What's the difference between design in America and Europe? Is it harder for designers to make a living in the States? Is there any such thing as American design today? To coincide with the opening of our New York office last month, we asked practitioners, curators and observers in the city to give their views. More about "American taste is different" say New York designers
Google has unveiled an interaction sensor that uses radar to translate subtle hand movements into gesture controls for electronic devices, with the potential to transform the way they're designed (+ movie). More about Google's Project Soli turns hand gestures into digital controls using radar
3D-printing pioneer Janne Kyttanen has used the structures of spiderwebs and silkworm cocoons to inform the design of a sofa that he printed in a single piece. More about Janne Kyttanen builds 3D-printed sofa from a minimal mesh
Architects including Steven Holl and Bjarke Ingels have created Lego buildings for an installation by artist Olafur Eliasson on the High Line in Manhattan (+ slideshow). More about OMA, Renzo Piano, BIG and Steven Holl build Lego structures for Olafur Eliasson installation
A headset that shows cyclists safer routes through the city in realtime and a projectable blind-spot visualisation for buses and lorries are among the speculative prototypes developed by a team from Future Cities Catapult (+ movie). More about Prototype designs use augmented reality to make urban cycling safer
German typographer Erik Spiekermann has designed his first accessories collection – a range of scarves and pocket squares with a gridded design based on printed systems of measurement (+ slideshow). More about Erik Spiekermann's first fashion accessories are printed like wearable graph paper
Movie: the Liminal – Irish design at the threshold exhibition presents work by Irish designers embracing both traditional craft techniques and new digital technology, explains co-curator Alex Milton in this movie filmed in Milan. More about Exhibition showcasing Irish design presents "a fusion between the old and the new"
Designer and researcher Neri Oxman has successfully 3D-printed one of her "wearable skins" and filled its hollow tubes with a bacterial luminescent liquid to represent how it could host photosynthetic organisms (+ slideshow). More about Neri Oxman 3D prints "photosynthetic wearable" to host living organisms
The L Series by New York studio Assembly Design is a modular collection of shelves and tables supported by poles that poke up through the horizontal surfaces (+ slideshow). More about Legs protrude through tabletops in Assembly Design's L Series
These sculptural helmets by digital art studio FIELD incorporate Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets (+ movie). More about FIELD creates sculptural virtual reality helmets for Violescence exhibition
Business news: Moooi CEO Casper Vissers is to step down from the company, 14 years after co-founding the Dutch furniture and lighting brand with designer Marcel Wanders. More about Moooi co-founder and CEO Casper Vissers steps down after 14 years
New York 2015: New York designer Alexander Gendell has added a chair that pops out of an artwork to his Folditure collection of fold-flat furniture (+ movie). More about Alexander Gendell's latest folding chair pops out of a wall mural
French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have created a range of wavy-edged ceramic vases that nestle together as a group (+ slideshow). More about Cloud vases by the Bouroullec brothers fit together in clusters
New York 2015: design student Maxime Loiseau has created a set of prototype headphones that transmit sound through printed electronics. More about Maxime Loiseau's streamlined headphones feature printed electronics
An exhibition at New York's Museum of Arts and Design celebrates the work of Ralph Pucci, whose mannequin designs chronicle changes in visual culture over more than 30 years (+ slideshow). More about Ralph Pucci's fashion mannequins "mirror how we want to see ourselves"
Israeli artist Daniel Rozin has designed an interactive "mirror" from faux-fur bunches that change colour to create moving silhouettes (+ movie). More about PomPom Mirror creates "reflections" with tufts of fur
London Festival of Architecture 2015: visitors to this London "sleeperie" can take a 10-minute nap in a colourful sling within a dimly-lit room, where soothing music is played and all technology is banned (+ slideshow). More about Hassell and Draisci Studio create "London's first sleeperie" to encourage daytime naps
Geneva-based architect Aurélie Monet Kasisi has designed a mobile stand based on street-food carts to travel around Switzerland as a promotional vehicle for a suicide prevention organisation. More about Mobile suicide prevention station is based on street-food stands
Belgian artists Studio Job have created a room "filled with frivolous expression" for the newly expanded Swarovski Kristallwelten attraction in Austria (+ movie). More about Studio Job installs giant crystal-encrusted model at Swarovski theme park
Dezeen promotion: proposals are now being accepted for PeruDesignNet's Ideas Competition, with a chance to win a place at the international creative event in Lima commencing in September. More about Call for entries to PeruDesignNet's Ideas Competition