The first Monday of October of every year marks World Architecture Day and World Habitat Day. Celebrated simultaneously, they both seek to shed light on the built environment and its challenges, taking on a different theme with each new edition. This year, through its World Architecture Day, the UIA is focusing on “Architecture for well-being”, in line with the designation of 2022 as the UIA Year of Design for Health in buildings and cities. In parallel, the UN’s World Habitat Day, is centered on “Mind the Gap. Leave No One and Place Behind”, looking at the problem of growing inequality and challenges in cities and human settlements, due to the triple ‘C’ crises – COVID-19, climate and conflict.

Introducing Urban October, 31 days to promote a better urban future, World Architecture Day and World Habitat Day push forward the debates on urban sustainability. Joining the conversation every year, ArchDaily takes part in this occasion by promoting content that tackles the main objectives of this day, raising awareness, presenting solutions, engaging the international community, and “empowering everyone who makes architecture happen to create a better quality of life”.

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Byzantium, Constantinople and now Istanbul, the many names this city has had over the centuries are proof of the central role it has played throughout history. Founded by Greek settlers in the 7^th century, the city served as an imperial capital for a cumulated period of over 1600 years. During the Roman/Byzantine, it played a crucial role in the advancement of Christianity before its transformation into an Islamic center and becoming the sear of the Ottoman Caliphate. Today, Istanbul is a vibrant city with a rich cultural scene and multiple historical layers to be discovered.

Straddling the Bosphorus strait, the city lies in both Europe and Asia, integrating architectural masterpieces that reflect the meeting of European and Asian cultures over the centuries. As the largest city in Turkey with a population of over 15 million residents, Istanbul also serves as the country’s economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is the 15th largest city and the eighth most visited city in the world. The city is also home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, United Kingdom's longest-reigning monarch, has passed away at Balmoral Castle, aged 96. Earlier this year, Her Majesty became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years since her ascension to the throne. During her coronation, the first ceremony of this type to be televised, newspapers and tv broadcasters talked about a “New Elizabethan Age” that would revive Britain from postwar gloom. Now, seven decades later, as the longest reign in British history has come to an end, people come together to honor The Queen and reflect upon her legacy in terms of culture, technology, and architecture.

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Beneath the Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere and the display of world cultures that symbolize Disney World’s EPCOT lies the buried vision for a utopian city. The original EPCOT - a community built around innovation - was one of Walt Disney’s last visionary projects. Bothered by haphazard urban sprawl, Disney had bold ideas for an urban fabric that would drive progress in the USA. The “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” was Walt Disney’s antidote to the decay of American cities.

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Can you imagine a world in which the built environment around us is 3D printed from living materials? That buildings will germinate, bloom, wither, produce new kinds of material, and eventually return back to the soil? To Grow a Building is a performative lab space that 3D prints - in real time - a live structure. The project presents a new approach to integrating flora into the design process, by developing a novel material for 3D printing, through which seeding is an inseparable part of the fabrication process. To Grow a Building is a gate into a future world in which there are people who build buildings, and there are people who grow them.

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Indians have traditionally lived close to the earth, their cultures shaped by symbiotic relationships with ecosystems. Indian arts and crafts strongly rely on nature for its form, philosophy, and existence. Native landscapes aroused the artistic sensibilities of resident communities, evolving craft practices that met utilitarian and ritualistic needs. The intersectionality of ecology and culture is evident through ancestral forms of craft.

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Over the years, ArchDaily has brought us the most innovative architecture projects through the eyes of creative specialized photographers. Their captures bring us closer to the works, reflect the vision of the architects and, above all, transmit and generate the most varied emotions.

From conversations with these talented photographers, we can understand, at least a little, what they feel when facing an architectural project with a camera in hand.

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The capital of South Korea, officially known as Seoul Special City, is the largest metropolis in the country. From modern skyscrapers, high-tech subways, and expressions of pop culture, to traditional temples, palaces, and pagodas, Seoul is a captivating melting pot of old and new that all are guaranteed to enjoy.

If you plan on visiting Seoul and taking in most of what the vibrant city has for locals and tourists alike, the following list features 30 unique projects for you to indulge in and explore, providing you with a starting point for your metropolitan travels.

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According to the World Happiness Report, Denmark has continually topped the survey of happiest countries for years. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, is known for its brightly colored waterfront buildings and radical contemporary architecture, both reflecting the joyful ethos of the city. The maritime metropolis is an urban designer’s favorite case study with its carbon-neutral infrastructure, pedestrian and bike-friendliness, and thriving public realm. Danish designers have cracked the code to build happier cities, leaving plenty of models to learn from.

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Every city is a complex environment, bringing together people, cultures, architecture, commerce, and even nature. While experiencing a city, a lot of attention is given to its appearance, but appearance is not everything. The theory of sensory design aims to go beyond vision and explore the richness of the built environment through textures, smells, and sounds. For city officials and planners, a lot of attention generally goes towards how a city looks and sounds, but in terms of smell, the focus is mainly on managing waste or cleaning unsanitary areas. Yet the sense of smell, so often overlooked, is strongly linked to the creation of emotional memories. It contributes to our understanding of the world; it reveals otherwise hidden cultural practices, and it rounds up the experience of an environment.

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The expression "a perfect storm" refers to an event (typically an unfortunate one) which is exacerbated due to a confluence of negative or unpredictable factors. It is widely used when describing meteorological phenomena, but can also be applied to other contexts, such as the economy. The analogy can also be used to describe the relationship between the climate crisis and the world's dependence on concrete. As demonstrated in the Chatham House report, while cement (an essential element for concrete manufacturing) is extremely detrimental to the greenhouse effect and climate crisis –representing about 8% of global CO2 emissions–, its global production is nevertheless expected to increase over the next 30 years. It is said that this increase will stem from the demand for rapid urbanization in regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, the last IPCC report warned that we only have 11 years to reduce emissions and prevent irreversible damage due to climate change. In other words, the cement industry is facing a significant expansion at a time when emissions need to fall rapidly – a perfect storm.

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