“God must think we’re crazy. We let the rain fall off of our roofs onto our soil; it washes the soil away and flows to the bottom of the hill. We then climb down the hill and carry it back up to drink.” — Unknown Ugandan Water Management Worker

In 1325, the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan, their capital city, on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco which was part of a series of connected lakes that used to occupy the Valley of Mexico. The city was connected to the mainland by a series of causeways, while all of its…

With the disappearance of jobs for the working class, the decline of the post-industrial city, and the rapid automation of work, we are witnessing a drastic shift in how, where, and by who work is being done in America. As a designer, I am taking a closer look at these changes in an attempt to understand the causes behind such trends and to anticipate their outcomes. …

For anyone who has spent any time in the Mapos office, where I work, it will come as no surprise that music is a central part of the company’s culture. Since the first day that I started working there, I have rarely experienced a silent moment in the office. If there’s someone there, then there’s probably music playing. In fact, one of the very first things that you learn when you start working there is how to access the shared music streaming account and how to contribute to its democratically aggregated queue which plays continuously throughout the office.

Because everyone…

The term informal is often used to describe the unplanned communities that are constantly being established around the world. These settlements, which are often constructed within or adjacent to more formally planned urban conditions, face the incredible challenge of tapping into and gaining access to the local infrastructure. This typically includes municipal systems of water, sanitation, electricity, cooking and heating fuel, communications, transportation, and more. In these situations, however, the residents of these communities, unlike their counterparts in the planned portions of the city, are often on their own. The municipalities within which they reside are often unable or unwilling…

Varanasi is an ancient city where the Hindus go to die in India. The deeply religious have very strong beliefs surrounding this place and about death in general. When one dies of natural causes, their body is cremated and there is significant ceremony surrounding this process. Outside of Varanasi, I had witnessed a few cremation ceremonies and visited a number of crematoriums throughout India, because a friend of mine was researching them as architectural spaces. …