From garage apartments and carriage houses to backyard guest suites and stand-alone home offices, ADUs are one of the most ingenious ways to maximize your property's available space—and your home's property value. Also known as an accessory dwelling unit, these outbuildings aren't a new concept, but they are becoming more prevalent, thanks to an ultra-competitive housing market. As multigenerational living has become increasingly popular among Americans and home prices continue to rise, more homeowners are looking to expand their homes' footprint with additional living spaces, whether for personal or investment purposes. Accessory dwelling units are essentially your everyday tiny homes. However, unlike tiny home floor plans, ADUs can be attached to a single-family house, depending on the type.As ADUs have become more popular, it only makes sense that interior designers are taking on more projects involving the structures. Whether you're interested in putting in an ADU or want to renovate the current one you have, keep reading to hear from two experts on what's trending in interiors for these unique living units.Related StoriesWhat is an ADU?Joey Puterbaugh and Kristian Alveo for KebonyDesigner Kim Lewis looked to the outdoors when designing this ADU, where the living room opens up to a large patio. An accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is an independent, secondary housing unit that resides on a single-family lot. This is not your backyard shed or detached garage—but it could be. There are a few types of ADUs, but they all mainly fall into these three categories: detached, internal, and attached, according to the American Planning Association (APA). A backyard shed or detached garage that's been converted into an ADU falls into the detached category. However, a detached ADU can be a new construction, too. It just needs to be able to stand alone.An internal ADU is a converted portion of an existing home. Think of a basement apartment or a different floor of a home that's been converted into an additional independent living space.Additions to new or existing homes fall under the category of attached ADUs. These share at least one wall with the single-family home, and are also sometimes called "bump-out" ADUs. What Are ADUs Used For?When someone talks about an in-law suite or an attached Airbnb, they're likely talking about an ADU. “Home office and mother-in-law suites are still the main requests and purposes,” Kim Lewis of Kim Lewis Designs says. She's worked on a handful of ADU projects in the past, so the designer is familiar with these additions. A lot of times, homeowners who add on an ADU are doing so to expand their square footage, both for themselves or family members. Lewis explains that multigenerational living is on the rise in the United States, which is why ADUs are becoming more popular. Kori Sassower, principal agent at The Kori Sassower Team, agrees, adding, “Whether it is an aging parent or a 20-something-year-old child looking to save some money, the flexibility of an ADU has become paramount. We have a housing shortage, taxes are increasing, and ADUs are a very good, safe choice as a home improvement.”However, some homeowners are using ADUs as investment opportunities. “Depending on the area, some clients see this as an investment opportunity; utilizing the asset as a short-term rental where property restrictions allow for it,” Lewis explains. As the market for ADUs increases, Lewis predicts that there will be more legislation introduced that allows these home additions in certain jurisdictions. We have a housing shortage, taxes are increasing, ADUs are a very good, safe choice as a home improvement. ADU Trends Experts Are SeeingWhen it comes to the interiors of ADUs, they tend to follow the trends we're seeing in single-family homes. Joy-filled design, unique features, bold paint colors—they're not basic white boxes. Below, find the six biggest trends experts are seeing in ADUs. Architectural Leaps“ADUs are taking more interesting shapes in architecture,” Lewis says. As 3D printed homes become more popular, Lewis predicts that we'll see more curves in architecture with ADUs, like barrel roofs, radius rooflines, and rounded corners on decking. In a market heavily saturated with boxy, square, tiny homes, she's expecting more progressive architecture with the use of large glass walls to bring the outdoors in. Bold AppliancesChase Daniel"I love how we embraced a darker, moody palette, even though the rooms were small," Lewis says of this ADU.Colorful appliances are trending in every type of home right now, and they're not exclusive to large kitchens. Lewis says that small spaces can pack a big punch when it comes to color, and she's seeing more of that in the ADUs (and traditional interiors) she's designing. “I love a dark burgundy cabinet right now,” she adds.Vast Outdoor SpacesJoey Puterbaugh and Kristian Alveo for KebonyThe outdoor space in this ADU by Lewis would make anyone jealous. Large, open outdoor spaces are very common with ADUs, since the living quarters are smaller than those of an average single-family home. “Large decking can be used to create a more useful footprint around the perimeter of the ADU, tying the accessory space to the main home,” Lewis says. “A desire for nature, sustainable living, and more farming at home might point us to more gardening trends with ADUs.” Wellness RetreatsSassower is seeing more ADUs pop up with a focus on wellness rather than actual living. Personal spas, specifically, have been very popular as the weather gets warmer. Sports CenteredSimilar to basement or garage home gyms, ADUs can be used for more athletic purposes, too, says Sassower. She's seen everything from golf simulators and mini basketball courts to interiors that nod to a ski lodge.Personality-Based DesignThe living room of an ADU renovation that Lewis completed in Fredericksburg, TX, features a dark, moody palette. Deep olive green walls and a matching couch make the space feel sophisticated yet warm. Chase DanielThe powder room in the same Texas ADU by Lewis is a true jewel box space, with a standout fluted stone sink.Chase DanielLike regular interior trends, ADU trends have been leaning towards design with more character. “I'm looking forward to using more limewash and Venetian plasters, and I'm always here for a funky tile to add character,” Lewis says.Follow House Beautiful on Instagram and TikTok.

