cities
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'No-go zone' for women? How Paris boiled overSome blame migrants for the harassment of women in the La Chapelle-Pajol neighbourhood, others cry racism. But has all the political mud-slinging distracted from the real issue – of women’s safety?
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Can VR stop bad city developments before they happen?From ‘meeting’ a resident affected by HS2 to ‘cycling’ along a proposed bike lane through the city, VR can have a powerful impact in the real world
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in pictures
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Urban political graffiti from Brexit to TrumpAfter Banksy’s Brexit-inspired mural depicting the removal of an EU star recently appeared in Dover, we take a look at the world’s most powerful political street art
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Cities in the 1960s – readers' photosFrom New York to Singapore, our readers shared their own snaps revealing cities half a century ago – and how they’ve changed
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Drone photography captures city symmetryInstagrammers around the world are using drone technology to capture breathtaking new perspectives on their cities. We round up some of the best
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Architecture of certain shade is catnip to urban InstagrammersThe world has become obsessed by pink hues, and architecture is no exception. So we gathered the best pictures of millennial pink buildings – from LA to Tokyo
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A low flight over London at nightJason Hawkes specialises in aerial photography and has flown across Britain capturing the country from above. His first book, London from the Air, was released 25 years ago; here he returns to the capital leaning out of a helicopter to photograph the city at night
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The city Le Corbusier builtIn 1950, India’s prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru invited the architect Le Corbusier to design a modernist city that broke with the country’s colonial past
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A garden bridge that works: how Seoul succeeded where London failedSeoul’s ambitious Skygarden – which revives a disused elevated 1970s highway with 24,000 plants – is opening
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Anti-smog bikes: could pedal power clean China's polluted air?The bikes designed by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde would suck in polluted air, using positive ionisation to purify it, before releasing it back into the atmosphere
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Three tales of Mogadishu: violence, a booming economy … and now famineSomalia’s capital is buzzing: estate agents thrive and it recently hosted a TedX conference. But Mogadishu is facing a fresh challenge as drought forces half a million people to seek aid. Jason Burke visits a growing camp on the outskirts
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Endless cities: will China's new urbanisation just mean more sprawl?The announcement that new megacity Xiongan will be built near Beijing is the latest attempt to take pressure off China’s biggest metropolises. Can it work?
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How bad is Delhi's air? We strapped a monitor to a rickshaw to find outSuresh Kumar Sharma is an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi, a city with some of the world’s dirtiest air – and where many locals don’t know how unhealthy the pollution really is
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Waria at twilight: the remarkable old age home for trans JakartansPhotographer Elisabetta Zavoli spent years getting to know a famously standoffish community – who eventually granted her unprecedented access
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The city that many hajj pilgrims don't seeAs the hajj begins once again, Saudi artist Ahmed Mater has revealed unprecedented changes to the holy city – from flashy new hotels to the loss of priceless neighbourhoods
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The people who live in Tokyo's net cafesHow We Live Now: In Tokyo, commutes are so long, and apartments so small, that some people sleep in internet cafes – which offer showers, meals, clothes and everything you might need for a substitute home
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How beautiful Beirut is becoming a rubbish tipProtesters parody tourism video by juxtaposing images of Lebanon’s beauty spots with the reality of the country’s garbage crisis
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Stik in Shoreditch: the artist’s hidden tribute to a sold-off LondonThe street artist Stik set out to ask the denizens of Old Shoreditch how his new mural should reflect their gentrified neighbourhood
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The village left standing amid Kuala Lumpur's skyscrapersIn the heart of Malaysia’s towering capital lies tiny Kampong Bharu. But its markets are being razed and its residents evicted
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How a canal community escaped gentrificationHow do you improve a neighbourhood without causing land prices to rise? Residents along a polluted waterway in San Juan set up a community land trust to help save their homes, as well as the environment
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get involved
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Urban memories: share your old photos of cities around the worldFrom lost buildings to transformed neighbourhoods, share your pictures and memories of the changing landscapes of cities with GuardianWitness
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Your stories of life in polluted citiesReaders shared their experiences of living in cities affected by air pollution – from the curse of the ‘Delhi chest’ in India’s capital to celebrating blue sky in Shanghai
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Residents of China's growing cities discuss life amid changeFrom Hefei to Honghu, readers across China share their stories about how their cities are changing – and what the county’s rapid urbanisation means for them
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Can you guess the city from its skyline?A city’s skyline can be its defining feature – from Sydney’s Opera House to New York’s skyscrapers – but can you identify places based on their skylines alone?
