Opinion: in the aftermath of the Brussels attacks, Rob Alderson asks how illustrations like Plantu's hugging flags and Jean Jullien's Peace for Paris symbol have become part of our "post-terror grammar". More about "Illustrations have become a key component of the response to terrorist atrocities"
Opinion: Discovery Channel series Mythbusters ends this month after 13 years. Will Wiles explains why its high-octane science experiments made viewers think more about the material world than any other TV show. More about "Mythbusters was a miniature weekly Enlightenment for the modern material world"
Opinion: this year's SXSW technology conference may have had Barack Obama as its headliner, but the tone was still surprisingly sombre, says Kieran Long. Are the tech evangelists as worried about the future as the rest of us? More about "It is difficult to feel unreservedly optimistic about the future"
Opinion: "smart" technology promises to make our lives easier by learning what we like and giving us more of it, says Reinier de Graaf. But who will really be in control when the machines know everything about us? More about "Smart devices introduce a fundamental ambiguity over who is in charge"
Opinion: last week, local authorities in Calais began destroying sections of the Jungle – the sprawling refugee and migrant camp that has become a symbol of Europe's immigration crisis. It's time that architects stepped in to help provide a solution that actually works, says architect Jeannie S Lee, who visited the camp with her London studio EVA. More about "The architectural community cannot remain apathetic to Calais' Jungle and the refugee crisis"
Opinion: the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art's temporary move in to the Whitney's old unprotected Breuer building is the result of behind-the-scenes machinations of a major donor. Thank goodness, says Alan G Brake. More about "New York should give Breuer's building lasting protection"
Opinion: LACMA's newly inherited Sheats-Goldstein House could place classic mid-century houses at the heart of Los Angeles' cultural revival, says Mimi Zeiger. More about "What to do with old houses?"
Opinion: after Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde was forced into an awkward discussion about the ownership of his projects, Louise Schouwenberg suggests that "star" individuals shouldn't be getting all the credit. More about "It's about time we rethink the notion of authorship"
Opinion: by walking out of Berlin's Neues Museum with an illicit 3D scan of the bust of Queen Nefertiti, a pair of artists has forced us to question whether conservation is an act of care or a radical form of repression, says Sam Jacob. More about "The copy in contemporary culture is both despised and feared"
Opinion: IKEA has declared "peak stuff" and Apple's sales are levelling out. Something is awry in the consumer design market, says Will Wiles. More about "No one thinks of themselves as designing clutter"
Opinion: when it comes to headline-grabbing proposals, Bjarke Ingels and BIG are becoming increasingly hard to beat – and increasingly divisive among critics. Aaron Betsky explains why he's part of the BIG fan club. More about "Nobody plays with form as well as Bjarke Ingels"
Opinion: Walter Segal's self-build houses in south London and Assemble's Turner Award-winning Granby Four Streets project in Liverpool are rightly celebrated, but they're not the answer to the housing crisis, says Owen Hatherley. More about "The cult of self-build and do-it-yourself won't solve the housing crisis"
Opinion: toy makers have designed a disturbingly codified world for children that says more about adult self-loathing than how kids really want to play, says Sam Jacob. More about "Toys have become small plastic tablets of moral code that we hand down to the next generation"
Opinion: the TED and Pecha Kucha presentation formats have passed their best-before dates, says Lucas Verweij, who thinks it's time for a more honest approach to sharing design industry stories. More about "We're fed up with being fed unrealistic stories of overnight success in design"
Opinion: "intellectual vapidity and weasel-minded corporate ambition" are sucking the life out of architectural criticism. But there is still hope, says Catherine Slessor. More about "Cerebral, self-absorbed, tepid, dull and decorous"
Opinion: as 2015 draws to a close, Will Wiles offers five New Year's resolutions for architecture and design, ranging from less Zaha-bashing to abandoning the idea of favela chic. More about "New Year's resolutions for architecture and design in 2016"
Opinion: municipal architects helped create some of 20th-century Europe's best cityscapes and buildings, says Owen Hatherley. It's time for them to return. More about "Wouldn't buildings be better designed by people who lived in the city where they practiced?"
Opinion: there are concrete tactics that architecture can use to make people feel mentally and socially safe, says Aaron Betsky, but the real question is how we apply them to public buildings and spaces. More about "We face calls for safe houses, safe communities and safe spaces"
Opinion: London auction house Christie's is auctioning off trinkets and clothing from the estate of Margaret Thatcher, one of the UK's most controversial prime ministers. Sam Jacob takes a closer look at some of the items on offer. More about "What would you do with a piece of Thatcher memorabilia?"
Opinion: from drones to driverless buses, robots are seen as a replacement for workers who do society's "dirty, dangerous and dull" jobs. But robotic infrastructure has much wider implications for how our cities work, says Dan Hill. More about "Robots may force us to confront how we treat the people that currently make our cities tick"