Cities

Balsam Madi is an architect and systems thinker whose work bridges culture, sustainability, and design intelligence across the Middle East and Europe.

It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes you need to give evidence to city councillors: A new multi-institutional study led by UC Davis Health suggests that not all green space is created equal. Living in urban neighborhoods with more visible trees is associated with a 4% lower incidence of cardiovascular disease, while areas dominated by grass or low shrubs may be linked to higher cardiovascular risk.

Quentin Tarantino lives in Israel now, quietly blending into Tel Aviv life (which is pretty loud and late night!) — until Tel Aviv, of course, notices him.

As new designs and materials shape the future of public and private construction, knowing which systems deliver consistent results becomes more important. This article explores leading concrete barrier options on the market today and explains how each type supports modern infrastructure goals.

Critics of a new set of luxury towers including Israeli-Greek architect Elias Mesinas, warn that the scale of the towers, loss of public green space, and creeping luxury-led gentrification risk undermining Jerusalem’s historic skyline, community fabric, and long-standing planning principles — raising a fundamental question: not whether Jerusalem should densify, but how it can do so responsibly while preserving what makes the city unique.

Soil pollution levels in parts of Basra are 1,200% to 3,300% higher than those typically measured in cities like Toronto or New York, according to new comparative soil data. It's getting into water.

Balat is not a neighborhood you would visit in the standard tour to Istanbul. If you want a real taste of Istanbul and the people who live there, wander around a smaller craftsman, artisan, coffee shops and second hand clothing shops on cobblestone streets in the neighborhood of Balat.

You can go to a site or go online, order the tree and pick it up or if if possible have it delivered. A live tree doesn't shed needles after a few weeks and it's obviously the ecological choice to cutting down millions of 7 to 15 year old trees every year.

 When you “go green,” you’re actually building pricing power. By offering tenants amenities and appliances that save money while providing comfort, you’re delivering the kind of value tenants won’t hesitate to pay more for. That means shorter vacancies, faster lease signings, and higher profits.

More than sixty years after France’s nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara, radiation still lingers in the sand. At Reggane and In Ekker, plutonium traces remain where underground detonations vented into the open air. The sites were never fully decontaminated after France’s withdrawal in 1966. Algeria now monitors them with help from the International Atomic Energy Agency, but vast areas remain off-limits to herders and researchers.

Decks & Docks in Nashville, Tennessee, is a trusted source for premium marine construction materials, offering a wide range of products for homeowners, contractors,...

Climate Week isn’t just for CEOs and policymakers. It’s a chance for anyone to plug in, whether you’re attending an official showcase or just biking to work with a few friends. Fun and climate action aren’t opposites — they feed each other. And when you connect with community, food, music, or nature, you realize: this is what the future can look like.

A new peer-reviewed study in Science connects long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) with higher risk of Lewy body dementia (LBD) in a dataset of 56.5 million US Medicare records, and backs it up with animal experiments that show PM2.5 triggers toxic α-synuclein clumps — the protein aggregates that define LBD. 

Other notable mud structures in the wider Muslim world include the Bob Dioulasso Grand Mosque in Burkina Faso, and the Khiva Wall in Uzbekistan, which is built around a collection of Islamic schools and mosques. The Siwa Oasis in Egypt (which we visited and posted about here) and the Eastern Castle in Syria have also employed mud bricks in their construction, and research shows that the famous walls of Jericho were built using sun-dried mud bricks.

Starting with the first 10,000 trees along Al Khobar’s southern and northern corniches, waterfront zones, and main thoroughfares, the project will expand city‑wide. It sets a foundation for integrating green infrastructure, citizen engagement, and sustainable tourism—an urban ecosystem that’s both cultivated and tracked through smart tech.