The housing catalogue includes 50 low-rise home designs, including for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes. Each design was developed by local architecture and engineering teams with the intent of aligning with regional building codes, planning rules, climate zones, construction methods and materials. TEXT John Lorinc RENDERINGS Office In Search Of During the spring election, the Liberals leaned into messaging that evoked a historic moment from the late 1940s, when Ottawa succeeded in confronting a severe housing crisis.  “We used to build things in this country,” begins Prime Minister Mark Carney in a nostalgic ad filled with archival images of streets lined with brand new post-World War II “strawberry box” bungalows, built for returning Canadian soldiers and their young families.  The video also includes montages from the now-iconic design “catalogues,” published by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). These supplied floor plans and unlocked cheap mortgages for tens of thousands of simple suburban houses found in communities across the country. “The government built prefabricated homes that were easy to assemble and inexpensive,” Carney said in the voice-over. “And those homes are still here.”  Over the past year, CMHC has initiated a 21st century re-do of that design catalogue, and the first tranche of 50 plans—for garden suites, duplexes, four-plexes and six-plexes—went live in early March. A second tranche, with plans for small apartments, is under development.  Unlike the postwar versions, these focus on infill sites, not green fields. One of CMHC’s goals is to promote so-called gentle density to residential properties with easily constructed plans that reflect regional variations, local zoning and building-code regulations, accessibility features and low-carbon design. As with those postwar catalogues, CMHC’s other goal was to tamp down on soft costs for homeowners or small builders looking to develop these kinds of housing by providing no-cost designs that were effectively permit sets. The early reviews are generally positive. “I find the design really very compelling in a kind of understated way,” says SvN principal Sam Dufaux. By making available vetted plans that can be either pre-approved or approved as of right, CMHC will remove some of the friction that impedes this scale of housing. “One of the elements of the housing crisis has to do with how do we approve these kinds of projects,” Dufaux adds. “I’m hoping it is a bit of a new beginning.” Yet other observers offer cautions about the extent to which the CMHC program can blunt the housing crisis. “It’s a small piece and a positive one,” says missing middle advocate and economist Mike Moffatt, who is executive in residence at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an assistant professor at Western’s Ivey Business School. “But [it’s] one that probably captures a disproportionate amount of attention because it’s something people can visualize in a way that they can’t with an apartment tax credit.” This kind of new-build infill is unlikely to provide much in the way of affordable or deeply affordable housing, adds Carolyn Whitzman, housing and social policy researcher, and author of Home Truths: Fixing Canada’s Housing Crisis (UBC Press, 2024). She estimates Canada needs about three million new dwellings that can be rented for $1,000 per month or less. The policies that will enable new housing at that scale, she says, involve financing subsidies, publicly owned land, and construction innovation, e.g., prefabricated or factory-built components, as well as “consistent and permissive zoning and consistent and permissive building codes.”  Indeed, the make-or-break question hovering over CMHC’s design catalogue is whether municipalities will green-light these plans or simply find new ways to hold up approvals.   An axonometric of a rowhouse development from the Housing Catalogue, designed for Alberta. A team effort Janna Levitt, partner at LGA Architectural Partners, says that when CMHC issued an RFP for the design catalogue, her firm decided to pitch a team of architects and peer reviewers from across Canada, with LGA serving as project manager. After they were selected, Levitt says they had to quickly clarify a key detail, which was the assumption that the program could deliver pre-approved, permit-ready plans absent a piece of property to build on. “Even in 1947,” she says, “it wasn’t a permit set until you had a site.” LGA’s team and CMHC agreed to expand the scope of the assignment so that the finished product wasn’t just a catalogue of plans but also included details about local regulations and typical lot sizes. Re-Housing co-founder Michael Piper, an associate professor at U of T’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, came on board to carry out research on similar programs, and found initiatives in places like Georgia, Indiana and Texas. “I have not found any that moved forward,” he says. “Canada’s national design catalogue is pretty novel in that regard, which is exciting.” The noteworthy exceptions are California, which has made significant advances in recent years in pre-approving ADUs across the state, and British Columbia, which last fall released its own standardized design catalogue.  He also carried out a scan of land use and zoning rules in Ontario for 15 to 20 municipalities. “We looked to see [what] their zoning permitted and what the rules were, and as you might expect, they’re all over the place,” he says. “Hence the challenge with the standardized design.” At present, high-level overviews for the 50 designs are available, including basic floor plans, 3D axonometrics, and building dimensions. Full architectural design packages are expected to be released later this year. Levitt says the architects on the team set out to come up with designs that used wood frame construction, had no basements (to save on cost and reduce embodied carbon), and drew on vernacular architectural styles. They researched representative lot sizes in the various regions, and configured designs to suit small, medium and large properties. Some versions have accessibility features—CMHC’s remit included both accessible units and aging-in-place as objectives—or can be adapted later on.  As for climate and energy efficiency considerations, the recommended materials include low-carbon components and cladding. The designs do reflect geographical variations, but Levitt says there’s only so much her team could do in terms of energy modelling. “How do you do heat energy calculations when you don’t have a site? You don’t have north, south, east, west [orientations] and you don’t have what zone are you in. In B.C. and Ontario, there are seven climatic regions. There was a lot of working through those kinds of very practical requirements, which were very complicated and actually fed into the design work quite significantly.” As Levitt adds, “in 1947, there were no heat loss models because the world wasn’t like that.” LGA provided the architects on the team with templates for interior elements, such as bathrooms, as well as standards for features such as bedroom sizes, dining areas, storage sufficient to hold strollers, and access to outdoor space, either at grade or via a balcony. “We gathered together these ideas about the quality of life that we wanted baked into each of the designs, so that [they] expressed a really good quality of life—modest but good quality,” she says. “It’s not about the finishes. People had to be able to live there and live there well.” “This isn’t a boutique home solution,” Whitzman says. “This is a cheap and mass-produced solution. And compared to other cheap and mass-produced solutions, whether they be condos or suburban subdivisions, [the catalogue designs] look fine to my untrained eye.” A selection of Housing Catalogue designs for the Atlantic region. Will it succeed?  With the plans now public, the other important variables, besides their conformity with local bylaws, have to do with cost and visibility to potential users, including homeowners, contractors and developers specializing in smaller-scale projects.  On the costing side, N. Barry Lyons Consultants (NBLC) has been retained by CMHC to develop models to accompany the design catalogue, but those figures have yet to be released. While pricing is inevitably dynamic, the calculus behind the entire exercise turns on whether the savings on design outlays and the use of prefabricated components will make such small-scale projects pencil, particularly at a time when there are live concerns about tariffs, skilled labour shortages, and supply chain interruptions on building materials.  