Whatever the location, beachside, mountain top or city edge, the design explorations that shape a resort remain the same.

We’ve had fun over the past few weekends playing with Microsoft’s 2020 release of Flight Simulator. With a new world map utilising Bing Maps’ satellite imagery and AI to re-create the terrain of the entire planet and populate it with building models, vegetation and water, we wondered whether the game would be useful as an analysis tool. And indeed it is, allowing us to pay flying visits to sites currently blocked by physical travel restrictions.

Pedestrian bridges knotted from riverbank roots, fish-farm landscapes that filter urban wastewater and houses woven from dried reeds that can be relocated within a day. These examples and many inspiring others are uncovered in our recently-arrived copy of a new Taschen publication.