5 Inspiring Stories of Great Public Places: The Project for Public Spaces has added five more entries to its international Great Public Spaces database. In Moscow, 18 lanes of the capital’s ring road have been reduced to no more than 10

Can Instagram Playgrounds Reach Beyond the Selfie? Pop-up rooms and sets for staging colourful, envy-inducing photos for social media – so-called Instagram playgrounds – can be designed for experience, inclusivity and accessibility as well as the ‘gram, writes Aileen Kwun

Emails to Melbourne’s Trees are Romantic, Funny and Strange: The city gave 70,000 trees email addresses for the public to report issues. Instead, they sent love letters and existential queries. Since the project began more than 4,000 emails have come from all over

Muji’s driverless shuttle bus: Japanese brand Muji has unveiled designs for an autonomous all-weather shuttle bus, called Gacha, set to run in three cities in Finland by 2020. Muji provided the aesthetic design, wanting it to look “friendly” and inviting, with

23% of people get their alone time out of home, Ikea Reports: The traditional idea of where we find a feeling of home is being disrupted, moving beyond four walls, according to a global research project by Ikea Group. The report found that 1 in

Recycled plastic roads now on trial: Inventors are currently trialling recycled plastic road technology in the Netherlands, says The Economist, with a 30 metre bicycle track opened in early September. The first prefabricated PlasticRoad track in Zwolle consists of modular sections made in

Kanye’s housing renders: Kanye West’s Yeezy Home design and architecture collaborators have released images of an initial pre-fab concrete concept design, with a Brutalist aesthetic, on Instagram. Very little information has been offered about the architectural renderings, posted by Jalil Peraza, a long-time

Kanye West – rapper, fashion designer and now city builder? Kanye West appears to be turning his sights from music and sneakers to architecture and city-building. “Don’t let him do this,” writes Brentin Mock in CityLab. In the final 15

Could glowing trees light our streets? Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say cities may be able to cut back on power use and emissions with plants and trees that glow at night. If successful, MIT hopes their research could be used to

20 Minute Cities Launch: Get up on phygital design and #techresilience with this smart cities video discussion series. Check out the latest release, episode 2 ‘The Bench,’ featuring a review of Street Furniture Australia’s prototype Aria Smart Bench with PowerMe Table1. Smart Cities Council Executive