Skip to content
Watch Live
British Broadcasting Corporation
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Health
  • Culture
  • Arts
  • Travel
  • Earth
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Live
  • Documentaries
Watch Live

Ten shoes that changed the world

18 June 2015
News imageBy Alastair Sooke profile image
Alastair SookeFeatures correspondent
News imageV&A (Credit: V&A)V&A
(Credit: V&A)

.

Fashion
Design

Watch
News imageThe origin of a modern obsession

The modern obsession of sneaker collecting

How a practical sports shoe made the leap to become a highly desirable fashion item.

Fashion
News imageGetty Images 918989580 1

Should we all live in '15-minute cities'?

We explore a different model of city life, where everything is on your doorstep.

Design
News imageLubljana

Inside the stunning 'new Athens' of Central Europe

Jože Plečnik transformed the city of Ljubljana into a 'Slovenian Acropolis'.

Design
News image2 DG96 AR

How an 'erotic' body part inspires a legendary designer

This video has expired.

Fashion
News imageBridge1

A close look at the highest railway bridge in the world

The Chenab Rail Bridge is a scenic bridge 35m (114ft) higher than the Eiffel Tower.

Design
News imagePatch on knee

How carbon has gone out of fashion

It’s 2045 and we’re now living in a net zero society. This is the story of how we did it.

Fashion
News imageZEROe Airbus concept aircraft

Can redesigning aeroplanes save the planet?

Discover some radical solutions that could make air travel more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Design
News imageGetty Images 470029934

What your clothes reveal about you

Professor Richard Thompson Ford explores what our clothes reveal about us and our society.

Style
News imageThe utopian town built by 8,000 people in the desert

The utopian town built by 8,000 people in the desert

The utopian town built by 8,000 people in the high desert of Arizona.

Design
News imageScreen Shot 2020 12 03 at 6 11 12 PM

The Japanese project rethinking society through its toilets

This Tokyo project is reimagining the city though its public toilets.

Design
News imageLongyearbyen 1

Could you live in Norway’s most extreme town?

Longyearbyen is the world’s northernmost permanent settlement.

Design
News imageArt in the age of social distancing

Online festival celebrates arts affected by Covid-19

Playwright Nick Green launched the Social Distancing Festival to shine a spotlight on lost projects.

Design
News imageThe beauty guru with no arms or legs

The beauty guru with no arms or legs

Hannah had all four limbs amputated at two years old to save her life after contracting meningitis.

Fashion
News imageExtinction 1

Why humanity should embrace its ‘inevitable’ extinction

The end is nigh. Can design save our planet?

Design
News imageCreating new life

'Should we create new life if we can't protect what exists?'

Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg explores the human impulse to 'better' the world.

Design
News imageVertical forest milan

How incredible ‘living homes’ could save the climate

Combining living systems with architecture can create more sustainable ways to design and build cities.

Design
News imageTeng CHEN Still 1 Maximalism vs minimalism

The extreme homes of maximalists and minimalists

In a world obsessed with decluttering, some people find beauty in an overstuffed apartment.

Design
News imageBuildings

Could Earth’s entire population live in one mega-city?

Can architecture help us prepare for the future?

Design
News imageWhat can we learn from the past?

The ancient skill that could make you money

In a world of ‘fast fashion’ and a throwaway culture, what lessons can history teach us?

Fashion
News imageUrinal men's toilet

Are we living in a man's world?

Parts of modern Barcelona show what a city designed by women, rather than men, might look like.

Design

More from the BBC
17 Apr 2026
News imageRemote rose-coloured modern home on a hillside at dusk (Credit: Richard Powers/ Courtesy of Rizzoli New York)

Eight of Mexico's most stunning modern homes

From a sculptural icon by an early modernist master to a remote, rosy-hued dream home, here are some remarkable Mexican dwellings.

17 Apr 2026
7 Apr 2026
News imageA close up of a lone boot print left by Buzz Aldrin on the Moon (Credit: Nasa)

What will the next footprints on the Moon be like?

The boots worn by astronauts on the Artemis missions will need to protect them from difficult terrain and extreme temperatures, but what about the prints they leave behind?

7 Apr 2026
19 Feb 2026
News imageA grand home with green lawns and a water feature in front (Credit: William Abranozicz)

The historic US home that embodied the super-rich

The largest privately owned home in the US, Biltmore House was an "American chateau built on the scale of a European palace". It reveals much about the dreams of the US's one per cent.

19 Feb 2026
10 Feb 2026
News imageInterior with wooden staircase and blue walls (Credit: Richard Powers/ The Iconic Nordic House)

Eight iconic Nordic homes throughout history

These design masterworks reveal the origins of Scandi style – and they all emerge from a distinctive vision of "soft modernism" that still influences how we live now.

10 Feb 2026
13 Jan 2026
News imageExterior of a modern tree house in a forest overlooking a lake and mountains (Credit: Woodnest/ Sindre Ellingsen)

10 of the world's most spectacular tree houses

Treetop living is not just for kids. These architect-designed, "nest-like" dwellings – created in forests all over the world – are the ultimate sky-high retreats from urban living.

13 Jan 2026

British Broadcasting Corporation
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Health
  • Culture
  • Arts
  • Travel
  • Earth
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Live
  • Documentaries
  • Weather
  • BBC Shop
  • BritBox

The BBC is in multiple languages

Read the BBC In your own language

Oduu Afaan Oromootiin
Amharic ዜና በአማርኛ
Arabic عربي
Azeri AZƏRBAYCAN
Bangla বাংলা
Burmese မြန်မာ
Chinese 中文网
Dari دری
French AFRIQUE
Hausa HAUSA
Hindi हिन्दी
Gaelic NAIDHEACHDAN
Gujarati ગુજરાતીમાં સમાચાર
Igbo AKỤKỌ N’IGBO
Indonesian INDONESIA
Japanese 日本語
Kinyarwanda GAHUZA
Kirundi KIRUNDI
Korean 한국어
Kyrgyz Кыргыз
Marathi मराठी
Nepali नेपाली
Noticias para hispanoparlantes
Pashto پښتو
Persian فارسی
Pidgin
Polish PO POLSKU
Portuguese BRASIL
Punjabi ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ਖ਼ਬਰਾਂ
Russian НА РУССКОМ
Serbian NA SRPSKOM
Sinhala සිංහල
Somali SOMALI
Swahili HABARI KWA KISWAHILI
Tamil தமிழில் செய்திகள்
Telugu తెలుగు వార్తలు
Thai ข่าวภาษาไทย
Tigrinya ዜና ብትግርኛ
Turkish TÜRKÇE
Ukrainian УКРАЇНСЬКA
Urdu اردو
Uzbek O'ZBEK
Vietnamese TIẾNG VIỆT
Welsh NEWYDDION
Yoruba ÌRÒYÌN NÍ YORÙBÁ
Follow BBC on:
  • Terms of Use
  • Subscription Terms
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Contact the BBC
  • Advertise with us
  • Do not share or sell my info
  • BBC.com Help & FAQs
  • Content Index
  • Set Preferred Source

Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.

You might also like:

news | sport | weather | worklife | travel | future | culture | world | business | technology