For at least a century, governments have tried to urbanise their nations. Communist states sought to drag people out of what Marx and Engels called their "rural idiocy". Capitalist governments – Mahatir Mohammed's administration in Malaysia is a good example – tried to persuade and bully indigenous people into leaving the land (which then became available for exploitation) and move to the cities to join the consumer economy. Urbanisation was equated with progress and modernity. — George Monbiot, guardian.co.uk

Raumlabor just completed construction on "The Big Crunch" - a recycled building made from a heap of discarded objects. The mound of materials is condensed in a theater plaza from all over the area, seemingly to move like a small wave cresting on the Georg-Büchner-Platz grounds in Darmstadt, Germany. — Inhabitat

Walls are so underutilized, just sitting there holding up the ceiling, while the floor does all the work of supporting everything that we do. Jiminez Lai of the Bureau Spectactular designed the Phalanstery Module, where all surfaces can be occupied. He designed it for a hypothetical zero gravity environment, but it appears to work on earth as well. — treehugger.com

Diawa Lease just sent Inhabitat the first photos of their new transforming EDV-1 shelter, which can be set on any terrain, doubles in size with the flick of a switch, and can sustain itself without any outside resources for up to a month by catching and reusing water and generating electricity with a huge built-in solar array. —

Kibbutzim are a hybrid beast, he says: they are rural in location, but urban in function. Kibbutzim were built as whole units in and of themselves, self-sufficient in everything from the food supply to education, culture, work and all other services. — Haaretz

Bryan explores the differences between the entries by MASS Design Group and Formlessfinder "The good news is that underpinning these two manifestations of architectural ambition is a singular hopefulness. The differences arise when these teams attempt to connect their own aspirations for an architecture capable of making an impact with more specific thoughts about where that impact is most likely to happen, why it needs to happen, and how it might be best accomplished."

Built from a decommissioned Boeing 747, the home features a floating roof made out of the plane's wings that results in a curvilinear home with large floor-to-ceiling windows to take in the sights of the Malibu mountains and Pacific Ocean below. — Inhabitat

From Amelia Earhart to s'mores: New York City's first airport to become country's largest urban campground.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the National Park Service will develop the nation's largest urban campground at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, a former airport used by Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes.
Mr Salazar said Monday: 'We want to make New York the leading example of what we can do around the country with urban parks'. — MailOnline

Blue Ventures, a conservation organization that simultaneously protects marine environments while improving the standard of living in some of the world's poorest coastal communities, has been named the winner of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. The London based non-profit, which validates the bio-economic viability of conservation, was awarded $100,000 to further develop and scale up its work. — bustler.net

Maybe they just couldn’t come up with any questions. So here are a few: Can you confirm that the architect of the building is Norman Foster, like everyone’s reporting? Is Apple going to make the grounds open to the public so they can enjoy the fifty billion trees that he’ll be planting? Will there be any kind of programming in the new auditorium that can expose the next generation to careers in technology and science? Could you share your awesome private transit system with the public? — Gelatobaby

[Apple] has staff scattered in rented buildings throughout the city. The plan for the future campus puts 12,000 to 13,000 employees inside a single four-story oval building. Jobs made a convincing case for what he calls "a shot at building the best office building in the world." By moving parking underground, 80% of the 150-acre property will be landscaped. Apple has hired the lead arborist from Stanford to fill it with 6,000 trees, and the company will build its own energy center power source. — mashable.com