We're celebrating America's Independence Day today with a roundup of Dezeen's favourite US projects from this year, including a floating skate ramp, a house designed to look like a shadow in the desert and a residence blasted out of the rocks near Seattle (+ slideshow). More about Five of Dezeen's favourite American projects from 2014
News: Dezeen has been highly commended at the Association of Online Publishers Awards 2014, with judges describing the site as "stunningly beautiful". More about "Stunningly beautiful" Dezeen is highly commended in digital publishing awards
Dutch studio Scholten & Baijings has created a collection of interior fabrics for New York textiles brand Maharam with a pattern large enough to upholster an entire sofa without repetition. More about Scholten & Baijings design fabric with nine-metre pattern repeat
This week's job of the week on Dezeen Jobs is a position for an experienced architect at Herzog & de Meuron, whose extension to the Swiss headquarters of insurance company Helvetia is pictured. Visit the ad for full details or browse other architecture and design opportunities on Dezeen Jobs.
More about Job of the week: experienced architect at Herzog & de Meuron
A fluted fibreglass wall surrounds this temporary Maggie's Centre in Merseyside, England, designed by London studio Carmody Groarke to offer support to those affected by cancer. More about Maggie's Merseyside by Carmody Groarke features a fluted facade
World Architecture Festival 2014: the shortlist for this year's World Architecture Festival awards has been announced, including a cyclone-proof house, an Australian plant archive, an underground maritime museum by BIG and OMA's colossal De Rotterdam skyscraper (+ slideshow). More about World Architecture Festival 2014 awards shortlist announced
An exhibition by Dutch curator Li Edelkoort at Israel's Design Museum Holon brings together the series of folding clothing by Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, alongside work by designers Patricia Urquiola, Marcel Wanders and the Bouroullec brothers (+ slideshow). More about Li Edelkoort exhibits Issey Miyake garments at Design Museum Holon
The age-defining rings of a tree stump provided the starting point for this small round house planned by design collective Penda for a wood-carving artist in Beijing (+ slideshow). More about Penda's doughnut-shaped House O is based on the form of a tree stump
Central Saint Martins graduate Robert Cooper has created chocolate and wafer snacks that can be built into Airfix-style models, which are on display at the New Designers Part 2 exhibition that opened yesterday (+ slideshow). More about Airfix-style model kits by Robert Cooper are made from chocolate and wafer
The second project on Dezeen today from Swedish architecture office Wingårdhs is an eight-storey residential building constructed entirely from wood in the Stockholm suburb of Sundbyberg. More about Wingårdhs completes prefabricated apartment block built entirely from wood
Huge wooden barrels traditionally used in the making of soy sauce are suspended over the heads of customers at this shop designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates for a sauce manufacturer in Nihonbashi, Tokyo (+ slideshow). More about Kengo Kuma suspends wooden barrels over Japanese soy-sauce shop
An immersive exhibition demonstrating creative uses of computer coding – from vintage video games to animated robots – opens today at the Barbican Centre in London (+ slideshow). More about Barbican's Digital Revolution exhibition celebrates creative computer coding
Competition: we've teamed up with publisher Verso to give away five copies of Radical Cities, the new book by curator, critic and Dezeen columnist Justin McGuirk. More about Competition: win a copy of Radical Cities by Justin McGuirk
Dezeen and MINI Frontiers: designer and inventor Dominic Wilcox explains why he is making a stained-glass driverless car for our Dezeen and MINI Frontiers exhibition in September. More about Dominic Wilcox to build driverless car made out of stained glass
Musician Pharrell Williams has worked with Dutch fashion brand G-Star Raw to create a denim collection made from waste plastic scooped up from the ocean. More about Pharrell Williams and G-Star RAW transform ocean plastic into denim collection
Dezeen Mail issue 209 includes a vaginal activity tracker designed to help strengthen pelvic floor muscles, reactions to Zaha Hadid winning the Design of the Year prize, and Lego Minifigures hacked to create holders for iPhone cables. Click through for the latest news, jobs and reader comments from Dezeen.
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Children attending this nursery in Spain by Pamplona studio Taller Básico de Arquitectura enter through an angular concrete corridor carved out of the building's faceted shell (+ slideshow). More about Faceted concrete corridor welcomes children to Taller Básico de Arquitectura's nursery
Activity trackers are becoming more personal – instead of fitting around the wrist, this grenade-shaped product inserts into the vagina to help strengthen pelvic floor muscles and vibrates to give workout feedback. More about Vibrating kGoal activity tracker monitors vaginal exercises
News: Frank Gehry has unveiled yet another reworked design for the proposed skyscraper complex in his home city of Toronto, reducing the number of towers from three to two. More about Gehry scales back Canadian skyscraper scheme to be "more Toronto"
Swedish architecture firm Wingårdhs has completed a university auditorium in a Stockholm suburb with a patterned glass facade that twists and leans over the adjacent street (+ slideshow). More about Glass triangles animate facade of Wingårdh's auditorium for Karolinska Institutet