sustainable design

Inspired by the humble old greenhouse, a futuristic self-contained food ecosystem offers us a glimpse at a how we might one day have "farm to table" on our apartment block rooftops or in space-poor urban areas. Think of it as a tiny house of produce.

Putting greenery on skyscrapers is one of the better architectural trends as far as we're concerned. MVRDV's latest project leans into the idea with a Gaudí-inspired plant-filled tower that provides city dwellers with a daily dose of nature.

Outside the dense urban fabric of Wuhan, China, a cluster of cabins has appeared in the tall dawn redwood forest. Dubbed Secret Camp, the project is part of the Merryda Wiki World retreat, featuring compact dwellings that sit quietly within nature.

A new project called TreeSoil is reimagining how architecture can support vulnerable environments. It proposes a small but radical idea: build structures not for people, but to protect saplings struggling to survive in degraded landscapes.

What if a day at the opera could double as a day in the park? That's the idea behind this ambitious Bjarke Ingels Group project, which blends a heavily landscaped park with a state-of-the-art venue for opera and ballet.

You could be forgiven for thinking this extraordinary building was dreamed up as an alien megastructure for a sci-fi movie. However, the Yidan Center, by Zaha Hadid Architects, is indeed very much real and is currently nearing completion.

They may be better known for stir-fries than supercomputing, but shiitake mushrooms have now been harnessed to function as living processors, storing and recalling data like a semiconductor chip but with almost no environmental footprint.

BIG's recently completed California college building showcases the firm's knack for producing eye-catching architecture. The project is made up of stacked concrete rectangular forms that are topped by a large solar panel array.

Most modern timber towers feature a concrete core for stability. However, the Fyrtornet office tower rises to an impressive height of 169 ft without the need for concrete, highlighting the sustainable possibilities of timber construction.

A new innovation is aiming to redefine earbuds – in function and in form. The PIN, wireless AI buds are sustainably handcrafted from real wood and engineered for sound, include real-time translation and a sleep aid – and they start at only US$134.

This eye-catching tower offers a welcome change from glass and concrete high-rise buildings with its lush exterior. It hosts hundreds of trees and tens of thousands of plants, making life more pleasant for those who live inside.

Scientists have hacked the meaning of a "light meal," creating microlasers that use natural products to emit beams through food. They're also completely safe to eat. It's the first demonstration of laser emission from an entirely edible system.