Finally, there’s the horse-to-water problem. While the design catalogue has received a reasonable amount of media attention since it launched, does CMHC need to find ways to market it more aggressively? “From my experience,” says Levitt, “they are extremely proactive, and have assembled a kind of dream team with a huge range of experience and expertise. They are doing very concerted and deep work with municipalities across the country.” Proper promotion, observes Moffatt, “is going to be important in particular, just for political reasons. The prime minister has made a lot of bold promises about [adding] 500,000 homes.” Carney’s pledge to get Canada back into building will take time to ramp up, he adds. “I do think the federal government needs to visibly show progress, and if they can’t point to a [new] building across the road, they could at least [say], `We’ve got this design catalogue. Here’s how it works. We’ve already got so many builders and developers looking at this.’”  While it’s far too soon to draw conclusions about the success of this ambitious program, Levitt is well aware of the long and rich legacy of the predecessor CMHC catalogues from the late 40s and the 1950s, all of which gave many young Canadian architects their earliest commissions and then left an enduring aesthetic on countless communities across Canada.   She hopes the updated 21st-century catalogue—fitted out as it is for 21st-century concerns about carbon, resilience and urban density—will acquire a similar cachet.  “These are architecturally designed houses for a group of people across the country who will have never lived in an architecturally designed house,” she muses. “I would love it if, 80 years from now, the consistent feedback [from occupants] was that they were able to live generously and well in those houses, and that everything was where it should be.” ARCHITECTURE FIRM COLLABORATORS Michael Green Architecture, Dub Architects, 5468796 Architecture Inc, Oxbow Architecture, LGA Architectural Partners, KANVA Architecture, Abbott Brown Architects, Taylor Architecture Group  As appeared in the June 2025 issue of Canadian Architect magazine  The post A housing design catalogue for the 21st century appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Here's what happened to Peter Molyneux's Kinect game Project Milo "I don't want to prance around like a tw*t." Image credit: Peter Molyneaux News by Victoria Phillips Kennedy News Reporter Published on May 23, 2025 Project Milo was initially revealed alongside Microsoft's Kinect device all the way back in 2009, and featured a young character named Milo who players could interact with. However, it never actually made it to release, and the project was cancelled in 2010. So, what happened? Well, Peter Molyneux recently shared his side of the story during Nordic Game 2025 in Malmö, explaining how changing priorities led to the end of the project and how he didn't want to "prance around like a twat". Does Anyone Really Want Long Games Anymore? Watch on YouTube "I'll tell you exactly what happened," Molyneux said, as transcribed by Eurgamer's sister-site GamesIndustry.biz. "Microsoft had [bought] us, we were owned by Microsoft, and they had...I'm going to say this, I might get in trouble...what I thought was a bit of a crazy idea. And that was to do gesture recognition as an input device, rather than a controller. They showed me this stuff, and Microsoft had this amazing research building. Incredible. "It was run by this brilliant bloke called Alex Kipman. Makes me look boring and passionless – he had ten times more passion than I had. He had this demo of this device, and when he showed me this demo, it could see people's faces. He said, 'it can do voice recognition', and it had a massive field-of-view so it could see this whole room." When Kipman first asked Molyneux his thoughts on the tech that would ultimately end up as the Kinect, the game developer replied: "'Well, firstly' - when he did the demo, he was jumping all over the room - 'I'm a gamer, I don't want to play games standing up. That's the first thing. It doesn't appeal to me, I want to sit back, I want to smoke what I smoke, and I want to drink what I want to drink, and I don't want to prance around like a twat'." Molyneux said he would go and instead create a demo of how he believed the technology should be used, with a more sedentary slant with a focus on feeling. For this, he took inspiration from his then seven-year-old son, Lucas. "Anyone who's a parent will probably experience this: there was this moment where you realise you're crafting, inspiring, a human being," the developer said. "Wouldn't it be an incredible thing to create a game around that feeling… About inspiring, in Milo's case, a boy. That was contentious in itself, because of course, lots of people go to the dark side with that [idea]." Staff at Molyneux's studio Lionhead subsequently started work on the demo, and began collaborating with a technology company on Project Milo's voice recognition. "We had all sorts of experiences, like you could hand things to Milo in the game world and he would take them. They really worked well." The team "cheated in a big way about how you could talk to Milo", Molyneux said, adding he wanted to make sure that players would be able to relax on the couch at the end of a day (or, to be fair, in the middle of it), and "just experience things with this game character". "Even though voice recognition now is almost a solved problem, back in those days we solved the problem by cheating," Molyneux explained. "So, when Milo asked you the player a question, we had set that question up to different points, so he knew what sort of answer he'd give." The developer went on to explain some more about the behind the scenes of Project Milo, admitting it was unfortunate that at the same time as all of this was going on, Microsoft was also working on its Kinect device. "And [Microsoft] realised that the device that Alex Kipman first showed off would cost $5k for consumers to buy. So they cost-reduced that device down to such a point, where the field-of-view… I think it was a minuscule field-of-view. In other words, it could only just see what's straight in front of you." In the end, changing priorities at Microsoft, which wanted to focus on the Kinect, led to the end of Project Milo. Molyneux said the "death blow" which still "breaks his heart" today, "was that it was decided that Kinect shouldn't be a gaming device: it should be a party device. You should play a sports game with it, or dancing games with it." Project Milo, then, "didn't fit into the Microsoft portfolio", and the whole thing was ultimately canned. "No one ever saw the complete experience," Molyneux closed. "We didn't finish the experience. But it was a magical thing. What was so magical about it: it wasn't about heroes and aliens coming down, there wasn't this 'end of the world' narrative scenario. "It was just experiencing what it's like to hang out with someone that loves you." E3 2009: Project Natal Milo demo. Watch on YouTube Eurogamer spoke to Molyneux last year, about his Masters of Albion project. Masters of Albion will take place "in the land of Albion", and has - in the words of Katharine Castle - big Black and White energy, with a more customisable bent that lets you design buildings, meals, armour and more.

Peter Molyneux recalls how Project Milo, the Kinect game with revolutionary promise, died a death At Nordic Game 2025, Molyneux shared how tech limitations and changing priorities killed the Xbox game Milo & Kate Feature by Samuel Roberts Editorial Director Published on May 22, 2025 Vapourware can end up being the stuff of legend, like Rockstar's Agent, Star Wars 1313, or StarCraft: Ghost. Without ever seeing the light of day, these games never risked the possibility of being played and forgotten, and instead live on forever as the subjects of lengthy YouTube essays. Peter Molyneux, formerly of the studios Bullfrog and Lionhead, and currently working on Masters of Albion at 22cans, has had a number of cancelled projects in his career. The original Xbox's prehistoric game BC was axed around the time Fable became Lionhead's priority, for example. Still, Molyneux's most notable lost game (or tech demo, depending on who you asked at the time) was arguably Project Milo. Revealed alongside the Kinect device at E3 2009, which was then known as Project Natal, players would interact with a young male character called Milo using voice and gesture commands. Watch on YouTube This unusual premise made the game a huge talking point. The project was revealed just as traditional game genre boundaries were starting to blur following