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Did Seattle's mandatory helmet law kill off its bike-share scheme?Seattle has become the first major US city to shut a public bike share scheme. Was it the helmet law … or the lack of cycle lanes and the city’s notorious hills and rain?
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Is London's new cycling tsar too nice to face down the haters?Sadiq Khan made big promises to make London bike-friendly, and now it’s up to Will Norman to deliver. In a rare interview, the walking and cycling commissioner defends his plans
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How 'dockless' cycles flooded China – and are heading overseasNew cycle-share firms in China allow you to simply drop your bike wherever you want. They have caused colourful chaos – and world cities could be next
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Bikes outnumber cars for the first time in CopenhagenDenmark’s capital has reached a milestone in its journey to become a cycling city – there are now more bikes than cars on the streets. Can other cities follow?
live weeks
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A ghost city in the sand comes to lifeMountains have been flattened and villages bulldozed to build Lanzhou New Area in China’s wild west. Four years ago Tom Phillips met empty streets and an eerie hush, but now he finds this improbable desert mirage finally filling up
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$40bn to save Jakarta: the story of the Great GarudaForget Venice. The fastest-sinking city is the Indonesian capital, parts of which are dropping at 25cm a year. Can an outlandish plan for a giant seawall and luxury waterworld city in the shape of a mythical bird save Jakarta from drowning?
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A history of cities in 50 buildings – interactiveFrom the 4,600-year-old pyramid of Zoser to the under-construction one kilometre-high Kingdom Tower – via the first London semi, Beijing’s old stock exchange and LA’s stacked freeway interchange – these 50 structures tell unique stories of our urban history
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Story of cities #3: the birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisationThe foundation of al-Mansur’s ‘Round City’ in 762 was a glorious milestone in the history of urban design. It developed into the cultural centre of the world
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Story of cities #5: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without traceWith its mathematical layout and earthworks longer than the Great Wall of China, Benin City was one of the best planned cities in the world when London was a place of ‘thievery and murder’. So why is nothing left?
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Story of cities #32: Jane Jacobs v Robert Moses, battle of New York's urban titansWhen city planning supremo Robert Moses proposed a road through Greenwich Village in 1955, he met opposition from one particularly feisty local resident: Jane Jacobs. It was the start of a decades-long struggle for swaths of New York
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Story of cities #41: Soul City's failed bid to build a black-run suburbia for AmericaCivil rights activist Floyd McKissick dreamed of a southern utopia where the racially integrated community would be planned and managed by African Americans. Although the city was never completed, some traces remain
you may have missed
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China's Pearl River Delta, then and nowThe Pearl River Delta has witnessed the most rapid urban expansion in human history – a predominantly agricultural region transformed into the world’s largest continuous city. By revisiting the sites of rare archive images of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Macau from the 1940s through 1990s, our photographers have documented this staggering change
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Affordable housing quotas get waived and the interests of residents trampled as toothless authorities bow to the dazzling wealth of investors from Russia, China and the Middle EastThe truth about property developers: how they are exploiting planning authorities and ruining our cities
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Subterranean London: the hidden labyrinth underneath the streets of the capitalUnderneath the streets of the capital lies a hidden labyrinth of Victorian sewers. We’re going down 20 metres and back 150 years
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London mayor launches unprecedented inquiry into foreign property ownershipExclusive Sadiq Khan tells the Guardian he will carry out ‘the most thorough research on this matter ever undertaken’ amid widespread concern over rising housing costs and gentrification
The new hipsters? London's exclusive 'downsizer' homes for the over-55s