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Design a better world

Exploring how designers around the globe are addressing the world's most intractable problems with ingenuity

  • Woman in hat and tank top waters green bushy plants with solar panels on frame high behind her.

    On a Colorado farm, solar panels bring shade for plants, power – and cash: in pictures

    More than 3,000 solar panels power Jack’s Solar Garden, cool the land and help it turn a profit
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  • Aerial view of a land bridge over a highway surrounded by trees and vegetation.

    In pictures: a San Antonio land bridge designed for wildlife and people

    Spanning a six-lane highway and located in a public park, this crossing is part of a larger restoration of endangered Texas prairie land
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  • A large building surrounded by forest.

    Puerto Rico’s rainforest center reborn: in pictures

    After two devastating hurricanes, El Yunque national forest has built a new visitors center that hosts a vibrant arts festival
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  • Aerial view of Bayshore Park in Miami, Florida.

    How a lush Miami park was designed to keep flooding at bay – in pictures

    As the climate crisis intensifies the storms lashing south Florida, it is imperative to design spaces that soak up the water. The 19.4-acre Bayshore Park is an example of how to design spaces that protect from and connect residents to nature
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  • Young girl and man sit at a table with a board game, as woman and dog look on from couch behind them.

    Meet the Seattle families living communally to bring down costs – in pictures

    As Americans face a housing crisis, this development shows how communal living can bring homeownership within reach – and foster connection
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  • Brac university of Dhaka upper gardens

    A ‘floating university’ and a pink mosque: Dhaka builds for a wetter future – in pictures

    Across the Bangladeshi megacity, designers are adapting to the climate crisis
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  • Aerial view of town in valley

    Puerto Rico’s solar-powered village – in pictures

    For years, Puerto Ricans have faced high electricity costs and regular blackouts. The town of Adjuntas, in the central mountains, boasts the island’s first community-owned solar microgrid
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  • building with greenery on every level

    A vertical forest growing in the Netherlands: in pictures

    A new tower brings apartments, office space and tens of thousands of plants to the heart of Utrecht
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  • A couple sit at a table with green parasols under the Williamsburg Bridge looking over at Brooklyn

    New York City’s new elevated waterfront – in pictures

    Nearly 13 years after Hurricane Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, the first section of East River Park, designed to withstand storm surges, opens
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  • Aerial view of plaza with elevated train running through it, with buildings, trees and lawns

    Medellín’s sublime return to nature – in pictures

    Over the last decade, Colombia’s ‘city of eternal spring’ has embarked on an ambitious effort to restore greenery to public parks, transit corridors and even high-rises
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  • children sit and stand on wooden steps

    Indonesia’s stunning microlibraries draw young readers – in pictures

    Using passive design and local materials such as ice cream buckets, these modern community spaces offer a respite from urban heat and hustle
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  • two people picking up invasive grass and black mustard in a park

    California gardeners plant native species in parks to prevent wildfire spread – in pictures

    Volunteers, organized by landscape architecture firm Terremoto, clear invasive plants and restore native fauna: ‘It’s a years-long relationship with the land’
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  • people walking along a boardwalk over ponds with buildings in the background

    Car-free streets, geothermal heating and solar panels: Paris’s new eco-district – in pictures

    Clichy-Batignolles, in the city’s north-west, is emblematic of the ‘15-minute’ city approach to urban planning
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  • Statues of Egyptian pharaohs displayed in a vast museum hall

    Inside the world’s largest archeology museum - the Grand Egyptian Museum in pictures

    Featuring pharaohs and sustainable design, the $1bn museum in Giza, Egypt, is finally opening after years of delays
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  • A free Yoga class on the artifical grass surface ioutside the new Davis Center.

    New York unveils most dramatic changes to Central Park in years – in pictures

    Central Park Conservancy’s $160m makeover to the park’s north side is part of a long-term project to address years of neglect
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