This week on Dezeen
We've been reporting from the Venice Architecture Biennale this week, where this year's curator Rem Koolhaas took us on a tour of his Central Pavilion, which he hoped would trigger "a modernisation of the core of architecture". Read on for more architecture and design highlights from the past seven days.
The biennale focuses on fifteen elements that combine to create buildings, including stairs, ceilings, elevators and toilets. "I wanted to disconnect from contemporary architecture because I thought the architecture biennale was becoming very similar to the art biennale and that there was a kind of blur," Koolhaas told Dezeen.
The Nordic pavilion at this year's event presents images assessing the influence of its architectural style in Africa, while the British pavilion chronicles the nation's Modernism by referencing postwar towns and popular culture.
Germany has created a full-size partial replica of the Chancellor's bungalow - a building made famous through 30 years of political news broadcasts, and a masterplan was unveiled to relocate an entire Swedish city. See all our coverage of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 »
Elsewhere new images were released this week showing the bulbous form of Renzo Piano's almost-complete Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé in Paris, and department store Selfridges announced its appointment of British architect David Chipperfield to redesign its flagship store in London.
It was also announced that Danish studio BIG has been awarded $335 million to improve the storm defences in Lower Manhattan following Hurricane Sandy. See more of this week's news »
Design stories included a chair that slots together without glue, as demonstrated in a vaguely pornographic gif, and PVC shoes that could mould to feet like a second skin.
Popular architecture stories on Dezeen this week included a house in Greece designed with an infinity pool on its roof, a family house in northern Japan designed to embrace darkness as well as light, and a series of architectural gifs depicting shape-shifting buildings by SANAA, Herzog & de Meuron, MAD and more.
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