If you have ever embarked on a house renovation project, you know how much work it involves. Supervising contractors is never straightforward, and budgets and timelines always slide. The challenge is much bigger if the house has been abandoned. It...
Tokyo Llama is a popular YouTube channel of an Australian who bought and DIY-renovated an abandoned traditional house in Japan. His videos walk us through a painstaking process of remaking the old house from scratch, drawing over 200k viewers...
In 2018, I spent a year in Tokyo with my then 3-year-old son. At first, it was a breeze, coming from New York City. Train stations have an elevator, and bathrooms are clean and everywhere. Over time, though, I began to sense unspoken social...
The city of Amsterdam adapted the theory of doughnut economics for its post-pandemic recovery in April 2020. Kate Raworth, the inventor of doughnut economics, downscaled the model to provide the city with a “city portrait” that illustrates...
In emerging Asian countries, improving access to affordable housing in urban settings is a major concern. Slums often develop in cities with rapid rural-urban migration and tight housing supplies. As a result, in these informal settlements, dwellers...