the success of the Nintendo DS and Wii. The actual game based on the tech demo was to be called Milo & Kate, with Molyneux demoing it in more detail at a TED presentation in 2010. Lionhead's stylistic touches are obvious throughout the demo, like its tone, music, narration, and choice of story about a British family that's recently moved to America. Molyneux described the game at the time by saying, "most of it is just a trick; but it's a trick that works". The game ultimately didn't release, with some of its ideas rolled into Fable: The Journey on Xbox 360, which was not well-received. Still, the demo arguably did its job, putting Microsoft's Kinect device at the centre of the cultural conversation for its reveal, a full 17 months before it was commercially available. Fable: The Journey ended up being the final Lionhead game before the studio's closure in 2016. While the broad details (and many specifics, per a 2013 Polygon piece) of Project Milo's demise are fairly well-known, it was undeniably exciting to hear Molyneux himself recall the project during Nordic Game 2025 in Malmö this week. During the Q&A section of his fireside chat, one attendee asked about Milo, saying they believed that to this day, Molyneux had a vision for what it could've been. "I'll tell you exactly what happened," Molyneux said. "Microsoft had [bought] us, we were owned by Microsoft, and they had...I'm going to say this, I might get in trouble...what I thought was a bit of a crazy idea. And that was to do gesture recognition as an input device, rather than a controller. They showed me this stuff, and Microsoft had this amazing research building. Incredible. "It was run by this brilliant bloke called Alex Kipman. Makes me look boring and passionless – he had ten times more passion than I had. He had this demo of this device, and when he showed me this demo, it could see people's faces. He said, 'it can do voice recognition', and it had a massive field-of-view so it could see this whole room." Molyneux then recalled his first reaction to the tech that would eventually become Kinect. "He said, 'what do you think?', and I said, 'well, firstly' – when he did the demo, he was jumping all over the room – 'I'm a gamer, I don't want to play games standing up. That's the first thing. It doesn't appeal to me, I want to sit back, I want to smoke what I smoke, and I want to drink what I want to drink, and I don't want to prance around like a twat'. "The death blow of Milo, which still breaks my heart to this day, was that it was decided that Kinect shouldn't be a gaming device: it should be a party device" Peter Molyneux "I said, 'I'll go away and I'll create a demo of [how we should use] the technology you showed me.' "Again, I go back to what I want the player to feel," Molyneux continued. "Now, at that time, my son, Lucas, was about seven years old. And, anyone who's a parent will probably experience this: there was this moment where you realise you're crafting, inspiring, a human being. Wouldn't it be an incredible thing to create a game around that feeling?" Molyneux's phone then started ringing during the panel, and he paused to turn it off before continuing. "Wouldn't it be incredible to create an experience around that? About inspiring, in Milo's case, a boy. That was contentious in itself, because of course, lots of people go to the dark side with that [idea]. Molyneux then said staff at Lionhead started working on the demo, collaborating with an unnamed technology company on Project Milo's voice recognition. "We had all sorts of experiences, like you could hand things to Milo in the game world and he would take them. They really worked well." Molyneux then said the team "cheated in a big way about how you could talk to Milo", recalling that his intention was to have players sit back on the sofa and "just experience things with this game character". "Even though voice recognition now is almost a solved problem, back in those days we solved the problem by cheating," Molyneux said. "So, when Milo asked you the player a question, we had set that question up to different points, so he knew what sort of answer he'd give." At this point, Molyneux explained how the changing specs of the Kinect device in the run up to launch impacted the potential of Project Milo. "Unfortunately, as we were developing Milo, so the Kinect device was being developed. And they realised that the device that Alex Kipman first showed off would cost $5,000 for consumers to buy. "So they cost-reduced that device down to such a point, where the field-of-view...I think it was a minuscule field-of-view. In other words, it could only just see what's straight in front of you." Ultimately, the demise of Project Milo came down to Microsoft's changing priorities with the Kinect device, which was soon synonymous with the kinds of casual games that exploded in popularity on the Wii. "Then, the death blow of Milo, which still breaks my heart to this day, was that it was decided that Kinect shouldn't be a gaming device: it should be a party device. You should play a sports game with it, or dancing games with it. So, it just didn't fit into the Microsoft portfolio, and unfortunately the project was cancelled." "No one ever saw the complete experience," Molyneux continued. "We didn't finish the experience. But it was a magical thing. What was so magical about it: it wasn't about heroes and aliens coming down, there wasn't this 'end of the world' narrative scenario." "It was just experiencing what it's like to hang out with someone that loves you." GamesIndustry.biz is a media partner of Nordic Game 2025. Travel and accommodation were covered by the organisers.

OpinionMay 14, 20255 min readFederal Budget Cuts Would Sabotage NASA’s Plans to Find Alien LifeNASA’s astrobiology ambitions are at risk of collapsing under the White House’s proposed budget. But your voice can make a differenceBy Michael L. Wong An artist’s illustration of a potentially habitable exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star. NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWe’ve never been so close to discovering life beyond Earth. Our generation could be the one that finds it—provided two essential ingredients exist. First, that there’s life out there. Second, that we’re willing to look.Alien life’s existence is outside our control, but the universe seems to encourage our attention. Many people rest their optimism about alien life on the remarkable fact that our cosmos is brimming with planetary possibilities. To date, we’ve discovered nearly 6,000 exoplanets, most of them around only the nearest of the Milky Way’s hundreds of billions of stars. That means all our astonishingly successful planet-hunting surveys have studied just a mere teardrop of a vast cosmic sea—and implies there are at least as many planets as stars in our galaxy alone, plus some 1025 worlds in the rest of the observable universe. Chances are we’re not alone—so long as the probability that planets spring forth life is not astronomically miniscule.Discovering alien life, on the other hand, rests squarely on us. For the first time in human history, we can meaningfully answer once-timeless questions. Countless generations before us could only ask “Are we alone?” as passive stargazers. Today our rockets reliably reach otherworldly destinations, our robotic emissaries yield transformative knowledge about our planetary neighbors, and our telescopes gaze ever farther into the heavens, revealing the subtle beauty of the cosmos.