Dezeen Wire: pioneering multidisciplinary design consultancy Airside has announced that it is to close in March 2012, stating: "we can't see a way for Airside to move forward and accommodate all of our individual ambitions." More about Award-winning design consultancy Airside to close in March 2012
Designers Anna Rosinke and Maciej Chmara of Kollectiv Stadtpark have been touring Austria, making friends with locals in the street at their mobile kitchen table. More about Mobile Gastfreundschaft by Kollectiv Stadtpark
Architecture collective Cityförster have completed a wooden house in the Netherlands with a black rubber skin. More about Rubberhouse by Cityförster
These polished marble blocks by Milanese designer Emanuele Pizzolorusso can be arranged on your desk to make miniature monuments. More about Alpha Beta Gamma by Emanuele Pizzolorusso
Dezeen Wire: a team of engineers based in California have created a material made from a lattice of hollow metallic tubes that they claim is the lightest in the world – BBC
The substance is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and consists of 99.99% air. Tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair are used to create the lattice structure that gives the material it's strength. Potential applications include shock and sound absorption and thermal insulation.
More about "World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers" – BBC
Norwegian architects Fantastic Norway have designed a mountain lodge with a sloping roof that you can ski over. More about Mountain Hill Cabin by Fantastic Norway
The Seoul office of Dutch designers Studio Dumbar has redesigned the national road signage system for South Korea. More about South Korean road signs by Studio Dumbar
Dezeen Wire: in her latest article for The New York Times, design critic Alice Rawsthorn examines the symbols and slogans adopted by the Occupy protest movement in cities around the world.
Rawsthorn explains that the name 'Occupy', which originated at the Occupy Wall Street protest against the banking and democratic system, "is a stellar example of both what is known in marketing as an umbrella brand name and what the anti-corporatists in the movement could call beating them at their own game." She adds that the use of hashtags and slogans short enough to send on social networks such as Twitter have helped the movement spread globally and could represent a new protocol for protesters involving "the repeated use of a few carefully chosen words," rather than images.
More about Occupy movement establishes new protocols of protest design – The New York Times
Amsterdam architects UNStudio have designed a new international airport for Kutaisi, Georgia. More about Kutaisi Airport by UNStudio
Competition: we've teamed up with Australian T-shirt company Hello Fresco to give away six of their latest designs. More about Competition: six Hello Fresco T-shirts to be won
Dezeen Wire: Italian architect Renzo Piano says his London skyscraper, The Shard, will be loved by the public, because "it will be accessible, because it is transparent, understandable and not mysterious" – The Telegraph More about The Shard "will be loved" – Renzo Piano
Dezeen in Israel: these high-heeled shoes that look like inflatable sex dolls are part of a collection of footwear by Tel Aviv designer Kobi Levi. More about Shoes by Kobi Levi
Walking along this elevated pathway by German artists Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth is like being on a roller coaster. More about Tiger and Turtle - Magic Mountain by Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth
British designer Tom Price has made an enchanted grove of cherry trees out of plastic tubes and cable ties. More about Cherry Tree by Tom Price
ECAL graduate Romain Lagrange has designed an indoor croquet set that's crafted from timber, cork and leather. More about Gates by Romain Lagrange
Dezeen Wire: the opening of the September 11 museum in New York, which is scheduled for September 2012, is under threat due to an ongoing dispute over unexpected costs – The Washington Post
The museum is part of a memorial to the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre being developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who say that they are owed $156 million by mayor Michael Bloomberg's National September 11 Memorial & Museum foundation. The row had been kept quiet over fears it could overshadow the 10th anniversary of the attacks but has now led to the suspension of construction contracts which could delay the completion of the museum.
See our previous story on the opening of the National September 11 Memorial, an animation of the memorial fountains and architecture critic Rowan Moore's examination of the infighting that has plagued the redevelopment of the World Trade Centre site.
More about New York's September 11 museum delayed
Dezeen in Israel: here are some images of the recently opened new wing at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, which has a dramatically faceted atrium piercing its centre. More about Herta and Paul Amir Building at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art by Preston Scott Cohen
In this movie filmed by Dezeen at the Qubique 2011 design fair in Berlin last month, designer Jerszy Seymour talks about his series of chairs where components are joined with blobs of wax. More about Interview: Jerszy Seymour at Qubique 2011
Dezeen Wire: design critic Justin McGuirk says that a kitchen concept by Dutch electrical company Philips that uses decomposition to generate methane gas for cooking is an example of how we may "have to get more comfortable with bacteria and with putrefaction's role in our ecosystem" – The Guardian
McGuirk claims the Microbial kitchen concept's "steampunk" aesthetic offers "an alternative vision to the clinical kitchen," and also mentions the trend for low-tech kitchen appliances, such as designer Christoph Thetard's pedal-powered devices, which he says represent a reaction to the impending energy crisis.
Last year Dezeen published a report on Food and Design, including examples of low-tech gadgets for preserving and preparing ingredients and concepts for growing food in the kitchen.
More about Bacteria and pedal power could be the future of kitchens – The Guardian
Imagine if every discarded disposable cup grew into a beautiful plant. More about Chai Pi Ke Puht cups by Sian Pascale