There is a fair bit of quality that can go into making a GOOD purely fun thing, and even when it's pure schlock there's no shame in that. Some times you want a steak, sometimes you want a burger. Both can be good or bad in their own ways, and neither is better than the other.
That's a whole other set of problems, I know I've read articles about that too but a 15 second google didn't find it.
If I remember right, the main issue isn't the building shape like with skyscrapers, it has to do with power and plumbing. They're only set up for a certain amount of usage of both, and residential is massively higher so you'd basically need to ripe it all out and do it from scratch. And considering malls are predomenantly just in the middle of empty land anyway, at that point you might as well just get the next bit over of empty land and do it from the get go with the appropriate infrastructure.
With housing in short supply, developers are converting more empty offices into apartments. But not all buildings are candidates for reuse, even as more than on
A video article covering some of the complications that come from converting empty offices into usable apartments.
In a divided country, a clean look and a neutral color palette is the aesthetic comforting communities around the country.
Fairly interesting overview of what's become the "trendy" home decor style from things like HGTV and design magazines, as well a quick look at some other style trends we've gone through.
The gap between real-estate appraisals and construction costs is getting wider, holding back entrepreneurs and the revitalization of rural communities.
The article is about a kind of niche problem that I hadn't ever considered before, appraisals for buildings in rural areas are either low because there are less people who might want them (especially for specialized new commerical construction) while building costs keep rising OR the price of land in touristy areas is so high no one can afford to buy for local businesses. Either way, it complicates actually growing or starting businesses in those places.
WSJ tends to have a paywall, so feel free to use https://archive.ph/ if you don't already have a preferred way of bypassing that.
As addiction becomes more visible in cities like Porto, authorities and citizens groups debate whether to undo Portugal's landmark tolerance for drug use.
Not at all to say the net balance on the pros/cons for decriminalization has tipped, especially since one of the main points the article mentions is that the funding that was supposed to social services and rehabilitation programs that went hand in hand with decriminalization has absolutely cratered over the last decade, but flubbing the execution on programs like this is why they don't catch on more and one of the main (and to be fair valid) points of contention about spreading ideas like this further.