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.NASA has led the way on this work, but it now faces an existential threat in the form of short-sighted budget cuts proposed by the White House. If passed into law by Congress, these cuts would axe critical space missions, gut NASA’s workforce, and abandon one of the most captivating quests in all of science. Additional sweeping cuts planned for the National Science Foundation would be similarly ruinous for ground-based astronomy and a host of other endeavors that support NASA’s work at the high frontier.Led by NASA, for more than a half-century the U.S. has been building toward a golden age of astrobiology, a field of research the space agency helped invent. The groundwork was laid on Mars, beginning with the Viking missions of the 1970s and continuing into today, where the agency has “followed the water” to dried-up lakebeds. In 2014 NASA’s Curiosity rover uncovered clues pointing to an ancient, life-friendly Mars, and more recently NASA’s Perseverance rover has been caching promising rock samples for return to Earth. Researchers eagerly await their arrival, because if Mars ever did harbor life, then some of Perseverance’s specimens may well contain some sort of Martian fossils.Besides our own familiar Earth, Mars isn’t the only promising incubator of life around the sun. In the outer solar system, NASA’s Galileo probe and Cassini orbiter lifted the icy veils of Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, respectively. Beneath thick shells of ice, both moons harbor global subsurface oceans, which could be teeming with bacterial or even macroscopic denizens. NASA’s Clipper spacecraft launched in 2024 and is hurtling toward Europa, where it will make close flybys of the moon to assess its habitability. The agency has developed concepts for follow-on missions to land on both worlds and taste the chilly chemistry there for the telltale signs of life.Every organism on Earth requires liquid water, but perhaps that’s not a strict requirement elsewhere. Astrobiologists speculate about “weird life” in Venus’s sulfuric acid clouds and in the liquid hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s frigid moon Titan. NASA plans to visit each of these worlds with state-of-the-art spacecraft—two to Venus and one to Titan—in the 2030s.And then there’s the great expanse of exoplanets. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has furnished unprecedented data about exoplanet atmospheres, most of them hot and puffy—the easiest to observe. But the most alluring exoplanets for astrobiologists—those the size and temperature of Earth—are just beyond our sight. Currently, teams of scientists are conceptualizing NASA’s next great eye in space, the Habitable Worlds Observatory, whose mission is as its name suggests: to image and examine dozens of notionally Earth-like planets for the global exhalations of alien biospheres.Taken together, these recent developments mean we could be at the doorstep of the next Copernican revolution, the next paradigm shift, the next epoch of human discovery.But the president’s recently proposed budget for the 2026 federal fiscal year strikes NASA’s Science Mission Directorate with a devastating 47 percent cut. Many of the boldest, most transformative space missions will be on the chopping block if the proposal passes. It specifically defunds the Mars Sample Return project, a cancellation that would squander billions of dollars and decades of investment. It also cancels the upcoming missions to Venus, which would investigate how the only other Earth-sized planet in our solar system turned out so drastically different from our own. And it scraps the launch of the already-built Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a project which among other things is a proving ground for imaging technologies essential to future exoplanet investigations; the loss of Roman would render prospects for the Habitable Worlds Observatory perilously dim. Also at grave risk are funding sources for brilliant early-career scientists working to make astrobiology’s future as bright as can be.NASA simply cannot continue its trend of breakthrough discoveries on only half its present budget. As talent departs the U.S. and organizational memory fades, brain drain will doom its global leadership in space science in what experts have called an “extinction-level event.”And because there is no profit-driven incentive for discovering life on a distant world, corporate entities cannot and will not fill NASA’s void. SpaceX is great at building rockets, not robotic geologists on wheels. Commercial rocket companies hone their success by reliably building the same product over and over again, but most every NASA exploration mission must do something new.A mentor of mine once described astrobiology as “a gateway drug to science.” Astrobiology invites anyone—regardless of age or background—to cultivate curiosity, creativity, humility and patience. It motivates collaboration across fields and across borders. Even if we never discover life beyond Earth, astrobiology would still offer humanity a profound gift, allowing us to marvel as never before at our existence on this lonely and precious blue-green dot.So, we must choose to do astrobiology. That means you, dear reader, have the power to influence this field’s fate. Whether through contacting elected officials, informing your friends and family about NASA’s precarious position, or simply sharing your love for space exploration, your actions can make a difference in humanity’s search for life in the universe.In the best of times, we have only a few opportunities per generation to launch revolutionary space missions, let alone ones that could forever change our sense of place in the cosmos—and perhaps even our destiny. Now we have just a fleeting moment to prevent a multigenerational disaster. If we fail, we’ll lose the future of astrobiology and all the insight it could bring.Worst of all, we wouldn’t even know what we’d be missing.This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are solely their own and not those of any organization they are affiliated with or necessarily those of Scientific American.

Cases A New Best: Fractal Meshify 3 Case Review, Thermal Benchmarks, & NoiseMay 15, 2025Last Updated: 2025-05-15We analyze the Fractal Design Meshify 3’s design, specs, build quality, LEDs, and thermalsThe HighlightsThe Meshify 3 comes with 3 fans and focuses on looksAt its price category, there’s a lot of stiff competitionOverall, we like the caseOriginal MSRP: $140 to $220Release Date: May 2025Table of ContentsAutoTOC Our fully custom 3D Emblem Glasses celebrate our 15th Anniversary! We hand-assemble these on the East Coast in the US with a metal badge, strong adhesive, and high-quality pint glass. They pair excellently with our 3D 'Debug' Drink Coasters. Purchases keep us ad-free and directly support our consumer-focused reviews!IntroToday we’re reviewing the Fractal Meshify 3. It ranges from $140 to $220 depending on the level of “integrated atmospheric lighting” you want, but to be fair to Fractal, it does look good with the angular mesh front panel. The good news upfront with this review is that we actually like the case overall.Editor's note: This was originally published on May 15, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.CreditsTest Lead, Host, WritingSteve BurkeTesting, WritingPatrick LathanCamera, Video EditingVitalii MakhnovetsCameraTim PhetdaraAndrew ColemanWriting, Web EditingJimmy ThangFractal's has added some interesting new features: an air guide in front of the PSU shroud that genuinely helps GPU thermals in our testing, excellent cable aligner clips, and a bizarre PSU filter that blends seamlessly into the side of the case.This case was going to launch months ago, but was quietly pulled from shelves by Fractal at the last minute because the PCIe slots were too tight. Multiple reviewers, including us, noticed that these PCIe slots were too tight for GPUs to slot properly, an issue we had recorded in our notes for the review and were about to film when Fractal sent an email that it was halting the launch. Fractal manually reworked this, meaning someone went through all the cases and shaved them down.Originally, Fractal would have launched just before the worst of the tariffs, but now is launching into a far more expensive import situation. Fractal says that, for now, its MSRP is unchanged.But we’re here to review the case. We have a 3-hour documentary about the tariffs’ impact.The case comes with 3 fans and clearly has a focus on looks with its lighting and front panel design, but also manages to make a number of mechanical choices that affect cooling.Let’s get into the Meshify 3 review.Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB OverviewThis is Fractal's third generation of Meshify cases, starting with the Meshify 3 and the larger Meshify 3 XL. We're reviewing the shallow front-to-back Meshify 3 today, which is the size equivalent of the first generation's Meshify C and the second generation's Meshify 2 Compact (watch our review). The Meshify C (watch our review) was $90 at launch in 2017, followed later by the Meshify 2 (watch our review) at $110.The Meshify 3 is launching from $140-$220 (depending on SKU). It’s not distant from Fractal’s Torrent case. We liked that case. It’s priced at around $190 to $230. The increased Meshify series cost goes towards new features.The flashiest new feature is the "integrated atmospheric lighting" in the top-tier Ambience Pro RGB SKU. Fractal also has committed to proprietary connectors for these cases, which we’re not thrilled about. Fractal additionally has a web tool for the new Adjust Pro fan and RGB hub.The cases are sold at $140 for 3x 140mm fans without LEDs, $160 for 3x 14mm RGB fans using proprietary connectors, and $220 for 3x RGB fans with a lighting control hub and additional case lighting around the front panel, shroud, and power button.Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB SpecsMeshify 3 TG3.5"/2.5" mountsUp to 2x HDD or 4x SSDDedicated 2.5" mounts2 (6 total)5.25" drive bays0Expansion slots7Motherboard compatibilityE-ATX (max 277 mm), ATX, mATX, Mini-ITXPower supply typeATXFront interface1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C 20Gbps2x USB 3.0 5Gbps1x Combined Mic/AudioTotal fan mounts6x 120 mm or 5x 140 mm + 1x 120mmFront fan mounts3x 120/140 mm (3x Momentum 140 mm PWM/RGB Included)Top fan mounts2x 120/140 mmRear fan mounts1x 120 mmSide fan mountsN/ABottom fan mountsN/ADust filtersPSUFront radiatorUp to 280/360 mm (max 155 mm width)Top radiatorUp to 280/240 mm (max 148 mm width)Rear radiator120 mm (max 128 mm width)Bottom radiatorN/APSU max length180 mmGPU max length349 mmGPU max height176 mm (7 slot) including cablesCPU cooler max height173 mmCable routing space34.5 mmCable coverYesCable organizers3x Cable Aligners, 3x Internal Straps, 3x Rear External StrapsCaptive thumbscrewsTop Rad. Bracket, PSU BracketTool-less push-to-lockSide Panels, Bottom Filter, Front Panel, Top Panel, PSU BracketCase MaterialSteelLeft side panelTempered GlassRight side panelIndustrial SteelCase dimensions (LxWxH)423 x 229 x 507 mmCase dimensions w/o feet/protrusions/screws423 x 229 x 483 mmNet weight8.0 kgPackage dimensions (LxWxH)596 x 350 x 550 mmGross weight10.3 kgSpecs copied from manufacturer materials, please read review for our own measurements and opinionsThe BuildLet’s get into the build quality and features.Some of the exterior is similar to the Torrent, especially the way the top panel slides off. Unlike the Torrent, the top panel is mesh in the Meshify 3, although only the central portion is actually open due to the thick plastic frame underneath. The front panel pops off from the bottom like the North cases, and the top edge (in the Ambience Pro RGB) has pogo pins to connect the ambient front panel lighting.There are three plastic "cable aligners" that can be snapped over the main cable channel. We found them to be well-placed and surprisingly sturdy even with large bundles of power supply cables wedged behind them. Our only complaint is that they're keyed for no discernible reason other than preventing users from flipping the Fractal logo upside-down. The cable management space behind the motherboard is a uniform depth at just over 3cm across the entire case. There's a massive cutout above the motherboard that runs its entire length, although the cutout at the bottom is undersized and difficult to use when an ATX board is installed. Overall, cable management is above average thanks to the cable aligners and the amount of space, with some velcro straps on the back for exterior cable management. The PSU shroud terminates in a plastic "air guide" angled up towards the GPU. It reminds us a little of the NZXT toilet bowl fan from the 2022 H5 Flow (watch our review), but more so the extremely similar "PSU optional cover plate" from Corsair's old 5000D Airflow (watch our review). The 5000D Airflow's single intake fan wasn't positioned to make that part matter, though, whereas the Meshify 3's intake-heavy configuration will actually benefit.The only discrete dust filter in the case is for the PSU. It ejects from the side, which is always a plus for ease of removal, but it's also built into the leg of the case so that there's no externally visible handle. This is completely unnecessary, but it's one of those small features that shows the care that was put into the case's appearance and great attention to detail.Drives can be mounted to a set of adjustable brackets behind the motherboard tray; Fractal has provided a complicated compatibility matrix, but basically, you can either fit up to 2x 3.5" drives or 4x 2.5" drives. An additional 2x 2.5" drives can be attached directly to the floor of the case underneath the air guide, but if you use those slots, you may want to leave the air guide out to make cables accessible.The front of the case can fit either 3x 120mm fans or 3x 140mm fans. The rails rotate to switch between the two sizes and there are cutouts at specific heights for each individual fan, which means the rails don't obstruct the fans at all, but also there's little freedom to reposition fans or mix and match different sizes. All Meshify 3 SKUs ship with three front fans preinstalled, so this is less of an issue than it would be on a bare chassis. When fans are installed on the rails, the fans and rails can be removed as a single unit by undoing two screws, which is awesome.The removable top bracket is extremely easy to work with and fits radiators up to 280mm with plenty of room. Simultaneously installing a 360mm radiator at the front of the case would technically be possible using standard 30mm thick rads, but without much room left for fittings, fans, or thicker radiators, so we don't recommend it. Fractal notes that the front mount is compatible with 360mm (3x120) radiators of up to 420mm total length with the air guide or 445mm without it. Critically though, this does not mean support for 420mm (3x140) radiators.If any radiators are installed at the front of the case, the cable bar has to be shifted back, which makes it harder to route power cables. In addition, maximum GPU length in the Meshify 3 is already only 349mm, and installing a front radiator directly eats that clearance. We recommend relying on the top radiator slot or moving up to the Meshify 3 XL if you really need space for liquid cooling and especially for longer cards.Along the same lines, Fractal claims compatibility with so-called E-ATX boards up to 277mm wide, but that describes the maximum size that can be installed without completely blocking cable cutouts. Realistically, if you want to install anything even slightly larger than ATX, you should be looking at the Meshify 3 XL instead. Even with a normal ATX board, we shifted the cable bar all the way forward to leave space for the 24-pin power cable.As a finer detail point, we’re happy to see that Fractal has finally compromised by adding screw holes to the plastic tabs on the side panels. If you want to add some extra security while moving your case, you can put screws through the tabs to lock them down.The fans and LEDs are complicated and confusing, so that’ll require a whole section -- but we’ll get into the thermal testing first.Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB Thermals Grab a GN15 Large Anti-Static Modmat to celebrate our 15th Anniversary and for a high-quality PC building work surface. The Modmat features useful PC building diagrams and is anti-static conductive. Purchases directly fund our work! (or consider a direct donation or a Patreon contribution!)Fractal's review guide claims that the RGB fans are quieter, lower CFM, but higher static pressure (at max speed) than the non-RGB versions of the same fans. Our thermal results with the stock fans are representative of the RGB case SKUs, though any major physical reasons for performance would still be reflected. The standardized fan test is representative of the Meshify 3 in general.For reasons we’ll explain in the fan control section, we had no way to skip the fan hub and connect the fans directly to the motherboard as we usually would for testing. We validated that the fans reached their rated max speed of 1,800RPM +/- 10% with a laser tachometer. However, the tach signal sent back by the Fractal Adjust Pro hub doesn't line up with standard 4-pole fan behavior: HWiNFO misreports 2295 RPM when the fans are really spinning at just over 1,800 RPM in reality. Fractal's software accounts for this and reports RPM accurately.As for comparison cases, we’ll mostly focus on the Antec C8 ARGB (read our review) and Antec Flux Pro (read our review) as close matches. The closest match in appearance and function may be Fractal's own Torrent Compact RGB. We haven't added the Torrent Compact back to our charts since our testing overhaul, but in our review, it performed similarly to the larger original Torrent. That is in our charts, so we can use that as a rough equivalent.We have plenty of other cases on the charts for your own comparisons. Let’s get into the data.CPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-NormalizedWe’ll start with noise-normalized thermals. We use our hemi-anechoic chamber that we spent $250,000 building for validating the noise levels, which allows us to heavily control the noise floor and get super accurate capture.This is the chart. The Fractal Meshify 3 dominates here, planting itself as the new chart leader and within error of the prior