cities
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China's new ghost city-dwellers get 're-educated'Don’t spit, don’t play loud music, don’t drive on the pavement … Farmers moving to the former ghost city of Kangbashi are getting lessons in how to be urbanites -
Missing Maps: what is Baraka ... and how can you help map it?Che Guevara kicked around Baraka, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the 1960s. Now it is a thriving trading city – but still lacks a basic digital map. Guardian readers are setting out to change that
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Meet the ghost-sign huntersEnthusiasts travel miles to photograph faded adverts for products and businesses that no longer exist - symbols of defiance against the city’s relentless progress -
From Reagan to Hasselhoff: 5 people who didn’t bring down the Berlin WallFrom Ronald Reagan’s ‘tear down this wall’ speech to David Hasselhoff’s bizarre ‘looking for freedom’ serenade, countless urban myths have sprung up about who was really responsible for the fall of the wall. Do any have any merit? -
End of the Boardwalk empire? The rise and demise of Atlantic CityCan this one-industry town find a way to rescue its losses? A man called Guardian still thinks so ...
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Why the battle for control of downtown Cairo is a fight for the future of EgyptThree years after the revolution, the state is trying to cleanse central Cairo – clashing with street-sellers, revolutionaries, politicians, property investors and artists
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The 2014 Guardian World Cities Day Challenge – liveTo celebrate World Cities Day, we’re putting 36 terrified contestants from around the world in the ‘hot seat’ to tell us their city’s best idea – and why other cities should adopt it. Cheer them on!
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Learning to live in the city: Chinese farmers get lessons in urban life – video
Adam James Smith visited the Ordos region to see how the government's relocation plan is affecting people living in the countryside around Kangbashi - and to find out how those who have already moved to the 'ghost city' are coping with city life. This video contains excerpts from his soon-to-be-released documentary, The Land of Many Palaces
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Ghost signs around the world – in picturesLurking in the back alleys of New York, perched above the busy streets of Cairo and clinging to the grimy bricks of London, ghost signs provide an ephemeral link to a city’s past
in depth
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Cities Day challenge: we put 36 contestants from around the world in the 'hot seat' …We put 36 cities from around the world in the ‘hot seat’. See how they got on …
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A guerrilla design project hopes to make cities better – for carsCity links: the best city stories this week take a look at a guerrilla parking sign project in New York, imagine London’s disused tube stations as community hubs and explore Mussolini’s secret underground bunkers in Rome
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China's obsession with vertical citiesBy the end of next year one-in-three of the world’s 100m+ buildings will be in China, as its state-orchestrated urbanisation drive prompts a megacity building bonanza
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Where on earth is the Berlin wall?Twenty five years after its fall, more pieces of the Berlin wall are scattered across the globe – from Seattle to South Korea, Cape Town to Canberra – than remain in the city itself
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in pictures
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London life – mappedWhere do the happiest, least stressed, most satisfied Londoners live? What’s the busiest station? Do football fans support their local team? These questions and more are explored in London: The Information Capital
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Ghost signs around the world – in picturesLurking in the back alleys of New York, perched above the busy streets of Cairo and clinging to the grimy bricks of London, ghost signs provide an ephemeral link to a city’s past
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São Paulo artist Henrique Oliveira turns wooden hoardings into immersive tunnel installation - in picturesOliviera’s repurposed plywood construction hoardings wind their way around the university contemporary art museum’s white columns in a tangle of roots
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An American horror story: 'real' haunted houses – in picturesHalloween special: Photographer Seph Lawless – whose eerie images of abandoned shopping malls we featured this summer – has explored houses blighted by tragic histories in his new book, 13: an American horror story
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Berlin Wall in Google Street ViewBerlin’s modern face – glass skyscrapers, busy roads, overgrown lots – shows little trace of its old scar. Our Street View expert takes us back to Checkpoint Charlie, the death strip ... and the wall’s glorious fall 25 years ago next month
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Stephen Wilkes blends more than 1,000 photographs into each day-night cityscape – in picturesThe American photographer spends 15 hours perched on a rooftop or crane photographing each city from one camera angle through night and day, before months in the studio painstakingly blending them into one seamless image
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Inside Geneva's nuclear bunker turned homeless shelter – in picturesReinforced doors, metal bunks and hot food – with nuclear winter an unlikely prospect, Geneva’s fallout shelters have thrown open their doors to welcome the homeless
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Welcome to Venice, China: Dalian copies canals, palaces … and gondoliersThe copycat city in north-eastern Liaoning province is just the latest example of China’s fondness for replicating Europe’s greatest architectural hits
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Architecture for bikes – in picturesFrom Calgary’s space-age Peace bridge to Eindhoven’s floating roundabout and the Copenhagen apartments with a cycle path straight up to the 10th floor, Gavin Blyth’s Velo City highlights some of the world’s best cycling infrastructure
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First world war in Google Street ViewFrom British prisoners of war being marched through Bruges to anti-aircraft guns on the Eiffel Tower and new recruits in Toronto, our Street View specialist takes us back 100 years
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CBRE Urban Photographer of the Year 2014 – winning imagesThe theme of this year’s competition – Cities at Work – challenged photographers from around the world to capture the beauty and day-to-day reality of working life
