Dezeen editorial director Max Fraser reflects on this year's LDF, touted by organisers as a full revival of the UK's biggest design festival post-Covid. More about "This year's LDF generally felt energetic and optimistic"
If design is about solving problems we need to start questioning whether new products and furniture are always the answer, writes Katie Treggiden. More about "The design industry needs to let go of its obsession with the new"
Designers and brands must get thinking now about the simple, immediate changes that can make their products more accessible to people living with disabilities, writes Luc Speisser of Landor & Fitch. More about "People living with disabilities are done waiting for accessible designs"
A recent documentary about The Line mega-project in Saudi Arabia paints a bleak picture of the architecture profession, writes Dana Cuff. More about "Why would architects let themselves be so vitiated?"
Discussions about planning and urbanism are awash with talk of "placemaking" but the term remains strangely and troublingly opaque, writes Reinier de Graaf. More about "I have a confession to make: I have no idea what placemaking is"
The inauguration of Muyiwa Oki as RIBA president must become a moment of real, positive change in British architecture, writes Marsha Ramroop. More about "If we're to ask one man to turn this around, that's a heavy task indeed"
AI should be embraced by architects rather than met with scepticism or fear, writes Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher. More about "I am not at all worried about facing the newly empowered competition enabled by AI"
It's time for equitable design to become a priority rather than an afterthought, writes Google's Annie-Jean Baptiste. More about "Space that is exclusionary does not live up to its full potential"
As wildfires exacerbated by climate change wreak increasing havoc around the world, Greg Kochanowski argues it's time for a different approach. More about "The design professions are not stepping up to address the wildfires problem"
Architects need to rethink their part in Britain's dysfunctional relationship with laundry, writes Phineas Harper. More about "Britain's architects should refuse to let moralising snobbery define their approach to laundry"
It's now two years since Thomas Heatherwick's Vessel was closed following a spate of suicides. As the ill-fated project gathers dust, Matt Shaw reflects on what went wrong. More about "The Vessel shows us how bad the vampiric ultra-wealthy are at making public space"
Today is Earth Overshoot Day, marking the date when humanity's consumption of resources exceeds the planet's annual capacity to regenerate them. It should serve as a reminder for designers to take the lead in building a more sustainable future, writes Sian Sutherland. More about "Now is the time for the creative industry to rise up and grab the reins"
Design involving artificial intelligence will always require a human touch, write YuJune Park and Caspar Lam as part of our AItopia series. More about "As machine learning progresses tactile design becomes ever more important"
Architects must start placing greater emphasis on protecting biodiversity in their projects, writes RSHP sustainability lead Michelle Sanchez. More about "By focusing so much on carbon reduction we are neglecting other areas where our industry causes harm"
Market forces are pushing cities towards a shallow and Instagram-friendly impression of authenticity that makes everywhere feel the same, writes David A Banks. More about "Cities are branding themselves into predictably unique products"
Apprenticeships should be more widely available in architecture to provide a route into the profession for people from more diverse backgrounds, writes Ayo Ambali. More about "We must dispel the idea that there is only one way of becoming a qualified architect"
Using AI to help design cities of the future risks creating a regressive world like The Jetsons unless we recognise the technology's susceptibility to stigma and bias, write MIT scientist Fábio Duarte and Washington Fajardo. More about "AI tools are rapidly changing how we imagine the urban environment"
Our collective obsession with cyberpunk narratives risks turning dystopian visions of AI into a self-fulfilling prophecy, writes Freyja Sewell. More about "If everyone believes the future is dystopian, could that cause us to make it dystopian?"
Architecture-branded products like Kith and New Balance's recently released Frank Lloyd Wright sneakers undermine the values of the profession, writes Ryan Scavnicky. More about "Dead architects' names are the perfect secret ingredient for selling loads of mediocre merch"
Placing the Global South at the centre of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale created a spirit of openness and sincerity, write Ewa Effiom, Krish Nathaniel and Aoi Phillips in this review of the event. More about "The usual champagne-socialist pomposity of Venice has been drowned out by a newfound openness"