the curbs, signs and traffic lights that were designed to maintain safety, but this removal forces drivers to make eye contact with pedestrians and travel slower in case they need to break sharply—you never know where or when a pedestrian will want to cross the road. It’s therefore no surprise that naked streets, or so-called “shared space” schemes, are spreading across the globe. Read on…

From every corner of the globe, an estimated eight million visitors flock to Paris every year to marvel at world-famous architectural wonders such as Notre Dame, the Louvre museum or the Tour Eiffel [tour means tower in French. – Ed.]. Yet, few tourists extend their cultural visit to take in what is often referred to as "the world's museum of modern architecture"—La Défense, Europe's largest business district. Read on…

From time to time we see images of smog-smothered streets in Shanghai, Beijing and other major Chinese cities. Surely it's uncomfortable to breathe this fetid air—perhaps we even feel a sympathetic scratchiness in our throats or sting in our eyes—but how about its deleterious effects on the health of that nation and its people? And why is China having such difficulty keeping its air clean and breathable? Read on…

For a young country that has transformed itself, despite scant resources, from proverbial no-man’s-land to thriving slice of the Middle East in 60-odd years, Israel and its people place environmental concerns and recycling surprisingly close to the bottom of their priority lists. Israel is a politically fragile state; people are more concerned about security, religious politics and whether or not they’ll be blown to pieces in a suicide bombing or rocket attack than about lobbying their municipalities for recycling collection or composting. Read on…

Ever wondered why the Sahara desert hasn’t been converted into a giant solar panel by now? Well, DESERTEC, a syndicate of engineering and construction firms, must have read your mind. Its ambitious plan—based on a concept developed by politicians, economists and scientists from around the Mediterranean—is to power 15% of Europe and a sizable portion of the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) area by 2050 using just the light from the Saharan sun. Read on…