cities
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Evacuees from the Chernobyl nuclear accident remember relatives, friends and colleagues who died – and the abandoned city declared unsafe for 24,000 years
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From community folk dancing to vibrant art installations, local journalist Aurora Percannella shows us the culture beyond Turin’s Olympic legacy
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Two years after Coventry was flattened in the second world war, sympathy with the plight of Stalingrad led women’s groups to reach out to the Russian city – a ‘bond of friendship’ which survived the frostiest parts of the cold war
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Retailers are increasingly using facial recognition technology to track your face. With an estimated 59% of UK fashion retailers doing it, is the anonymity of cities an outdated idea?
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Inspired by Claes Jansz Visscher’s classic engraving of London half a century before the Great Fire, Robin Reynolds has updated the view to the present day
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A ‘nomadic museum’ in the heart of Mumbai hopes to change attitudes towards the communities that live there
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Extract: Rowan Moore on how London became the pre-eminent global city, a diverse wonderland for all tastes, if not all pockets…
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As the number of rough sleepers has risen in UK in recent years, we want to hear our readers experiences of being without a home
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Too often being homeless is considered a personal and a moral failing, when it’s actually a structural and political problem
in depth
the big picture
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For Guardian Lagos week, Instagrammers across the city have been sharing their brilliant photographs. Here are just some of our favourite images
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After suffering its worst floods for a century, the Indian city of Chennai is consulting cities all over the world – from New Orleans to Jakarta – about the ambitious projects that could reduce their risk of flood devastation
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With ever-stricter constraints imposed on road transport in a bid to make Paris greener, French supermarket Franprix now delivers to 135 of its stores using river barges. The city has big ideas for the future of the Seine
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With its serious pollution problem and notorious driving styles, Milan is hardly renowned as a cycle-friendly city – but a radical new scheme aims to change that
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In 1997 two architects set out to rethink Lagos, an African megacity that had been largely abandoned by the state. Amid the apparent chaos and crime, they discovered remarkable patterns of organisation. Two decades later, Rem Koolhaas and Kunlé Adeyemi discuss the past, present and future of the city – and reveal why their own project never saw the light of day
talking points
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Booker prize nominee Chigozie Obioma loves Lagos, but shares the centuries-old fear that it may ‘spoil’. With 2,000 new people arriving every day, the city faces its toughest challenge yet
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get involved
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Cities around the world are seeing a rise in ageing populations. Wherever you live, share your experiences of urban life in older age and how it can be improved
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Readers from Istanbul, London, San Jose, Montreal, Newcastle and Buenos Aires share their experiences of neighbourhood change over the decades
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From noise and pollution to street harassment and anonymous crowds, readers share their experiences and thoughts on what makes cities stressful – and which places are the biggest offenders. Is it time to relocate?
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You shared your experiences, photos and memories of forgotten or unloved rivers in cities around the world, from Birmingham to Belo Horizonte
in pictures
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Photographer Laurent Kronental spent four years documenting the lives of older citizens living in the Grands Ensembles housing estates built around Paris after the second world war for his Souvenir d’un Futur project
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Photographer Berenice Abbott started Changing New York – her grand project to document NYC – in 1935, capturing shops and buildings before they were torn down. The photos are held in the archive of the New York Public Library
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In 1869, French artist Gustave Doré and British journalist Blanchard Jerrold began a landmark account of the deprivation and squalor of mid-Victorian London
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Ten years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, photographer Mario Tama of Getty Images returns to the city to document how things have changed
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No distraction is too bizarre when it’s in the middle of a roundabout. Here are some of the strangest and most beautiful examples, including from the hitherto-uncelebrated roundabout hotspot of Oman
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Urban growth, sporting events, financial crashes and political turmoil have left a trail of city airports and airfields deserted around the globe. While some lie abandoned or face redevelopment, others are being creatively reused
popular
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The grand London 'semi' that spawned a housing revolution – a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 8
This article is 12 months old -
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Wooden skyscrapers could be the future of flat-pack cities around the world
This article is 1 year old
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