Dezeen Wire: the Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom hotel by French architect Jean Nouvel has won the "New Build Hotel" category at The European Hotel Design Awards 2011. More about Jean Nouvel's Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom wins European Hotel Design Award
Five new brands will launch their products at our Christmas pop-up store The Temporium, including a graduate accessory designer, a young duo making hi-tech jewellery and a brand-new fashion label. More about Five new brands to launch at The Temporium
Readers have been discussing "the abundance of introverted architecture that is coming out of Japan" recently, so here's another Japanese house that blocks all views to and from the street but still draws light and air inside. More about MUR by Apollo Architects & Associates
Competition: we've got together with design brand Republic of Fritz Hansen to give readers the chance to win a Kaiser Idell Luxus lamp worth £600. More about Competition: Kaiser Idell Luxus lamp by Republic of Fritz Hansen to be won
Belgian practice MDW Architecture has completed a residential complex in Brussels using industrial materials that reference the site's former use as a scrap metal dealership (photos by Julien Lanoo). More about Le Lorrain by MDW Architecture
Take tea in serene silence with this silicone set by Hong Kong studio Kitmen Keung. More about Silicone Duo by Kitmen Keung
As part of the series of Dezeen Talks filmed at the Inside awards in Barcelona, Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs talks to Alberto Miceli-Farrugia of Architecture Project about their renovation of a property overlooking the Grand Harbour in the Maltese capital of Valletta, which won the creative re-use category.
More about St Barbara Bastions by Architecture Project
Flying robots will assemble a six metre-high tower at the FRAC Centre in Orléans, France, next month. More about Flight Assembled Architecture by Gramazio & Kohler and Raffaello d'Andrea
Dezeen Wire: pioneering multidisciplinary design consultancy Airside has announced that it is to close in March 2012, stating: "we can't see a way for Airside to move forward and accommodate all of our individual ambitions." More about Award-winning design consultancy Airside to close in March 2012
Designers Anna Rosinke and Maciej Chmara of Kollectiv Stadtpark have been touring Austria, making friends with locals in the street at their mobile kitchen table. More about Mobile Gastfreundschaft by Kollectiv Stadtpark
Architecture collective Cityförster have completed a wooden house in the Netherlands with a black rubber skin. More about Rubberhouse by Cityförster
These polished marble blocks by Milanese designer Emanuele Pizzolorusso can be arranged on your desk to make miniature monuments. More about Alpha Beta Gamma by Emanuele Pizzolorusso
Dezeen Wire: a team of engineers based in California have created a material made from a lattice of hollow metallic tubes that they claim is the lightest in the world – BBC
The substance is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and consists of 99.99% air. Tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair are used to create the lattice structure that gives the material it's strength. Potential applications include shock and sound absorption and thermal insulation.
More about "World's 'lightest material' unveiled by US engineers" – BBC
Norwegian architects Fantastic Norway have designed a mountain lodge with a sloping roof that you can ski over. More about Mountain Hill Cabin by Fantastic Norway
The Seoul office of Dutch designers Studio Dumbar has redesigned the national road signage system for South Korea. More about South Korean road signs by Studio Dumbar
Dezeen Wire: in her latest article for The New York Times, design critic Alice Rawsthorn examines the symbols and slogans adopted by the Occupy protest movement in cities around the world.
Rawsthorn explains that the name 'Occupy', which originated at the Occupy Wall Street protest against the banking and democratic system, "is a stellar example of both what is known in marketing as an umbrella brand name and what the anti-corporatists in the movement could call beating them at their own game." She adds that the use of hashtags and slogans short enough to send on social networks such as Twitter have helped the movement spread globally and could represent a new protocol for protesters involving "the repeated use of a few carefully chosen words," rather than images.
More about Occupy movement establishes new protocols of protest design – The New York Times
Amsterdam architects UNStudio have designed a new international airport for Kutaisi, Georgia. More about Kutaisi Airport by UNStudio
Competition: we've teamed up with Australian T-shirt company Hello Fresco to give away six of their latest designs. More about Competition: six Hello Fresco T-shirts to be won
Dezeen Wire: Italian architect Renzo Piano says his London skyscraper, The Shard, will be loved by the public, because "it will be accessible, because it is transparent, understandable and not mysterious" – The Telegraph More about The Shard "will be loved" – Renzo Piano
Dezeen in Israel: these high-heeled shoes that look like inflatable sex dolls are part of a collection of footwear by Tel Aviv designer Kobi Levi. More about Shoes by Kobi Levi