Social Good

Ernest Beck|Report

Hester Street Collaborative

Report on Hester Street Collaborative's pro-bono design model.

John Thackara|Essays

Renewable Energy: Salvation or Snake Oil?

Critique of The Energy Report published by the World Wildlife Fund, which asserts that the world's energy needs could be met by alternative sources.

John Thackara|Essays

If It’s Not the Destination and It’s Not the Journey...

A team at Rutgers University, uses ultrasonic sensors, GPS receivers and cellular networks to find empty parking spaces. While technically impressive, this is an absurdly over-complicated answer to the wrong question.

Alexandra Lange|Essays

The Moms Aren’t Wrong

Why planning cities for children would make them better for us all.

Jonathan Schultz|Projects

Give a Minute

Report on Local Projects' Give a Minute initiative to improve urban life.

Rick Poynor|Essays

On My Shelf: Nairn’s London

Inside the architecture critic Ian Nairn’s classic, idiosyncratic guide to London’s buildings and spaces.

John Thackara|Essays

I am Compost

Something special is happening in France. A 73 year old Algerian-born farmer, philosopher and environmentalist is beginning to impact not just on the electoral process, but the culture of this resolutely human-centered, nature-dominating …

Ernest Beck|Reviews

Mensch at Work

Review of The Power of Pro Bono

John Thackara|Essays

Spaced Out in a Flat World

Tom Friedman's book The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (2005) is filled with anecdotes about change in different parts of the world that threaten our fat-cat lifestyles in the North.

Maria Popova|Report

The Age of Coworking: Collaborative Consumption for the Creative Community

Report on the new (golden) age of coworking.

Rick Poynor|Essays

Discovered by Chance in a Paris Arcade

What better way to pass a couple of spare hours in Paris than to visit the covered arcades that were, for the Surrealists, some of the best places to encounter the marvellous?

Edited by Julie Lasky|Case Studies

Social Design in Three Dimensions: Four Examples

A business-school case study inspires MFA design students.