Driven by an artificially intelligent butler, this smart furniture system promises to free up valuable floor space by lifting and lowering modular interior design elements as needed, putting them into play or pulling them up to the ceiling on demand.

Bumblee Spaces has designed their bot to learn and adapt, anticipating needs in addition to responding to specific requests — it even scans items in storage then tracks their location for retrieval, helping you find stuff like lost keys faster. And if it’s raining, the roombot can also call down your umbrella in case you forget.

For some, it may sound at first like an overly high-tech solution without a problem, but anyone living in old city apartments knows that desire to turn slightly higher ceilings into something more useful, like raised shelving or other storage, at least (but even that only occupies the periphery). When things can be lifted out of the way entirely, even large beds are on the table (and tables, for that matter).

In the Bay Area, for instance, where the startup is based, the cost of additional square feet can be a lot higher than something like this making extant space usage more efficient. It also addresses the persistent San Francisco and Oakland challenge of moving from a smaller, rent-controlled unit to a larger, market-rate one, which can involve paying far more than the size differential alone would suggest.

“When I moved here I was overwhelmed by how much we were paying for so little space,” says the founder. “I come from a product background so I understood a lot about how we could densely pack objects really well. In the iPhone or Apple Watch we do such a good job of finding every micrometer of space to package all the features in so the user only sees the screen.”

Murthy applied this logic to furniture with Bumblebee Spaces. With modular furniture units installed in the ceiling a single-room studio can become a multifunctional area serving as bedroom, living room, study or wardrobe depending on the time of day. And the space given over to a retrofit can be small — as little as a foot of vertical in a room (with additional variability for taller items).

Bumblebee Spaces has also created a software library of their modules for architects, so they can fit them into reflected ceiling plans for future buildings. They aim to deploy a combination of ready-built furniture as well as custom-made items, all worked into a larger modular system. In the long term, they also aim to set up exchanges so people can buy, sell, lend and trade units to customize and redesign their interiors.

China’s first aerial bike path spans nearly five miles, raised over streets and highways and connecting six public transit hubs in the heart of Xiamen. If the new route is even close to as successful as its designers and planners expect, it could help usher in a new cycle-centric transport paradigm across the country.

Sixteen feet wide, the bike-and-pedestrian pathway network can accommodate 2,000 or more bicycles per hour. At night, 30,000 lights allow travelers to continue using the paths safely. Its planners anticipate an influx of ridership and have a system in place to actually close down the on ramps if too many bikers are already on the path.

Some sections of the cycleway are positioned under overhead mass-transit express lanes, offering some shelter from the elements (and less noise than riding alongside). Along the route, riders access the system via a variety of ramps tied into the city bus and subway system, aiming to bridge the gap between various forms of transportation.

Would-be bikers can also pick up bicycles via a ride share system positioned at entry and exit points. If the system does reach full utilization, city officials may extend the network further in the near future. Other cities in China (and around the world) can also look to this integrated system for inspiration for similar bike-oriented urban design strategies.

A new urban park in Ontario will take sheltered but unused space below a raised roadway and turn it into a place for walking, cycling and outdoor performances.

A project of urban designer Ken Greenberg as well as Marc Ryan and Adam Nicklin of Public Work, the Under Gardiner design approach treats the area as a covered streetscape, taking advantage of rain and sun shade provided by the vehicular thoroughfare above.

Its surface programming also bridges institutional uses on either side, including aquariums, museums and other cultural buildings.

From architectural thesis research into reusing derelict land under viaducts, this article’s author can attest to the advantages of using such sub-street spaces. Noise and air pollution levels are actually lower directly below than they are adjacent to raised roads, for instance. Contrast those factors for a moment with the qualities of a typical urban park at ground level, either narrow (Golden Gate in San Francisco) or small (Squares of Philadelphia). Popular city parks are generally surrounded by traffic noise from directly-adjacent vehicles, yet many (including the above examples) remain well-used.

The biggest type-specific concerns of an elevated park are seismic, which in turn are tied to regional risk factors – problematic but addressable for any kind of enclosed or sheltered space, architectural or otherwise.

Like extensive raised-park designs in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and elsewhere, this new breed of sub-infrastructure (even underground) parks is changing the way urban planners and designers think about unused public spaces.

Existing columns and beams of the surrounding infrastructure will naturally divide the spaces into sections that act as exterior rooms while also providing ways to hang signage, wayfinding mechanisms and announcement billboards.

The project is being launched with the help of a sizable $25,000,000  donation from Toronto philanthropists Judy and Wil Matthews.

“The passion and financial assistance of a major donor is joining with the City and Waterfront Toronto to plan and build new infrastructure, and to showcase a new model of city building for Toronto,” said Waterfront Toronto.

Airports take up vast amounts of valuable real estate in and around urban areas, but what if we could get to and from planes faster, make takeoffs and landings easier, and save city space in the process?

The Airport City project proposes a radical reinvention of the airport, elevating tracks above roadways and waterways in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

With ground-powered plane taxi systems tied to this track setup, noise and air pollution could be reduced as well, but the critical concept is the degree of urban integration and reduction of single-use architecture and infrastructure associated with a conventional airport.

Designed by Alex Sutton, graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture, the idea may not be ready for lift-off anytime soon, but it nonetheless invites designers and travelers alike to rethink the current typology of contemporary airports and how we will accommodate increased air travel in future urban designs.

As automation increasingly transforms airplane travel processes and planes get quieter, there is something magical about imagining we could watch flights take off right within our cities, and step right off of planes into downtowns.

From the designer: “Travel demand in the aviation industry is set to double by 2030 and continue increasing exponentially into the future. In order to satisfy demand and the increasing importance of the airport on local economies, capacity in the industry needs to increase. This project uses Stockholm, one of the fastest growing cities in Europe, as a testing ground to establish a fully integrated urban airport as part of a new city district, in a time when aviation technology is such that aircraft and airports could operate from within our cities.”

Enabling the visually impaired to quite literally put their hands on priceless artworks, this unique exhibition allows blind people to experience works like the Mona Lisa for the first time. An initial collection of six such works is on display through June at a gallery in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

The innovative printing studio behind these complex displays, Estudios Durero, starts with high-resolution photographs of original works then reworks them, adding texture and volume in an advanced relief printing process.

Over the course of 40 hours, special inks are layered on top of flat surfaces. The resulting pieces are then chemically treated to that raise sections of the reprinted paintings. In a final stage, the colors are layered on top of this 3D hybrid to make them look like the originals.

Each piece is different, requiring a nuanced and calculated approach to crafting individually appropriate solutions that reflect elements of artistic intent and style in this new feel-oriented format.

Braille text and audio guides accompany each piece, walking visitors through a multimedia experience culminating in the touching of each work (photos by Pablo Blazquez Dominguez).