Interieur 2012: Belgian designer Carl de Smet of Noumenon has developed high-tech foam furniture that can be squashed to 5% of its original size for easy transportation and then expanded "like popcorn" by heating it up (+ movie + interview). More about Memories of the Future by Carl de Smet
Competition: Dezeen is giving readers the opportunity to win one of ten Pin World or Pin City wall maps by designers Emanuele Pizzolorusso and Alessandro Maffioletti for Palomar. More about Competition: ten Pin World and Pin City maps to give away
Hackney studio Levitt Bernstein has won a housing design competition with a proposal to turn disused parking garages into tiny pop-up homes. More about Pop-up housing in garages by Levitt Bernstein
World Architecture Festival 2012: architects Kristen Whittle and Ron Billard explain how meerkats, fish and open-plan offices for consultants helped provide better care for sick children at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, the winner in the health category at the World Architecture Festival. More about "We convinced doctors to move to an open-plan wing" - Kristen Whittle and Ron Billard
Design Miami: artist and architect Vito Acconci is to receive the Designer of the Year award at Design Miami in December and has designed a playground (above) to be installed in the Miami Design District. See our recent interview with Acconci. More about Vito Acconci named Design Miami Designer of the Year
Product news: Hackney designer Paul Cocksedge has launched an invisible bookend to find out if people will buy an object for its function rather than its appearance. More about Invisible Bookend by Paul Cocksedge
News: Norwegian studio Snøhetta has won a competition to design a waterside opera house in Busan, South Korea. More about Snøhetta wins competition to design Busan Opera House
News: work is about to start on a high-density, car-free "satellite city" for 80,000 people that will be built from scratch in a rural location close to Chengdu and later replicated in other parts of China. More about Great City by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
News: French practice bureau faceB has won a competition to design a bridge across the Seine in Paris with plans for a wobbling crossing of stretched steel cables. More about Quivering wire crossing by bureau faceB wins Paris bridge competition
In this movie we filmed for the Stepney Green Design Collection, Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs introduces East London creatives Nicolas Roope, Lee Broom, Nina Tolstrup and Phil Cuttance, who explain why east London has become such a hub for designers and the creative industries. More about Stepney Green Design Collection: what is special about East London?
Interieur 2012: beams of light appear to bend into curved gothic arches above this illusory passageway by London design studio Troika at the Interieur design biennale in Kortrijk, Belgium, this week. More about Arcades by Troika
Danish architecture firm BIG has scattered miscellaneous street furniture from 60 different nations across a brightly coloured carpet of grass and rubber at this park in Copenhagen (+ slideshow). More about Superkilen by BIG, Topotek1 and Superflex
Interieur 2012: design fairs need to be better designed to provide a better experience to visitors, according the curator of the Interieur design biennale in Kortrijk, Belgium, which opened this weekend (+ interview). More about Most design fairs "are not designed"
News: the company that makes London's famous taxis, Manganese Bronze Holdings, is going into administration having failed to make a profit since 2007. More about Maker of London cabs goes into administration
News: architect Maurice Shapero has released plans for a cross-shaped skyscraper on the waterfront in Liverpool, England. More about Cross-shaped skyscraper planned for Liverpool
News: Dezeen featured in a presentation of new products by Apple for the second time at an event in San Jose, California, yesterday evening. More about Dezeen featured in Apple's MacBook Pro launch
Dutch Design Week: designer Kiki van Eijk presents a cabinet that opens like a giant sewing box at her studio in Eindhoven this week as part of Dutch Design Week (+ movie). More about Sewing box cabinet by Kiki van Eijk
German practice J Mayer H has replaced the gridded facade of a 1950s office building with organically curved glass and white render. More about Schlump One Hamburg by J Mayer H
London architecture team Softkill Design has designed a conceptual house that would be 3D printed in sections in a factory and fitted together on site (+ interview transcript). More about ProtoHouse by Softkill Design
News: while Foster + Partners think simply increasing capacity is the way to improve New York's Grand Central Terminal, architecture firm SOM has proposed adding a floating observation deck that slides up and down the sides of two new skyscrapers (+ slideshow). More about SOM proposes floating observation deck over Grand Central Terminal