Exploring the sweet spot of urban density—mid-rise buildings, gentle intensification, and housing forms that balance livability with sustainability.
essayThe number arrives like a diagnosis: 2.8 billion people worldwide lack access to adequate housing. That's 40 percent of humanity living in structures that fail basic tests of safety, security, or sanitation. And for the first time since economists began systematically tracking housing affordability, every major market has crossed into unaffordable territory.
essayThe sustainable city doesn't need to choose between endless suburbs and glass towers. It needs mid-rise: five to eight storeys of mixed-use, walkable blocks. Three ambitious cities show how.
Four essays tracing the flaneur tradition beyond its Parisian origins -- into Madrid's rhetorical streets, Lisbon's vertiginous hills, the archival cities of Buenos Aires and Mexico City, and the acoustic corridors of New Orleans.
How cities are tearing down urban highways to reconnect neighborhoods, restore ecological corridors, and reimagine what these corridors can become.
UrbanStories' own take on rating living quality—23 cities scored across six lived-experience criteria (shelter, human scale, civic voice, nature, mobility, conviviality), weighted for the people who live there rather than those who fly in.