Urban decline is usually understood through economic indicators: falling footfall, vacant storefronts, delayed redevelopment, and reduced investment. Shopping centres, in particular, have faced structural challenges in recent years as online retail, changing consumer habits, and shifting urban dynamics have reshaped how people interact with physical retail spaces. Yet occasionally, an unexpected force intervenes — not through infrastructure upgrades or financial investment, b

At first glance, residential property markets appear universal. Across the world, people buy homes, sell land, negotiate prices, and seek long-term security through ownership. Yet beneath these similarities lie profound structural differences. The way property markets function varies dramatically from country to country, shaped not by culture alone, but by deeper economic systems — legal frameworks, financial infrastructure, institutional trust, and government policy. Housing

The Winter Olympics are marketed as a sporting spectacle, but sport is the least durable part of the system. Medals fade, records are broken, and ceremonies are remembered selectively. What persists are the networks built to make the event possible. Roads, rail lines, airports, power grids, snowmaking systems, hospitality capacity, media infrastructure, security protocols, and governance arrangements do not disappear when the flame goes out. The Winter Olympics function less

In parts of France, a homeowner can sell their property while continuing to live in it for the rest of their life. The buyer pays a reduced upfront price, followed by regular payments until the seller dies. The total cost of the property, and any eventual return for the buyer, depends entirely on how long the seller lives. This arrangement is known as viager. It is legal, regulated, and well-established, yet remains one of the few mainstream property transactions where death

Along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, a single development now attracts tens of millions of visitors each year. To some, it is a landmark. To others, a workplace. To nearby neighbourhoods, it has become something more consequential: an economic force that has altered land values, work patterns, transport flows, and daily life. Thailand offers a useful lens for understanding a broader global shift — what happens when private developments grow large enough to stop behaving li

Cities don’t just manage services.They design the conditions under which businesses operate. In Rio de Janeiro, that design work is becoming more explicit. In late 2025, the city entered a strategic partnership with X – The Moonshot Factory , Alphabet’s innovation lab, to tackle some of its most persistent urban challenges — waste, licensing, infrastructure, and connectivity — using advanced data and AI systems. This isn’t a branding exercise or a “smart city” showcase. It’s

Every building that goes up tomorrow was designed yesterday — and most of its climate impact was already decided then. That’s not rhetoric. It’s how the construction system works. The built environment is one of the largest sources of global emissions, not only because of how buildings are used, but because of how they are designed, specified, and constructed. By the time construction begins, the most consequential decisions have already been made. Buildings are emissions sys