leaders. The Meshify 3's all-core average of 40 degrees Celsius over ambient and 44 degrees for the P-cores is significantly better than previous efforts from the Meshify 2 Compact (watch our review) at 48 degrees average and the Meshify C at 54. Those two cases shared a basic design. The Meshify 3 is more of a departure; Fractal has added an airflow guide to the bottom of the case, the stock fans are higher performance, and all three stock fans are installed in the front of the case. That's an arrangement that's worked well for CPU cooling in the North XL (read our review) and Torrent using our test bench, and evidently it works extremely well in the Meshify 3, which is now the coolest case on the chart. The Torrent was a little warmer than the Meshify 3 at 42 degrees above ambient, while the Meshify 3 is instead tied with the previous best results from the Lian Li Lancool 216 (watch our review) and Lancool 207 (read our review). The Antec Flux Pro is a case that Fractal is likely specifically targeting for competition and, like the Lian Li cases, it's within one degree of the Meshify 3. This test is a weak point for the Antec C8 ARGB, which averaged 50 degrees due to its bottom intake layout.GPU Full Load Thermals - Noise-NormalizedHere’s the chart for GPU thermals when noise-normalized.GPU cooling performance in the Meshify 3 was also strong. The equivalent cases from the previous Meshify generations didn't have particularly strong stock performance, with the Meshify 2 Compact averaging 52 degrees above ambient for the GPU and the Meshify C averaging 57. This is still noise-normalized, so it's not purely a matter of more powerful fans in the Meshify 3, which averaged 43 degrees for the GPU and 46 for the GPU memory. Judging by the performance of the North XL and the Torrent here, it seems possible that the Meshify 3's air guide actually does do something. The North XL and its conventional (although ventilated) full-length PSU shroud averaged 44-45 degrees for the GPU depending on the chosen side panel, while the Torrent with its top-mounted PSU and complete lack of a shroud at the bottom of the case averaged 40 degrees. The Meshify 3 with its shroud and air guide averaged 43 degrees, right in the middle. There are more variables at work here, though, so we need another test to know for sure.As for the other highlighted competitors, the Antec C8 ARGB averaged 42 degrees and the Flux Pro averaged 41. Technically they both beat the Meshify 3's 43 degree average, but they're all among the best performing results on this chart.GPU Full Load Thermals - Full SpeedAs part of our full speed testing, we ran a test pass with a cardboard box extension taped onto the end of the PSU shroud to bring it up flush with the front intake fans. This test is at full speed case fans and controlled CPU and GPU fans.Without this extension, the GPU in the Meshify 3 averaged 41 degrees above ambient versus 45 degrees with it. That's a significant increase with the extension, and it shows that it made sense to shorten the shroud and angle it up like a skate ramp. Adding the extension also raised noise levels from a baseline of 37.5 dBA to 38.7 dBA, which we can only really confidently state is a real difference because of our investments in the hemi-anechoic chamber and our test equipment. This is a real change. Although hardly a detectable difference to the human ear, it is a real one and some people might notice it. Fractal’s new shroud design is superior to a square-edge one both thermally and acoustically.Since we've already seen that the Meshify 3 outperforms its predecessors when noise-normalized, it's no surprise at all that it outperforms them when its 1,800 RPM stock fans are maxed out. 37.5 dBA for the Meshify 3 is definitely louder than the 31-32 dBA levels from the Meshify C and Meshify 2 Compact, but thermal performance isn't even close, with the Meshify C only able to maintain GPU temperatures at 56 degrees above ambient. The C8 ARGB tied the Meshify 3's GPU temperature in this test, which is impressive for the Meshify 3 given that the C8 ARGB has bottom intake fans pointed directly into the GPU. The stock Flux Pro and Torrent remain chart toppers at 38 degrees and 39 degrees respectively thanks to their overkill stock fans; this is also evident from the noise levels, with the Torrent's powerful fans pushing it to a maximum of 42.3 dBA to the stock Meshify 3's 37.5 dBA.GPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized FansStandardized fan testing is next.All of the Meshify 3 SKUs ship with fans, so we're just going to use the standardized fan test as an opportunity to compare directly against the previous Meshify generations when they have the same loadout. The Meshify 3 has three defined 140mm fan mounting locations at the front, so rather than sticking our two 140mm intake fans somewhere in the middle, we were forced to pick either the upper two slots or the lower two.The Meshify C and Meshify 2 Compact both had GPU averages of 47 degrees above ambient, while the Meshify 3 literally bookended the chart at 41 degrees with the fans in the lower slots and 53 degrees in the upper ones. If you alter the stock fan configuration, be sure to at least keep one fan in the bottom slot at the front of the case.CPU Full Load Thermals - Standardized FansOn to CPU thermals while using standardized fans: There wasn't much difference in CPU thermals between the upper and lower slot tests; although the upper slot technically did better with an all-core average of 39 degrees, the lower slot arrangement is preferable due to the GPU thermals we just discussed. The Meshify C and Meshify 2 Compact tied at 41 degrees all-core, not that far from the Meshify 3's 40 degree average.VRM & RAM Full Load Thermals - Noise-NormalizedReturning to the noise-normalized results, the Meshify 3 tied the Flux Pro for the best VRM temperature on the chart at 27 degrees above ambient. That's significantly better than its predecessors at 35 degrees for the Meshify 2 Compact and 39 for the Meshify C. The Torrent averaged 29 degrees and the C8 ARGB with its bottom intake layout averaged 33. The ventilated case roof and airflow definitely help here.The SPD hub (or the RAM temperature average) was better, with the Meshify 3's average of 20 degrees above ambient beating all other stock case results on the chart. The Torrent at 21 degrees and Flux Pro at 22 were also high performers, while the C8 ARGB's more GPU-focused cooling left it with a warmer 24 degree average.Fans and LEDsAnd now we’re back to the topic of fans and LEDs.The Momentum RGB fans connect through daisy-chained USB Type-C connectors. Fractal describes the connector as "Proprietary USB-C," meaning that the connectors are just USB-shaped out of convenience; the fans are NOT USB devices. This part confused us, so here's a breakdown:The regular Meshify 3's fans use regular 4-pin PWM fan connectorsThe Meshify 3 RGB's fans use Fractal proprietary connectors, but they're pre-routed with an adapter that terminates in a regular 4-pin fan connector and a 3-pin ARGB connector, so the fans can be connected to a normal motherboard out-of-the-boxThe Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB has the same fans as the other RGB SKU, but they're pre-routed to Fractal's Adjust Pro hub. A "legacy splitter" cable is included for OUTput so that regular ARGB devices can be daisy-chained onto Fractal's devices, but the INput adapter cable from the Meshify 3 RGB is not included. In other words, if you get the Ambience Pro RGB, you're using the hub (or waiting for Fractal to sell an adapter cable separately)The Adjust Pro Hub can be controlled through a web tool or Microsoft's Dynamic Lighting feature. Fractal can get away with using a simple web app because the Pro Hub is just a USB device, so it doesn't need low-level access to control the motherboard's fan and RGB headers. There’s no launch-on-startup bloatware and the settings are saved locally to the hub. Currently, the app claims to be fully compatible with Chrome, Opera, and Edge (but not Firefox). A sustained internet connection isn't required for this. We were glad to see Dynamic Lighting compatibility, even if it's not perfect. For instance, if you enable Dynamic Lighting, it breaks Fractal's tool, and if you haven't activated Windows then you can't disable Dynamic Lighting without editing the registry.Fractal's software has a selection of prefab lighting patterns to show off the gen 2 lighting, but the default Northern Lights pattern may be our favorite. The indirect lighting around the edges of the front panel and across the PSU shroud are mostly striking in a dark room. It's unfortunate that such a big