There are few cities in the world that fascinate architecture lovers as much as Brasília, the Brazilian capital built from nothing over an impressively short five-year span in the mid-20th century.

There are few cities in the world that fascinate architecture lovers as much as Brasília, the Brazilian capital built from nothing over an impressively short five-year span in the mid-20th century.

There are few cities in the world that fascinate architecture lovers as much as Brasília, the Brazilian capital built from nothing over an impressively short five-year span in the mid-20th century. When it was inaugurated in 1960, it was unlike any other city in the world, with a radical, artistic urban plan by Lúcio Costa, striking edifices by Oscar Niemeyer, and its avant-garde landscape design by Roberto Burle Marx.

These planes flying out of a nearby airport are a reminder of the estimated $13 billion international airport that had been planned and partially constructed on top of the seasonal wetlands native to this place.

Walking along the edge of a seasonally dry lakebed on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City, there is near perfect silence except for the occasional airplane that flies overhead.

Walking along the edge of a seasonally dry lakebed on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City, there is near perfect silence except for the occasional airplane that flies overhead.

Walking along the edge of a seasonally dry lakebed on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City, there is near perfect silence except for the occasional airplane that flies overhead.

In her Hugo-finalist novel Record of a Spaceborn Few, Becky Chambers envisions a future where humanity travels the galaxy in generational ships, their entire civilisation dependent on a well-oiled system of reusing and recycling resources. Every waste product is expertly crafted into something else, sustaining the space travellers for generations.