Diller Scofidio + Renfro co-founder Elizabeth Diller has hit out at New York's spate of luxury skyscrapers, saying that the city is at risk of being "consumed by the dollar" (+ interview). More about New York's supertall towers "damage the city fabric" says Elizabeth Diller
Italian brands create "too many products that look the same", says Giulio Cappellini, whose furniture company is making a comeback under new owner Haworth (+ slideshow). More about Italian design needs to go back to its origins, says Cappellini
American architect Tom Kundig has spent decades creating buildings that celebrate rough-and-ready materials and mechanics. In this exclusive interview, he explains how the rise of digital fabrication has affected his design philosophy (+ slideshow). More about "I grew up in a hot-rod culture" says Tom Kundig
Over the past 20 years, former caterer Nick Jones has built Soho House into a global empire of private members clubs, restaurants, spas and now Soho Home, an online homewares store. He sat down with Dezeen to discuss his approach to design (+ slideshow). More about "Above all, design has to be comfortable" says Soho House founder Nick Jones
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is working with MIT's D-Lab to develop design strategies that enable refugees to solve their own problems rather than relying on solutions provided by aid agencies (+ interview). More about UNHCR teams up with MIT's D-Lab to overhaul "very top-down" refugee design strategy
Dezeen promotion: designers can engage with social and political problems that are sometimes too big for governments to tackle, says Richard van der Laken, founder of annual social design conference What Design Can Do (+ interview). More about "Design is always political" says What Design Can Do founder
Brexit crisis: uncertainty following the Brexit vote could prove "almost terminal" for small architecture design firms in the UK, according to a consultant who advises creative businesses. More about Brexit could be "like a heart attack" for UK design firms says consultant
Mexico's luxury resort boom is leading to a surge in demand for locally sourced products, according to Mexican design brand Luteca. More about "Mexico is a booming growth market for design and architecture" says Luteca
Robots could soon be infiltrating urban sewage systems to identify potential outbreaks of disease before they happen, according to architect and MIT professor Carlo Ratti (+ interview). More about Sewage-sampling robots could help eliminate diseases in cities, says MIT architect Carlo Ratti
Designers and brands need to wean themselves off the plastic "drug", according to Parley for the Oceans founder Cyrill Gutsch, who is releasing his organisation's shoes made from recycled ocean plastic with Adidas today (+ interview). More about "Plastic is a design failure" says Parley for the Oceans founder
Milan 2016: Indra Nooyi, CEO of giant food-and-drink conglomerate PepsiCo, established an in-house design team three years ago after noticing the brand's products looked the same as everyone else's. At an event in Milan last month she explained the impact it has had – and why she personally attended the design fair (+ transcript). More about "Design is improving the top line and the bottom line," says PepsiCo CEO
Interview: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopens this month with a Snøhetta-designed extension to its original Mario Botta building. In this interview, Snøhetta partner Craig Dykers explains how he tried not to step on the toes of Botta's Postmodern structure. More about "We could never recreate Mario Botta's SFMOMA" says extension architect Craig Dykers of Snøhetta
Technologies like driverless cars and smart heating systems could end up making cities dysfunctional according to Maarten Hajer, chief curator of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2016 (+ interview). More about "Smart technology is a solution looking for a problem," says Rotterdam Biennale curator
Milan 2016: designers Kram/Weisshaar have created a razor-thin table embedded with hidden circuitry so you can cook dinner and keep plates warm and drinks cold while you dine. More about Kram/Weisshaar's SmartSlab dining table has hidden tech to cook food and chill drinks
Milan 2016: furniture brands are slow to embrace technology and could go out of business as a result, according to American architect and designer Greg Lynn (+ interview). More about Design brands must integrate tech into their furniture or disappear, says Greg Lynn
Zaha Hadid 1950-2016: Zaha Hadid was "part of a mini-rebellion" as a student at London's Architectural Association, setting the tone for the career that followed, says Nicholas Boyarsky, son of former AA director Alvin Boyarsky. In this exclusive interview, he shares some of the drawings from his father's collection, and remembers growing up under Hadid's influence. More about "Zaha stood out from the start" says son of former AA head
Zaha Hadid 1950-2016: in an exclusive interview, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas tells Dezeen about his longstanding friendship with Zaha Hadid and hits out at the West's architecture press for acting as a self-appointed Amnesty International towards her projects in Eastern countries (+ transcript). More about Zaha Hadid was "a combination of beauty and strength" says Rem Koolhaas
American consumers who learned about design through Ikea are starting to appreciate other brands and are "very ready and ripe" for online retailers like Ahalife, according to Shauna Mei, founder of the e-commerce site that has just hired former Net-A-Porter director Christopher Colfer to drive the brand's global expansion (+ exclusive interview). More about "Americans are not savvy when it comes to design brands" says Ahalife founder Shauna Mei
The main character in High Rise, a new movie based on JG Ballard's dystopian novel, is a residential tower that "doesn't care about the people inside it" and is designed by an arrogant architect. Director Ben Wheatley spoke exclusively to Dezeen about the film and why it "isn't a takedown of the architects of the 50s and 60s" (+ interview). More about High Rise is "not a criticism of post-war architecture" says director Ben Wheatley
One of the world's most influential hoteliers and developers, Ian Schrager redefined nightclubs, invented the boutique hotel and is now rethinking luxury apartments. Dezeen spoke to Schrager about his collaborations with architects and designers including Arata Isozaki, Philippe Starck and Herzog & de Meuron (+ interview + slideshow). More about "I called Isozaki and woke him up. I didn't know there was a 13-hour time difference"