Super-typhoon Haiyan, the single most powerful storm ever recorded, is an unsettling harbinger of troubles to come.

Weather systems across the globe have gained intensity and force over the past few years due to our rapidly warming planet. New defenses are needed to protect our metropolitan centers, most of which are located within a stone's throw of the ocean. The solution: fight nature with nature.

Supplementing civil engineering projects with ecological defenses is only part of the overall solution to dealing with our rapidly changing environment. Early warning systems, effective evacuation strategies, education, and better building codes must be integrated into the larger scheme of of sustainable city development and planning if we plan on living anywhere near our growing oceans...

Rare earth elements are an integral part of many of today's electronic devices, serving as magnets, catalysts and superconductors. Unfortunately, these minerals are also ... well, rare, and thus very pricey.

“Designing Recovery,” a competition focused on the planning and rebuilding of resilient and sustainable communities, has announced its three winning entries, bysustainable.to Architecture + Building, GOATstudio LLP, and Q4 Architects.

The competition, which was a collaboration between the American Institute of Architects (AIA),  Make It Right,  Architecture for Humanity, the St. Bernard Project, and Dow Building Solutions, was envisioned to aid communities affected by devastating natural disasters.

“When examining all of the designs submitted we continually asked ourselves if this would be a house we would want to live in regardless of safety considerations,” explained Jury Chair, Michael Willis, FAIA, NOMA.  “The three designs that we chose all had the ideal combination of addressing disaster mitigation and actual livability.”

Masterminded by Slangen + Koenis, this swimming pool complex is the highlight and the heart of the district’s new sports complex in northeast Maastricht, near Geusselt Castle. 

Part of an ambitious modernization scheme, the project combines superb architecture with the highest environmental standards, implementing sustainable concepts and using cradle-to-cradle materials. Thanks to triple glazing, solar panels and geothermal energy, the power consumption could be curbed to one third of what one would expect for a building of this size and programmatic nature.

Singapore's first tidal turbine test-bed was launched in Sentosa on Wednesday.

Designed, built and installed by a group of engineers from NTU, and in collaboration with the Sentosa Development Corporation, the system tests the feasibility of tapping tidal energy to generate electricity.

Though tidal energy is a new field in Singapore, its key advantage as a renewable energy source is that tidal cycles are predictable, unlike conventional wind and solar energy, which are highly susceptible to weather fluctuations.

The system already produces energy to power the lights at Sentosa Boardwalk Turbine Exhibit.

In the coming year, it will further analyse how low-flow tidal energy can be used efficiently and made cheaper and more reliable.

The informative exhibition, which is part of the Sentosa Sustainability Plan, will have information about tidal energy and showcases a miniature tidal turbine prototype. The exhibition is open to public.

Dr Michael Lochinvar Sim Abundo, research fellow at NTU’s Energy Research Institute, said: "This location (Sentosa Boardwalk) is a very good spot for tidal occurrence because it is channelled between two islands - Singapore and Sentosa, which causes an acceleration of the flow much like a funnel."

Mike Barclay, chief executive officer at Sentosa Development Corporation, said: “We do have some pretty good tides around Sentosa, quite strong tidal flows so we can extract energy from them, generate electricity and prove something that could be scaleable for Singapore as a whole, something that really works for us."