Best of 2019

To celebrate the coming new year, we've hand-picked a selection of the most spectacular photographs of 2019. This gallery gathers our favorite images of the last twelve months, from head-spinning drone shots to psychedelic microscopic photography.

Residential architecture is one of the most diverse areas we cover. Reflecting this, our selection of 2019's best houses runs the gamut from a multi-million dollar floating home to low-cost social housing.

The van life trend showed no signs of pulling back this year. In fact, 2019 was a pivotal year that saw camper vans growing smarter, more practical and more efficient with some impressive technological breakthroughs and design innovations.

Looking at today's tech, you might think “pack it in, inventing is finished.” But innovateurs and imagineers need something to do, even when the well of useful ideas is running dry. Here are the oddest and most questionable inventions of 2019.

Throughout 2019, we've reported on a range of tiny houses. Some are simple homes on wheels, while others boast novel ideas like sliding roofs and elevator beds. Here's our pick of the very best we've seen.

There are a few modes of transport you can always count on – cars, bikes, buses, trains – that sort of thing. But looking to disrupt these mainstays is a regular assortment of more imaginative options. Here are the wackiest of the 2019 crop.

The extreme performance car business is a brutal one, and records that take companies years to set can fall within months to a determined competitor. Here's eight new and astonishing benchmarks the car world established in 2019.

2019 has been a bumper year for architecture and we've reported on many superb projects ranging in size, budget, and style. From a horizontal skyscraper to a power station with a ski slope, here's our selection of the best buildings of the year.

Don't wait for electric cars to get cheaper; e-bikes are here, now. They're good for you, they'll take you further than you think, and some of them are even getting surprisingly affordable. Here are the e-bikes that impressed us in 2019.

It's been a busy year for smartwatches, as they continue to steal the focus from simpler, plainer fitness trackers. Here's a look at the most notable smartwatch launches of the past 12 months, and what they say about the future of the market.

One of the great things about bicycles is the number of open-minded inventors they attract, who think, "Maybe it would work better if we did it this way …" The past year saw a bumper crop of the resulting products – here are our picks for the 10 most innovative.

The motorcycle business has gone to some interesting places in 2019. We may not have seen 3D printed frames, or adaptive cruise control, or thruster rockets make it through into mass production, but 2019 had its own crop of ideas. Let's take a look.