City trends of today and tomorrow.
Gain insights into urban development all over the globe.
Whether in direct or indirect ways, all the human lives on the planet depend on forests. Yet, particularly with the rise of industrialization, millions of hectares of forests become depleted due to unsustainable human consumption every year. Since the earliest human settlements, timber has been one of the most popular construction materials.
Doorknobs are among the most touched items in day-to-day life, especially in public spaces like offices, hospitals, or educational institutions. The high intensity of human traffic in these places mean people might be depositing a large volume of harmful bacteria or viruses on doorknobs.
As the world is getting closer, travel firmly established itself as one of the largest industries in the world, contributing almost USD 8 trillion to the global economy. It employs over 300 million people, which means about one in 10 working persons is in travel.
By 2050, almost 70 percent of the world's booming population will be living in cities. In addition to the challenges of climate change, an exponential urban sprawl might accelerate issues like pollution or extreme weather vulnerability.
As a resource-intensive industry, construction has a notoriously high environmental impact: According to some estimates, it accounts for up to 40 percent of the global carbon emissions. The sector is also a significant source of pollutants. The World Bank states that the construction waste will increase by 70 percent by 2050 unless there's urgent action.
Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 2000, are taking the offices by storm. As of 2020, 35 percent of the global workforce are millennials, also known as Generation Y. By 2025, this figure will rise to 75 percent. In some of the advanced economies of Europe and North America, they're already the largest working cohort.
It was the early 19th century when the global human population reached a billion for the first time. Then, in just a couple of centuries, this figure grew more than sevenfold. The world population currently stands at around 7.6 billion. As the globe prepares to be the home of almost 10 billion inhabitants by 2050, members of each generation leave a unique mark in history.
Following its rapid rise from a humble fishing village to an ultra-modern metropolis, Dubai is a city of superlatives: It's home to the world's tallest building, biggest shopping mall, largest picture frame, or the most capacious indoor skiing center.
Since the ancient civilizations started to build cities, urban landscapes evolved parallel to the gender roles, associating public spaces with men, and the private sphere with women. However, in the late 20th century, as the global urban population continued to boom, spatial researchers began to emphasize the importance of a gender-sensitive approach to urban planning.
Held every five years since the 1850s, Expo events keep offering invaluable insights about solutions for some of humanity's biggest challenges. Designed around the three theme districts of opportunity, mobility, and sustainability, many believe the Expo 2020 in Dubai will be the most ambitious one to the date.
The 2010s have been a monumental decade for architecture around the world. As the Western world slowly recovered from the recession of 2008 and the environmental concerns accelerated, many projects took a minimalist and introspective route.
Adaptive reuse is on an unprecedented rise. Within the coming decade, experts estimate that 90 percent of real estate development will involve adaptive reuse of existing buildings instead of constructing new ones.