"Formulating a unified theory of the built environment may require that the built environment be understood as a complex social-ecological system, where multiple-related metabolisms interact at different scales."

"The walls are made of stone, intricately carved out into an art form reminiscent of the flow seen in ancient Indian art. They looked like lotus petals, almost soft, but overall just aesthetically overwhelming. It was so clean, so fresh... the cool air inside was very refreshing compared to the blistering heat outside. There was a complete working fireplace in the main area that looked like a devilish face. The domes at the top of the cave were fashioned with lights, and the bottoms were covered in a sealant that was pocked with flecks of real gold. This sealant was everywhere actually, with the gold accentuating every curve of this hidden masterpiece."

"As I write this, there's an insane dust storm that's sweeping over Sydney. I found out about it by seeing a Twitter post from Dan Hill. I'm based in San Francisco but found it so extraordinary I decided to go and see if I could spot pictures coming in and make a little gallery out of them."

“He is making pools out of dumpsters"

"An elevated park in the sky built on top of the skeleton of an old rail system? It may have sounded impossible only five years ago, but today, the eagerly awaited High Line elevated urban park officially opens for thousands of New Yorkers looking to escape the hubbub of the city below! "

"Ten days into one particular trip, something suddenly occurred to me. ... I was living my entire day-to-day life completely contained in a giant stretched-out arcology."

""They showed me the footage from the helicopter and I couldn't believe it. They said if I hadn't been in they would have broken the door down to get in. ... If there's nothing wrong with our house how come we've been raided by the police?"

"The Toronto subway has a typographic heritage all its own, starting with a unique font. But, with renovation after renovation and after a series of new station additions, signage and wayfinding in the system are a total mess."

"looking at photos like these scares and fascinates me in equal doses. the sheer scale of these holes reminds you of just how tiny you are."

"Restoration and conversion of a water tower into a residence, Soest, Utrecht, Netherlands. 2004. These guys are good."

"America's 160th richest person, a billionaire who made his money from the 1990s hi-tech boom, has been accused of planning to build a "secret and convenient lair" underneath his California mansion dedicated to drug-taking and sex with prostitutes."

Images of the Tokyo(?) flood protection system. MASSIVE.

"Alexander Hosch looks at the uneasy marriage between autocrats and star architects."

"The people of Tokyo should construct a giant building shaped like Godzilla. Imagine what it would do to the city’s skyline, and to the tourism industry."

Architecture and stuff.

"Due to its siting at the end of harbor, the architects chose to conceptualize the project as belonging to the "green nerve" rather than the surrounding urban structure."

Utopia is a "digital typeface that portrays the mixture between the modernist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and informal occupation of the urban space that shapes major Brazilian cities."

160 conventional 1000-litre water tanks used to build a temporary open air night club called Kubik. The tanks are filled with bulbs which individually controllable so the walls can act like a low tech screen.

A blog on 3D representations of urban environments.

"The Cloud by Monica Forster is a portable room that can be used as a relaxing workplace retreat, a unique meeting place, for meditation, or as an ideal escape for creative brainstorming." A snip at $5,900.

The Sandberg Institute is located in Amsterdam's economic business center, an ideal spot for a physical variation on the Million Dollar Homepage concept. Tiles on the building's exterior are sold to artists (at 10 euros per) or advertisers (at 20 euros pe

LEDs are reinventing the look and feel of skylines, bridges, facades and other architectural surfaces around the globe.