Hungarian architecture studio Hello Wood has created an 11-metre-high Christmas tree for a square in central Budapest from 15,000 kilograms of wooden logs (+ movie). More about Hello Wood builds Budapest Christmas tree from 5000 pieces of firewood
News: autonomous vehicles in urban areas could be up to thirty years away, according to Audi's Thomas Müller, the engineer leading the development of the brand's driverless sports car (+ interview). More about Driverless cars in cities still "20 to 30 years" away, says senior Audi engineer
Opinion: unbridled materialism, technology and design combine to challenge the meaning of personhood in William Gibson's latest sci-fi novel. The foundations for this future are already being laid in real life, says Justin McGuirk. More about "Anything threatening to be a subculture is commodified before it can walk"
Lebanese studio Najla El Zein Workspace has created a set of "pleasure tools" by pairing marble with materials including fake eyelashes and gold fingernails for tickling, stroking, scratching and more (+ slideshow). More about Sensorial Brushes by Najla El Zein Workspace are designed to stimulate the skin
Brazilian designers Fernando and Humberto Campana have chosen a coconut fibre rug commonly used for doormats as the latest material to incorporate into a furniture collection. More about Campana brothers cover wooden furniture with doormats
French artist Didier Faustino has included a salacious hole in the centre of this ornately framed silver mirror. More about Didier Faustino surrounds Glory Hole mirror with Baroque embellishment
News: Italian design school Domus Academy has recruited leading creatives – including Patricia Urquiola, Joseph Grima, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Alice Rawsthorn – to form a panel that will help the school "revolutionise" its teaching (+ interview). More about Domus Academy design school launches salon-style teaching system
Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with Gothenburg-based Studio Esinam to give readers the chance to win one of five monochrome prints showing elevations of iconic structures from different cities. More about Competition: five Landmarks and Elevations posters to be won
A beam of orange light slices through a blacked-out gallery inside Frank Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton building, in an exhibition by Olafur Eliasson that aims to skew viewers' perceptions of space (+ slideshow). More about Olafur Eliasson's immersive light installations inhabit Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton
News: Danish furniture brand Muuto has chosen a lamp that bends like a fishing rod as the winner of its annual Nordic design award for emerging talents. More about Nick Ross' Tension Lamp wins Muuto Talent Award 2014
These retail display stands by Berlin designer Till Wiedeck have multiple shelves for presenting monochrome products in the stores of fashion brand COS (+ slideshow). More about Till Wiedeck designs multi-level display stands for COS
Audi has teamed up with design studio Kram/Weisshaar to capture the "deathly fear" and "complete excitement" of passengers experiencing their first journey in a car that can drive itself at speeds of up to 220 kilometres per hour (+ slideshow). More about Audi's super-fast driverless car is fitted with a mini film studio
American firm Choi + Shine Architects has created tube-shaped lighting modules that assemble into three-dimensional arrangements using magnets. More about Modular lighting system by Choi + Shine Architects sticks together with magnets
Perrier-Jouët Small Discoveries: design duo Mischer'Traxler discuss their interactive installation featuring plants that sprout when nobody is nearby in this Dezeen movie for champagne brand Perrier-Jouët. More about Mischer'Traxler's kinetic Ephemerā installation "comes alive" when visitors walk away
Australian company Run4 has launched a piece of fitness equipment designed to prevent running injuries that works like a bicycle and cross-trainer hybrid (+ slideshow). More about Bionic Runner combines cycling and jogging for "injury-free" running
Eindhoven studio OS & OOS have unveiled a version of their Keystone chair upholstered in textiles from the Raf Simons collection for Danish company Kvadrat. More about OS & OOS upholsters Keystone chair in Raf Simons' Kvadrat textiles
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: engineering student Martijn Lammers, part of the team behind the world's "first solar-powered family car," claims most vehicles could be powered by the sun in future. More about Solar-powered cars could become standard "within 30 years"
News: the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan reopens to the public today after a three-year renovation project including new fittings by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (+ slideshow). More about New York's Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum reopens
Nineteen London-based designers including Dominic Wilcox and Paul Priestman have created miniature fantasy rooms for an exhibition of Dolls' Houses at the city's Museum of Childhood. More about London designers create tiny dream rooms for Museum of Childhood exhibition
One-minute movie: Dutch sculptor Theo Jansen has created huge moving sculptures to prevent the erosion of sand dunes, which he claims are evolving without his help. More about Theo Jansen creates giant wind-powered Strandbeest sculptures