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The Focus E15 protests – in picturesThe group of vulnerable young mothers who occupied vacant flats after being told they would be rehoused outside London by Newham council have now left the Carpenters estate. Photographer Jess Hurd visited the protesters this week to document their campaign
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Sink or swim: designing for climate change – in picturesArchitectural, fine art and news photographers shed light on contemporary and traditional solutions to the problem of climate change in densely populated coastal regions
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Underground London: abandoned tube stations and tunnels – in picturesOxford academic and ‘place hacker’ Bradley Garrett has spent years exploring the capital’s hidden depths. His latest book, Subterranean London, is published by Prestel
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Funny and confusing city signs: readers' picturesGuardian Cities asked you to share your photos of the most silly, confusing and dangerous signs near you via GuardianWitness. Here’s a selection of our favourites
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Constructing Worlds: classic photographs that redefine our cities – in picturesThe Barbican Centre’s new Constructing Worlds exhibition brings together 18 photographers who have changed the way we view the urban world around us, from the early skyscrapers of New York to the Torre David vertical slum in Venezuela
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Mayors: The Gathering – city leaders in fantasy playing cardsAs the global parliament of mayors prepares to kick off, which civic leaders would you want in your deck?
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Timbuktu: portrait of a city on the edge of existence – in picturesWhat is life like in Mali’s ‘city in the middle of nowhere’? Guardian photographer Sean Smith recently spent a week there, meeting everyone from Timbuktu’s chief muezzin to its only DJ
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Lost and Found in Detroit – in picturesAmy Sacka’s 500-day photo essay exploring Detroit is an attempt to discover the meaning of home. Raised in the suburbs, where the ruined Motor City was a place to be feared, returning was a personal challenge
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Counter culture: shopkeepers from around the world – in picturesVladimir Antaki has been documenting shopkeepers all over the world. His project was born from his desire to document and pay tribute to these ‘guardians of urban temples’ that we meet everyday without really noticing
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The Indian boss who gave cars, apartments and diamonds to employeesForward-thinking Hari Krishna chairman marks Diwali by lavishing almost 500 cars and more than 200 apartments on his long-serving staff
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'Are we safe? Of course not': climate scientist's NYC warning after SandyAs part of our Stormproofing the City series, Klaus Jacob, who predicted the devastation wrought by 2012 storm, tells Lilah Raptopoulos why city planners could be making things worse, not better, for future generations
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Is New York City ready for future natural disasters? Join our investigationWelcome to our new series, where a NYC resident makes sense of the network protecting her from the next Sandy-sized storm … by interviewing the people preparing for it
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Mitchell Silver: a man possessed by making New York’s parks havens of happiness for allMayor Bill de Blasio’s $130m plan to upgrade New York’s neglected parks has put the spotlight on a commissioner who likes to go incognito to see how people use ‘his’ green spaces. Emma Brockes joins him
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Could new technology help older people in Barcelona create stronger networks?Ageing populations are increasingly prone to feeling lonely and isolated in modern, anonymous cities around the world. A new app from Barcelona might have the answer
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Q&A: Are UK cities prepared for another flooding disaster?We invited readers to join our experts in a live webchat on whether UK cities and towns are ready for the threat of flooding
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Jo Baka: the Gujarati internet meme that went viralFrom jokes between friends to public health messages, a traditional phrase is sweeping though Indian communities worldwide, thanks to Facebook, WhatsApp and a good dose of humour
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Can we climate-proof cities? Six of the best conclusions from SXSW Eco 2014City links: This week we were at the SXSW Eco conference in Austin, Texas, thinking about the future of cities amid climate change. Here are some of the best of the (many) conclusions
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Researching cities: does Bogotá's transformation hold up to scrutiny?Western audiences are being sold a shiny new version of the Colombian city – but one academic says his research has uncovered a culture of exclusion and a mirage of social harmony
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For too long, cities have paid little notice to global issues. Climate change must change their mindsetMature cities can adapt and new cities can design themselves to be climate resilient from the start. Alongside unavoidable expenditure come potentially lucrative benefits for innovative businesses providing solutions – and the prize is a big one
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Why climate change should signal the end of the city-stateOur urban leaders’ belief in autonomy as the ultimate goal must be unset, writes Richard Sennett. The seductive idea of a place controlling its own fortunes is out of date
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Wooden skyscrapers could be the future of flat-pack cities around the worldThe development of engineered timber could herald a new era of eco-friendly ‘plyscrapers’. Christchurch welcomed its first multistorey timber structure this year, there are plans for Vancouver, and the talk is China could follow
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Sink or swim: designing for climate change – in picturesArchitectural, fine art and news photographers shed light on contemporary and traditional solutions to the problem of climate change in densely populated coastal regions
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Can Amsterdam’s e-trikes revolutionise the city’s food system?The future of food: A new Dutch scheme aims to distribute local fare more sustainably, unclog the streets and reduce Amsterdam’s 15 million annual food miles
