In a dense Bangkok neighbourhood where privacy, light, and greenery are often compromised, Terrarium House proposes a different approach to urban living. Designed by Unknown Surface Studio, the house turns inward, creating a self-contained ecosystem that places nature at the centre of everyday life. Rather than competing with the surrounding city, Terrarium House retreats from […]
Buildings play a major role in global energy use and carbon emissions. Most rely heavily on external power for heating, cooling, lighting, and daily operations. The EnergyX DY-Building in Goyang, South Korea, offers a different model. Instead of only reducing energy consumption, it is designed to generate more energy than it uses. Developed as the […]
The tiny fish-shaped soy sauce container has long been a familiar part of takeaway sushi. Cute, convenient, and instantly recognisable, it also represents a major source of single-use plastic waste. Millions of these containers are discarded every year, often ending up as microplastic pollution in coastal waters. Australian design studio Heliograf has reimagined this everyday […]
Stockholm Wood City is one of the most ambitious timber-construction projects ever proposed. Located in the Sickla district just south of central Stockholm, it is planned to become the largest urban development built primarily from wood. The project is led by Atrium Ljungberg and designed by Henning Larsen Architects together with White Arkitekter. When complete, […]
HYBARI remains Japan’s first hydrogen-powered test train and a key step toward low-carbon rail transport. The name stands for Hydrogen Hybrid Advanced Rail Vehicle for Innovation. JR East developed the train in collaboration with Toyota and Hitachi. Officially called the FV-E991 series, it is a two-car prototype powered by a hydrogen fuel cell combined with […]
Lib Earth House Model B is one of Japan’s most forward-looking residential prototypes. Completed in 2025 by Lib Work, it was designed as a model for low-carbon residential construction. The project uses a cement free mix of soil, lime and natural fibres that can be 3D printed into curved walls. This approach reduces the carbon […]
Data centres are often described as the invisible backbone of the digital economy. They run cloud services, power artificial intelligence, and support almost every online interaction. What is less visible is the amount of heat they produce. Every calculation, storage request, and AI query ultimately turns electricity into warmth. For years, that heat was treated […]
Japan has opened one of the most promising osmotic power plants to date. The new Fukuoka facility uses the natural difference between saltwater and freshwater to generate clean electricity. Engineers call this salinity-gradient power. It is sometimes known as blue energy. The world’s first osmotic power plant opened in 2009 in Tofte, Norway. Built by […]
Architect Yong Ju Lee has designed an experimental pavilion in Seoul called the Mycelial Hut. The project explores the use of mycelium, a fungal network, as a living building material. The pavilion combines robotic 3D printing with biological growth, creating a structure that is both innovative and environmentally conscious. The pavilion’s wooden frame provides support […]
Forest Edge House sits in the western Catskills in New York. Designed by Marc Thorpe, the residence is surrounded by more than one hectare of woodland and is built to operate fully off the grid. It is a quiet and compact home set on the edge of dense forest. A home lifted toward the canopy […]
Air Liquide is piloting a facility in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, to convert ammonia back into hydrogen. Ammonia, which is stable and widely traded, offers an easier way to transport hydrogen over long distances. The process, known as “ammonia cracking”, uses a catalytic reactor to split ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen. Hydrogen is then separated […]
Precision vertical farming is reshaping long-held assumptions about agriculture. By combining data analytics, automation, and controlled-environment growing, this approach allows crops to be produced indoors in stacked layers, often using hydroponic or aeroponic systems instead of soil. Rather than relying on weather or seasons, vertical farms create tightly managed environments where temperature, humidity, light, nutrients, […]
In Southeast Asia, where agriculture drives much of the region’s economy, a silent problem often goes unnoticed: what happens to the mountains of agricultural waste left behind after every harvest? Most of it is burned or left to rot, releasing carbon into the atmosphere and polluting the air. But a new generation of climate-tech innovators […]
Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, led by Yin Jun, have reached a major milestone in solar energy research. Their latest perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells are now approaching 40 percent efficiency, meaning nearly 40 percent of incoming sunlight can be converted directly into electricity. This figure represents a significant leap beyond conventional silicon solar […]
A new perspective on survival and sustainability High in the Italian Alps, where human presence meets the limits of endurance, architecture rarely goes beyond simple survival. Yet the Italian design studio Carlo Ratti Associati is redefining what an Alpine shelter can be. Their latest creation, a self-sufficient bivouac that produces its own electricity and drinking […]
