Accessibility help Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

House & Home City Living Special

In this special edition, we look at the changing face of Mayfair, talk to architects from Karachi to Xi’an embracing ‘sponge tactics’ to mitigate flooding, step inside a Singapore garden home, and spotlight design tips for the growing rental market

Sponge cities: the flood-proof architecture of the future?
As climate change puts more of the world at risk of flooding, landscape architects are looking beyond disaster response, to future-facing “sponge tactics”. The concept is epic, but a street-by-street approach is galvanising local groups
Thoroughly modern Mayfair
The area’s remodelling has been a work in progress over the past decade — but new residential and retail developments are upping the ante as global demand is forecast to outstrip supply
Architect Leonard Ng: ‘Nature is beautiful, it doesn’t require design’
He helped make Singapore a garden city, and the same ethos informs the design of his home
The inner-city alleys being turned into paradise passages
Several of the UK’s northern cities are transforming once neglected passageways into bucolic oases; community spaces filled with urban art, herb gardens — and civic pride
‘I don’t want to scream mid-century’: how to decorate a brutalist flat
London’s Barbican masterpiece has wonderful detailing, but if all that concrete is too much, there are some inspiring ways to soften it
Hot property: five city homes on the market for around £2.5mn
Historic metropolitan residences in New York, London, Paris, Barcelona and Edinburgh

More from this Series