Opinion: Kieran Long responds to the recent closure of ten London fire stations, arguing that architecture built for a specific purpose and location is far more valuable to a city's sense of place than generic, pragmatic solutions. More about "London's fire station closures represent the inevitable carelessness of contemporary cities"
Dezeen Mail issue 187 includes the Google Glass collection of spectacles and sunglasses, a house with glass floors instead of windows (pictured) plus the latest news, jobs and reader comments from Dezeen.
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News: Swiss firm Harry Gugger Studio and Boston office over,under have teamed up to design Central America's largest museum of Mayan history and culture for a site in Guatemala City. More about Central America's largest museum of Mayan culture to be built in Guatemala
The faceted forms of these 3D-printed wireframe bowls and vessels by French designer Michaël Malapert are inspired by the Japanese art of origami. More about Dark Side collection of 3D printed vessels by Michaël Malapert
A curving timber-clad wall divides the work space from a multipurpose meeting room at the offices of domohomo architects in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. More about Architecture studio with a bulging wall by domohomo architects
Spanish architects Josemaria de Churtichaga and Cayetana de la Quadra-Salcedo have built themselves a rural retreat with wooden walls, projecting terraces, and a brilliant yellow door and chimney (+ slideshow). More about Churtichaga + Quadra-Salcedo built their Four Seasons House in an idyllic meadow
Stockholm 2014: the wooden base of this sofa by Swedish firm Note Design Studio extends outwards to become a side table. More about Side table extends from base of Rise sofa by Note Design Studio
Toshiharu Naka of Tokyo-based Naka Studio added an asymmetric roof with overhanging eaves to this house in a Japanese skiing village to create a huge sheltered terrace for residents (+ slideshow). More about Cedar-clad villa by Naka Studio shelters a huge terrace beneath its roof
Students from Łódź University of Technology in Poland built this delicate stacked sculpture to demonstrate the structural properties of curve-folded paper. More about Fragile Beasts sculpture made from paper by Łódź University of Technology students
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: in this movie filmed at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, artist Gijs van Bon shows us his machine called Skryf, which prints a trail of sand behind it to form letters on the ground. More about Gijs van Bon's Skryf machine "writes poems on the ground with sand"
Maison&Objet 2014: Catalan designer Eugeni Quitllet has taken the silhouettes of famous modernist chairs and amalgamated them into the back of this bar stool. More about Famous modernist chair shapes merged into a bar stool by Eugeni Quitllet
News: Danish design brand Carl Hansen & Søn has changed its logo back to one originally created by legendary furniture designer Hans J. Wegner in 1950, in honour of the 100th anniversary of his birth. More about Carl Hansen & Son adopts logo designed by Hans J. Wegner in 1950
Portuguese architect Álvaro Fernandes Andrade has completed a training facility for Olympic-standard rowers where angular white volumes snake across a tiered landscape of grassy slopes and dry-stone walls (+ slideshow). More about Rowing facility by Álvaro Fernandes Andrade snakes across a landscape of underground dorms
Zaha Hadid Architects is one of 11 international firms designing a studio apartment at a new McDonald's charity house in Hamburg to accommodate the relatives of children receiving hospital treatment nearby (+ slideshow). More about Zaha Hadid designs apartment for Ronald McDonald charity house
British studio Snook Architects has overhauled a dilapidated eighteenth-century barn in Yorkshire to create a modern home with chunky wooden trusses, exposed brickwork and a double-height family kitchen (+ slideshow). More about Old Yorkshire barn converted into a modern home by Snook Architects
Maison&Object 2014: perforated 3D-printed shades diffuse the glow from lamps in this collection by Italian designer Alessandro Zambelli. More about 3D-printed shades diffuse light from Afillia lamps by Alessandro Zambelli for .exnovo
Our second project this week from South Korean studio Mass Studies is a series of cafe and exhibition pavilions scattered across the rocky grounds of a museum at the Seogwang Dawon tea plantation on Jeju Island (+ slideshow). More about Mass Studies adds three pavilions to Korean tea museum
News: New York technology firm Squarespace has published a statement slamming criticism that its new service for creating logos demeans the role of the graphic designer. More about Squarespace rejects claims its online logo design tool is "a replacement for professional designers"
Dezeen and MINI World Tour: Amsterdam designer Pieke Bergmans explains that she used a process similar to glass blowing to create the plastic lighting she exhibited during Dutch Design Week 2013 in Eindhoven. More about Pieke Bergmans' blown-plastic VAPOR lighting "grows like a plant or animal"
Berlin collective The T-Shirt Issue has sliced up jersey fabric to create four faceted garments that capture stages of a sweatshirt melting into the ground (+ slideshow). More about Sweatshirt by The T-Shirt Issue appears to melt