News: construction has started in Chengdu, China, on a 468-metre-high crystalline skyscraper by the architects behind the current and future tallest buildings in the world. More about Construction starts on Smith and Gill's ice-inspired skyscraper for Chengdu
Not content with releasing one umbrella this month, Japanese studio Nendo has created a lightweight folding umbrella with a carbon-fibre frame and a cover tucked into its handle. More about Nendo's latest umbrella hides a cover in its handle
The products on sale in this monochrome design shop by Dutch interiors studio i29 are concealed behind a fragmented sequence of signage panels that create an optical illusion (+ slideshow). More about Staggered signage hides the contents of Amsterdam design shop by i29
A screen of hollow concrete bricks provides privacy for students using this shower and changing facility at a Shanghai technical college (+ slideshow). More about Hollow concrete blocks form a textured frontage for Wuyang Architecture's student shower block
Design student Eden Lew has created a prototype for a portable fabric pod called Nutshell that can be used to encase the top half of the body when time out from the workplace is required. More about Nutshell helps workers reclaim "social solitude" by shrouding them in fabric
Studio GAON has converted a concrete factory built 20 years ago in South Korea by the client's late father into a house with a mural-covered facade (+ slideshow). More about Studio GAON converts concrete warehouse into a couple's first home
Comments update: when Apple's Jonathan Ive took to the stage at London's Design Museum, he probably didn't expect his comments on education to become the most hotly debated topic in design this week. More about "Safe to say he's the Kanye West of Apple?"
Design Miami 2014: a wardrobe by Chinese designer Naihan Li shaped like OMA's CCTV tower in Beijing will go on show at Design Miami next month. More about OMA's CCTV building reconstructed as a wooden cabinet
This image was created for Dezeen by London-based illustrator James Burgess to celebrate our 250,000th follower on Twitter. If you don't already, follow us here for all the latest headlines, projects and reader comments from Dezeen.
More about Dezeen has reached 250k Twitter followers!
News: these renderings show what New York's skyline will look like in 2018, when many of the city's new tall skyscrapers will be complete (+ slideshow). More about New York's 2018 skyline revealed in visualisations
News: the typeface used on the recently unveiled Apple Watch has been made available to download alongside a kit of tools for developers who are customising apps for the device. More about Apple releases San Francisco typeface for watch-app developers
News: Loughborough University graduate James Roberts has won this year's James Dyson Award for a baby incubator that costs a fraction of the price of current technologies and "could save thousands of lives" in developing countries. More about "Low-cost" inflatable baby incubator could help slash number of neonatal fatalities
News: these new images show the interiors and exteriors of David Chipperfield's soon-to-complete museum and gallery complex in a converted steel factory in Milan (+ slideshow). More about David Chipperfield's City of Culture nears completion in Milan
News: groups of eight people or more will have to apply for permission to cross Thomas Heatherwick's proposed Garden Bridge in London in a move to discourage "protest groups" from occupying the structure. More about Heatherwick's Garden Bridge will require groups of eight or more to "request a formal visit"
News: 10 architecture firms – seven from the UK and three from the Czech Republic – have been selected via an international design competition to create housing designs for a development on the outskirts of Prague. More about Czech and UK architects win Prague housing project
Dezeen promotion: submissions are now being accepted to exhibit at contemporary design show Ventura Lambrate during the Salone Internazionale del Mobile event in Milan next April. More about Ventura Lambrate 2015 call for entries
Movie: London designer Benjamin Hubert says he and Moroso share a common interest in exploring new ways of using textiles in our penultimate video interview for the Italian furniture brand. More about Benjamin Hubert and Moroso "share a passion for innovations in textile"
Japanese studio Nano Architects has renovated a small 1960s apartment with custom-built wooden furniture, ornamental driftwood and unusually shaped openings – a process described by the team as "cyborg surgery" (+ slideshow). More about Nano Architects remodels 1960s apartment in Japan with curved and letterbox-shaped openings
Beijing-based design team Impossible Technology has created an electric bike that can be folded away and carried in a backpack (+ movie). More about Impossible Technology's electric bicycle folds away into a backpack
This pavilion featuring green walls and a colonnade was designed by Berlin studio Raumlabor to surround a small fountain in the centre of Montreal (+ slideshow). More about Raumlabor builds a grass-covered enclosure around a Montreal fountain