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Readers' short films: invisible Venice, Brazil's toy city and a Doha lullabyWe asked readers to make three-minute films about their cities for the Barbican’s City Visions film season. In this first of three updates, here are some of our favourites
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How temporary 'cardboard cathedral' rose from the ruins to become most recognised building in ChristchurchAs Christ Church Cathedral remains gripped in a battle between modernity and heritage, a bold new structure is coming to symbolise progress as the city rebuilds after the earthquake
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Indian city of Surat anticipates worst effects of climate changeGujarat city on India’s west coast is preparing to cope with twin disasters brought on by rapid growth and global warming
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Resilience in the playable city – liveTune in to watch the session exploring urban resilience and digital civic engagement from the Making the City Playable conference in Bristol - live
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100 Resilient Cities Challenge: how accurately do cities perceive risk?Analysis of initial applications for the Rockefeller Foundation’s global resilience project reveals a tendency among cities to underestimate their exposure to hazards
talking points
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The best city blogs around the worldWe're getting to know the local urban voices who cover their home cities most insightfully. Here's our initial list of bloggers, from Detroit to Addis Ababa
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Should we be concerned about Placemeter?Placemeter pays New Yorkers to suction-cup an old smartphone to their window, then records and analyses what’s happening outside
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LuminoCity: new interactive map tool sheds light on citiesDuncan A Smith of UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis talks us through his new data visualisation platform, LuminoCity3D, and the insights it offers into population, employment, transport and the environment
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Bring on Mr Pothole: the classic urban problem meets its matchPotholes kill, cost billions to fix and are the focus of endless apps and initiatives (yes, there’s a UK Pothole Fund). Enter the brave urban warriors fighting to slay this original urban bugbear for good
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World's first solar cycle lane opening in the NetherlandsSolar panels embedded in the cycle path near Amsterdam could generate enough electricity to power three houses, with potential to extend scheme to roads
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The best cycling infrastructure in cities around the world – your picturesFrom boardwalks to bridges, tunnels to cycle-friendly subways, you shared your experiences of the best urban bike infrastructure from across the globe
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Architecture for bikes – in picturesFrom Calgary’s space-age Peace bridge to Eindhoven’s floating roundabout and the Copenhagen apartments with a cycle path straight up to the 10th floor, Gavin Blyth’s Velo City highlights some of the world’s best cycling infrastructure
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Cycle superhighways row: wheels within wheelsThe PR war over Boris Johnson’s flagship cycling scheme risks impeding its progress
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The Tour de Neglect: a cycle ride through Buffalo's deprived East SideThe ‘rust belt’ city of Buffalo, New York is experiencing a renaissance after decades of decline. But while one half rises from the post-industrial ashes, large swaths of the other remain trapped in poverty and disrepair
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Reality check: will 'Crossrail for bikes' bring gridlock to central London?London could soon be home to the longest continuous, substantially segregated urban cycleway in Europe – but lobbyists are raising concerns about the impact on congestion, pedestrians and businesses. Do they have a point?
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We can't let lobbyists destroy London's segregated cycle lane plansThe main political parties and 60 big employers support ‘Crossrail for bikes’ – yet behind the scenes there are intense efforts to poison the project, says Chris Boardman
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Missing Maps: nothing less than a human genome project for citiesA huge number of the world’s most vulnerable human settlements have remained unmapped ... until now. Enter an unprecedented plan to map the world’s forgotten places
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Cycle couriers: my life as one of the dwindling band of urban cowboysBike messengers were once the fastest way to get a document across a city – until the arrival of email. Yet even today, in a world with superfast broadband, a few of us still eke out a living, writes cycle courier Emily Chappell
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In China, a single plague death means an entire city quarantinedTens of thousands of people were trapped in Yumen after officials swiftly locked down the city when a man died of plague. While the crisis has since passed, it highlights China's severe approach to the threat from disease
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From Seoul to Changwon, in search of the world’s best bike-share schemeAn urbanist’s tour of South Korea, day 4: How the little-known industrial city of Changwon learned to love the bicycle so much they’ve even written a song about it
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Why can't all cities have bike bridges like Copenhagen's new Cycle Snake?The two-lane elevated orange Cykelslangen – the latest of the city's continuous and safe bike lanes – is a joy to ride as it wriggles its way over the harbour
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AppMyCity winner Peerby brings small-town sharing to big city life
Amsterdam-based Peerby enables users to share items – a hammer, a tent, a badminton racket – in the way neighbours did before cities made us more anonymous
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Aberdeen, the oil city where boom and bust happen at the same timeThe city boasts the highest concentration of millionaires in Britain and an unemployment rate of just 2% – but wage inequality and astronomical rents have heightened calls for change
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The best city app competition finals: who should win?Peer-to-peer car sharing, borrowing from neighbours and connecting with fellow cyclists: which gets your vote?
