At the ULI Europe 2017 conference in Paris, Sarah Harper, professor of gerontology and director of the Oxford University Institute of Population Ageing, shared a series of startling facts about demographics as they relate to the built environment. By 2050, just 5 percent of the world’s working-age population will live in western Europe, whereas Asia and Africa will see huge increases in their share of that demographic. Sub-Saharan Africa in particular could become perhaps the most important region for construction and related industries.

Dr. Cheong Koon Hean, a widely acclaimed architect and urban planner credited with shaping much of Singapore’s urban landscape, has been named the 2016 recipient of the ULI J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development. Dr. Cheong, the 17th Nichols laureate and the first from Asia, was honored during the 2016 ULI Fall Meeting in Dallas.

Despite a regional economy that is faring better than that in much of the United States, many of New England’s major cities are struggling to provide enough affordable housing for their middle-income workforce.

When the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury selected Alejandro Aravena of Santiago, Chile, as the 2016 laureate, it was not only for what Aravena designs, but also for what he does not design. The firm for which he serves as executive director, Santiago-based Elemental, has earned international attention for designing low-cost social housing that provides “half a house”—a home that people can inhabit, plus a framework that allows them to double the size of their dwellings as they have time and resources.

Could a 220-square-foot (20 sq m) apartment be a housing solution for low- and middle-income residents in high-cost cities? What about modular housing on city-owned land? Or single-family homes reengineered to house more people? These were some of the possibilities discussed by a panel of experts at the ULI Fall Meeting in San Francisco last week.

Ten apartment and condominium buildings model mid-rise design strategies.

Age segregation is a silent and growing problem in the United States of the 21st century. In Portland, Oregon, a nonprofit organization has built an urban solution that addresses the problem of age segregation while brightening the prospects of families who adopt children out of the foster care system.

A campaign to cool the residential market reaches a point of inflection at a time of political transition.

Unique conditions in mainland China could moderate the effects of a market correction, say Ken Rhee, CEO of Huhan Business Advisory in Shanghai and ULI’s chief representative for mainland China, and Chen Jie, executive director of the Center for Housing Policy Studies and associate professor at the Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai.

Read about ULI from the 1930s—when a fledgling ULI emerged as an independent organization designed to help U.S. land developers—a place where practical knowledge is gathered, shared, and expanded even today—to the 2010s—when ULI kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 75th anniversary at the Institute’s annual Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.