Every year, World Population Day is observed on July 11th, aiming to increase people's awareness of various population issues, such as the importance of urbanization, genderequality, poverty, health, and human rights. In 2025, under the theme "Empowering Youth to Build the Families They Want," the United Nations draws attention to the largest generation of young people in history, many of whom are coming of age in rapidly urbanizing contexts. Urban centers remain key to understanding these demographic patterns, as cities continue to attract populations seeking opportunity, stability, and access to essential services. Today, more than half of the global population resides in urban areas, a share projected to increase to 66% by 2050.
Foster + Partners has announced the breaking ground of BDO Unibank's new headquarters in Makati, Manila. The design aims to offer a climate-responsive approach inspired by vernacular architecture. The campus integrates five separate plots into a cohesive whole, featuring two high-rise towers flanking a sheltered public space incorporating lush landscaping and artwork.
More than half of the world's population resides in urban areas, with over 4 billion people depending on cities as their main environment. According to the United Nations’ latest report on populations in cities, this number is expected to continue to increase over the next 50 years, prompting cities worldwide to strive to find better ways to accommodate their growing population while transitioning to more sustainable urban practices. To highlight this responsibility, the United Nations has declared July 11th the World Population Day.
Under this year’s theme, “To Leave No One Behind, Count Everyone,” the UN aims to also draw attention to the importance of data collection for reflecting societal diversity. The growth of world cities is part of this equation as an important measure for understanding global population trends. The following list presents the top 20 cities worldwide in 2024, ranked by the population size of their metropolitan areas. Comparing the results to the previous editions, the only cities to reduce their size are the two cities from Japan, Tokyo and Osaka. The highest growth rates can be observed in African mega-cities, Kinshasa and Lagos, while China continues to be the most present country in the list, with 5 metropolises present in the top 20: Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Tianjin, and Guangzhou.
Foster + Partners’ project for BENCH, one of the Philippines’ leading clothing and lifestyle brands, has started construction in Manila. The 24-storey headquarters building offers offices, design studios, event spaces, and the necessary amenities to create an enjoyable environment for the company’s employees. Located on the east-west axis in the Bonifacio Global City, the building opens up the ground floor to create a visual connection to the green space surrounding it.
Master plans, or large-scale urban planning projects, are one of the main tools for shaping and structuring land use and development to ensure that the built environment is coherent and functional. The interventions vary in scope and approach. While some projects are extending the buildable area by creating floating neighborhoods off the coast of Florida, others are reusing the existing spaces and heritage to reimagine the future of their communities.
Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, according to UN-Habitat’s latest reports. While this number is set to increase to two-thirds by 2050, urban challenges are growing exponentially, making it more crucial than ever, to transform our cities. Annually, the world population review assesses the growth of cities and the number of residents living in metropolitan areas, to understand global evolution trends. In 2022, the list of the top 20 most populated countries remained similar to the 2021 edition, with a slight change in numbers and positions. Tokyo kept its status as the world’s largest city, with 37 million inhabitants, while Delhi and Shanghai, followed in second and third positions.
Comparing the results to the 2021 edition, the only decrease that can be seen in the top 20, involves both Japanese cities, Tokyo and Osaka. The rest of the list had, on average, a growth of 1.8% in the total of people residing in metropolitan areas. In fact, African cities Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Lagos in Nigeria gathered the highest rates, with respectively a 4.39% and a 3.54% increase in residents in 1 year. The largest city in the American continent is still Sao Paulo in Brazil, followed closely by Mexico City and Buenos Aires in Argentina, further down the table. In Europe, Istanbul is the most populous, with more than 14.5 million residents.
Foster + Partners has revealed the design of the BWDC Residential Tower, a luxury apartment building in Manila, the Philippines. The new tower combines the city’s vernacular architecture and traditional veranda lifestyle with modern high-rise living. The project is the firm's latest in the tropics which responds to the regions’ intense weather systems, mitigating high temperatures and humidity through passive design strategies.
As is obvious to anyone with even a passing interest in demographics, cities are becoming denser—much denser. Rural life continues its steady emptying-out as urban life accelerates its explosive filling-in. The tilt has been apparent at least since the middle of the last century when the French geographer Jean Gottmann invented the word “megalopolis” to describe the continuous urbanization from Boston to Washington, D.C., then containing one-fifth of the United States’ population. But nowhere has the shift from countryside to city been more dramatic than in present-day Asia.
As hospitals around the world are reaching their capacity, the architecture and design community is developing new alternatives to fight COVID-19. In order to build 60 Emergency Quarantine Facilities (EQF), WTA was inspired by their pavilion developed last year, part of the Anthology Festival. A viable quarantine structure, the Boysen Pavilion “embodied speed, scalability and simplicity in its structure”.
The Interlace by Ole Scheeren and OMA. Image Courtesy of Anthology Architecture and Design Festival
The annual Anthology Architecture & Design Festival will take place in Fort Santiago, Manila. The three-day event showcases architecture and design within the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region and brings together practitioners and stakeholders to increase awareness about the relevance of architecture and design. As an incubator, the overall theme “Impact Architecture” will focus on the role of architects in the development of long-term, sustainable solutions to urban development, social inclusion, and cultural vibrancy.
Century City Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Century Properties Group Inc. focused on mixed-use developments with high-rise condominiums, recently revealed their architectural design for the Trump Tower in Manila, Philippines. The tower is going to be prominent on the Manila skyline for years to come. It’s a beautiful glass building – very architecturally significant with an incredible spire. Its architecture will be truly iconic. More images and architects’ description after the break.
