To build for a warming planet, architects look to nature – and the past

As city leaders reconsider their urban spaces—and particularly, urban waterfronts—through the lens of a post-industrial economy and renewed urbanism, moving urban highways has become more of a priority. Urban planners have shut many of them down and built in their stead parks.

To develop new demolition standards, the Detroit Building Authority brought together a best practices working group that met biweekly. Under the new system, a pre-demolition review takes place to, among other things, plan out what will be recycled or salvaged. When an excavator claws through a building, a water truck or fire hose has to be dousing the structure to inhibit the reach of particulate matter—limiting the environmental and health impacts.

While some parts of the United States struggle with drought, others are faced with more water than they know what to do with. Minnesota reconstructs roads and drainage systems in order to be more prepared for the large amounts of rain fall they have received, largely due to climate change.

Helinski's 'Smart Kalasatama' neighborhood is being planned by city officials, and supported by private investors, to be a vision for the future. Resource efficiency, technology start-ups and modern public transport all come together to what is hoped to be a truly modern part of the city.

Geography and climate change challenge the viability of sea-level cities in Vietnam, but architects, researchers, and urban planners work together to find creative solutions. One architect in Ho Chi Minh City designed green roofs to absorb the rainwater that causes floods.

A growing number of people in the famously crowded Tokyo metropolis are becoming ‘city farmers’, planting crops atop tall buildings or deep underground. In an age of detrimental climate change, urban cultivation and green roof agriculture will soon be necessary as food, water and energy resources become scarcer.

Passive houses can generate more energy than they consume but are expensive to build. Non-profits across the nation are getting low income families into these types of renewable homes with state subsidies and volunteer work.

Cities across the world, suffering from increased threats of floods and droughts due to climate change, are finding new ways to manage water, such as reclaiming natural waterways and increasing on spot water absorption.

Farmland is expensive and scarce in urban areas. In Boston Higher Ground Farm uses green roofs to grow its produce and Grove Lab has designed a cabinet for people to grow their vegetables indoors.

Too much solar and wind power in Germany is overloading their grid. A firm developed a new technology that uses super-fast batteries and software to hold intermittent wind and solar power when more than needed is generated.