The Built Environment
Civics Lesson
Carol Ross Barney’s urban agenda is finally receiving its due
Stage Directions
Two books on performance—and how we relate to performers
Behind the Scenes: Set Pieces
On a new book Frontier designed and edited for a longtime partner
Neighborhood Watch
Let people become mayors of the medians and presidents of the empty plots
Renovation Project
Owen Hatherley celebrates the urban residential complexes denigrated in North America as “the projects”
The Frontier Interview—Brock James on designing libraries
The Toronto architect discusses the imperative of flexibility, fostering community, and responding thoughtfully to existing contexts
Trojan Horses
Will the Olympics die out before host cities learn how to harness them to achieve good things?
Let It Grow
An argument for preserving the intimacy, resilience, and dynamism created in postwar Tokyo—and exporting it across the world
The Frontier Interview—Dan Leers on “Widening the Lens”
On the definition of photography, sensing rather than seeing landscapes, and museums as drivers of sustainability and community
I Can See Clearly Now
On learning to think about exhibitions, not just art
Enough Is Enough
On sufficiency and upfront carbon, through Lloyd Alter’s new book
Eastern Promises
In Egypt, President Sisi speed-runs nearly two centuries of urban-planning ideas in service of his political agenda
The Frontier Interview—Common Accounts, “The Death Report”
Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler rethink architecture’s relationship to the inevitable