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Google Street View sleuth: help us identify our cities’ biggest failingsNow we’re focusing on cyclists and pedestrians – what daily dangers do you face and what changes to road and pavement layouts do you want to see? Use Street View to show us
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Is your city giving you panic attacks?City links: From urban anxiety to pictures of stairs (yes) to shipping container 'ghettos', here are some of the web's best city stories this week
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AppMyCity! shortlist is good news for Adelaide foodies and Sao Paulo skatersAfter much agonising, the list of 10 creative concepts still in the running to be named best new mobile city app of 2014 has been revealed. As ever, it's an impressively eclectic, global list
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Has cycling finally become a natural part of British city life?
Architecture and design critic Rowan Moore, himself a cyclist, asks whether our dreams of a Dutch-style bike culture have materialised
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Zaha Hadid's Tokyo Olympic stadium slammed as a 'monumental mistake' and a 'disgrace to future generations'Oliver Wainwright: The 2020 Olympic stadium has faced two years of widespread criticism and budget cuts. Now prominent Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has launched a blistering attack on the designs
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Learning to live in the city: Chinese farmers get lessons in urban life – video
Adam James Smith visited the Ordos region to see how the government's relocation plan is affecting people living in the countryside around Kangbashi - and to find out how those who have already moved to the 'ghost city' are coping with city life. This video contains excerpts from his soon-to-be-released documentary, The Land of Many Palaces
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Cheesegrater’s steel bolts break free from buildingInvestigation launched after two bolts fall from London skyscraper but developer insists structural integrity is unaffected
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World's first solar cycle lane opening in the NetherlandsSolar panels embedded in the cycle path near Amsterdam could generate enough electricity to power three houses, with potential to extend scheme to roads
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Ghost signs around the world – in picturesLurking in the back alleys of New York, perched above the busy streets of Cairo and clinging to the grimy bricks of London, ghost signs provide an ephemeral link to a city’s past
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Birmingham needs an elected mayor just as much as ManchesterJulia Higginbottom: My region should be celebrated. We shouldn’t be stifled by Westminster or the self-interest of dinosaurs in local government
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São Paulo artist Henrique Oliveira turns wooden hoardings into immersive tunnel installation - in picturesOliviera’s repurposed plywood construction hoardings wind their way around the university contemporary art museum’s white columns in a tangle of roots
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One World Trade Center opens for workers, 13 years after 9/11Staff at publisher Condé Nast among first to move into 104-story centrepiece despite ongoing political fight about how best to rebuild Lower Manhattan
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Cairo's regeneration: share your storiesIf you live in Cairo, share your photographs and experiences of how the city is changing – and what impact regeneration is having on its local communities
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An urbanist's guide to Perth: ‘Perth has stripped me of my vagabondism’Renee Bergere of Great about Perth talks bad drivers, rainbow lorikeets and the ‘Fremantle Doctor’ - a natural cure for pollution
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Moscow metro opens virtual library of Russian classical literatureNovels by Pushkin, Chekhov and Tolstoy available for free download by commuters
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Murder capitals of the world: how runaway urban growth fuels violenceSan Pedro Sula, Honduras, is the most dangerous city on the planet – and experts say it is a sign of a global epidemic
you may have missed
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Missing Maps: a human genome project for citiesA huge number of the world’s most vulnerable human settlements have remained unmapped ... until now. Enter an unprecedented plan to map the world’s forgotten places
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Enfield tears up rules in radical attempt to ease housing problemPushed into a corner by soaring prices, greedy landlords and a cap on benefits, one London council has embarked on a daring set of untested policies to provide more public housing
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Rumble in the Jungle: 40 years on, Kinshasa is a city of chaosThe heavyweight world championship showdown between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman electrified a city full of pride and promise in the early years following independence – and then the money ran out …
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Timbuktu: portrait of a city on the edge of existence – in picturesWhat is life like in Mali’s ‘city in the middle of nowhere’? Guardian photographer Sean Smith recently spent a week there, meeting everyone from Timbuktu’s chief muezzin to its only DJ
Cycling the city What Copenhagen can teach us about cycling