part of the case's appeal is limited to the $220 version.Meshify 3 Ambience Pro RGB Conclusion Visit our Patreon page to contribute a few dollars toward this website's operation (or consider a direct donation or buying something from our GN Store!) Additionally, when you purchase through links to retailers on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.We like the Meshify 3 overall, but we're torn on several points. As an immediate positive, as reviewers who don’t normally comment a whole lot about looks, we do think they did well to pull off the LEDs and front panel on the Meshify 3. Fractal has consistently done well to execute on this style.As for the more difficult points: First off, the Meshify C launched at $90 and the Meshify 2 Compact at $110. Those weren't the lowest prices in context. The Meshify C, however, was on the affordable end of the scale even for that time. Given that Fractal picked the Meshify 3 MSRPs well before the new tariffs, we believe there's a good chance they'll go up. The Meshify 3 isn't in the medium-budget tier you might assume based on the history of the series. If you're looking for cases in that vein, Lian Li has options like the Lancool 217 (watch our coverage), while Antec has some equivalents to the Meshify 3 RGB like the C8 ARGB and Flux Pro.That's not to say that the Meshify 3 isn't worth the money, just that it’s embattled on all sides. There are a lot of options in this price category, which is good for consumers. The build quality is on par with what we expect from Fractal based on the last few years' worth of cases like the North (watch our review) and Torrent. It’s built well. Thermal performance was extremely good, and although the specs are different for the non-RGB fans as we've explained, we can assume that the performance is also extremely good for the non-RGB case variants. Based on that, the $140 and $160 options are the most competitive.As for the $220 Ambience Pro RGB, it's basically a $60-$80 upcharge for lighting, but we really like that lighting. That is, however, a big price jump. If you're considering the Ambience Pro RGB with the extra cost for the lighting, you should be comparing it to other flagship showy cases like the HAVN HS420 (read our review) or HYTE Y70 (read our review) (if you can buy one as they can be difficult to find in the US due to the tariffs). You should also look through Fractal's documentation carefully to make sure you like the RGB ecosystem of software and connectors before you commit.You can check out the competition like the Flux Pro, C8, and Corsair’s FRAME 4000D (read our review). We have more reviews coming up, but overall, we like Fractal’s new case.

Since founding Kadre Architects in 2022, Nerin Kadribegovic’s firm has garnered a reputation for doing a lot with a little. Case in point: standardized drawing sets for ADUs and an interim housing development wedged between highways. More recently, the Los Angeles practice transformed defunct storefront space in Compton into a social services hub. The Compton Community Center opened early this year. It offers case management services to individuals experiencing homelessness. Residents can go to the center for document procurement, connections to medical and behavioral health services, applications for vouchers, support for acclimating back to the job market, and other critical social services. A double-height vaulted space greets visitors upon entry. (Paul Vu) HOPICS is the service provider Kadre Architects worked with that now operates the 1,000-square-foot space. The space boasts vaulted ceilings, and bespoke wood creations that climb up the front facade, and hover above the backyard. The interiors are washed in natural light. The neo-postmodern architecture pulls from its context. To the community center’s left is a yellow apartment block and, to its right, a church with a pitched roof. The Compton Community Center was painted white and yellow, and the wooden lattice that’s attached to the front facade mimics the church’s slanted profile. The center is located between an apartment block and a church. (Paul Vu) The original storefront space had a modest 10-foot floor-to-ceiling height. After taking the commission, Kadre Architects uncovered concealed attics. The designers opened up the ceiling to create a double-height vaulted space with skylights. Asymmetric wooden desks staffed by HOPICS employees greet visitors upon entry. These bits were constructed out of laminated plywood, and mirror the geometric floor patterns. Custom shelving was also made of plywood. The interior palette makes generous use of bright white and yellow, a nod to the service provider’s brand colors, the adjoining buildings, and Kadre’s signature color-drenched spaces more broadly. The rear parking lot was converted into a courtyard garden and playground for visiting families. (Paul Vu) Aerial view of the rear courtyard, showing the heavy use of color. (Paul Vu) The lot Kadre Architects negotiated is long and narrow. The back was transformed into a vibrant, polychromatic courtyard employees and visitors can enjoy. Informal, outdoor meetings with case managers happen there. Playground equipment from a nearby housing project was installed in the courtyard garden for visiting families. Trees were planted, and slivers of existing asphalt were cut out and replaced with artificial turf, creating moments of green respite, the designers shared. This softens what was once a parking lot.

May 14, 20252 min readUSDA Reverses Course and Restores Climate Information for FarmersFacing a lawsuit, the Department of Agriculture says it will restore climate-related websites that the agency erased after President Donald Trump took officeBy Lesley Clark & E&E News Harvesting soybeans in Jarrettsville, Maryland. Edwin Remsberg/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | The Trump administration has reversed course and will restore U.S. Department of Agriculture websites related to climate change in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental organizations and farmers.Groups represented by Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University had sued in February, alleging that the removal of climate-related policies, datasets and other resources violated federal laws requiring advanced notice, reasoned decision-making and public access to certain information.In a letter late Monday, the administration told Judge Margaret Garnett of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that the USDA will restore the climate-related web content that was removed after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, including all USDA webpages and interactive tools listed in the lawsuit.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.It noted that the process of restoring the removed content was already underway and that the USDA expects to mostly complete the process in two weeks. The USDA also pledged that it “commits to complying with” federal law governing future “posting decisions.”The purged material had included information on climate-smart farming, forest conservation and adaptation. The USDA also took down climate sections from the websites for the Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, including information to help farmers access money for conservation practices.The move comes days before Garnett was to hear the challengers’ request for a preliminary injunction that sought to require the USDA to restore the webpages and stop taking down additional climate information.“We’re glad that USDA recognized that its blatantly unlawful purge of climate-change-related information is harming farmers and communities across the country,” said Jeffrey Stein, an associate attorney with Earthjustice. Stein added that farmers depend on the websites to protect their farms from drought, wildfire and extreme weather.The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, which was one of the parties to the case, hailed the USDA for restoring the webpages.“Access to timely, accurate, science-based climate information is essential for organic, regenerative agriculture communities facing increasingly unpredictable weather patterns,” said Marcie Craig, the group’s executive director.The Environmental Working Group called the restoration of the webpages a “significant victory for the climate, the environment and farmers.”“The Trump administration’s reversal in response to this legal challenge highlights the critical importance of public interest advocates standing up in the name of transparency and government accountability,” said Anne Schechinger, the group’s Midwest director.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.