News: the inventor of an anti-diarrhoea pack for the developing world has replaced its innovative, award-winning packaging design with a simple screw-top jar. More about Award-winning packaging ditched in favour of jars
News: a vehicle described as "the world's first solar-powered family car" has come first in a photovoltaic-powered race across Australia (+ slideshow). More about Solar-powered family car wins race across Australia
Tomato vines suspended over conference tables and broccoli fields in the reception are part of working life at this Japan office by Kono Designs (+ slideshow). More about Pasona Urban Farm by Kono Designs
News: Jean Nouvel's One Central Park residential tower in Sydney will feature the world's tallest vertical garden by botanist Patrick Blanc. More about Patrick Blanc creates world's tallest vertical garden for Jean Nouvel's Sydney tower
Patrick Blanc, the inventor of living walls, has completed his latest vertical garden, covering the side of a five-storey Parisian block with waves of 7600 plants (+ slideshow). More about The Oasis of Aboukir green wall by Patrick Blanc
This riverside holiday house in South Limburg, the Netherlands, is raised on tree trunks to prevent flooding and clad with charred wood to reduce the need for maintenance (+ slideshow). More about Sustainable house on the Geul by Upfrnt and Zwarthout
News: a 21 metre high living wall containing 10,000 plants and 16 tons of soil will help reduce flooding in London, according to its designer. More about London's largest living wall will "combat flooding"
Dutch product design agency Waarmakers have designed a prototype electric scooter with a body made from compressed plants (+ movie). More about Be.e electric scooter by Waarmakers
News: students at the Eindhoven University of Technology have unveiled what they claim to be the world's first solar-powered family car. More about World's first solar-powered family car to race across Australia
A knot-shaped rooftop will be used as a vegetable garden at this kindergarten by Vo Trong Nghia Architects that's under construction in Dong Nai, Vietnam (+ slideshow). More about Farming Kindergarten by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
Bright red louvres screen the gabled walls of this office building in Tilburg, the Netherlands, by Dutch architects Équipe (+ slideshow). More about Proyecto Roble by Équipe
A plant-covered twisting tower shaped like a DNA strand by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is under construction in Taipei, Taiwan (+ slideshow). More about Agora Garden by Vincent Callebaut
Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has developed a concept to introduce natural ecosystems into cities with designs for "farmscrapers" made from piles of giant glass pebbles for a site in Shenzhen, China (+ slideshow). More about Asian Cairns by Vincent Callebaut
This leisure centre in Amsterdam by Dutch architects VenhoevenCS was designed as a fortress covered in plants (+ slideshow). More about SportPlaza Mercator by VenhoevenCS
Dutch design studio Tjep. has developed a concept for a self-sufficient retreat with a facade that opens like a cupboard and a moving "solar tree" on the roof (+ slideshow). More about Isolée by Tjep
Vietnamese studio Vo Trong Nghia Architects plans to address the housing crisis in Vietnam by introducing modular homes that use cheap local materials and are easy to assemble. More about Low Cost House by Vo Trong Nghia Architects
News: French designer Philippe Starck and Slovenian engineering company Riko will complete their first sustainable prefabricated wooden house this autumn, as part of a new venture to improve housing standards. More about Philippe Starck to complete first prefab wooden eco-house
Architecture studio Tredje Natur is redesigning a Copenhagen neighbourhood to better handle the floods expected as climate change leads to fewer but heavier rain storms. More about Saint Kjeld’s Kvarter by Tredje Natur
Shanghai architects Polifactory have developed a concept for a rammed earth house that generates energy from a lake on its roof. More about HOUS.E+ by Polifactory
Dezeen Wire: design critic Alice Rawsthorn writes about design that balances desirability with ethical credibility for the New York Times, citing Mathieu Lehanneur's Wi-Fi stations across Paris and Something & Son's temporary spa the Barking Bathhouse as good examples to follow - New York Times