Dezeen archive

Today we like: New York skyscrapers
Famous architects from David Chipperfield to Herzog & de Meuron, Norman Foster and Álvaro Siza are working on residential towers in Manhattan.
But the wave of skinny skyscrapers, mainly filled with luxury apartments, has sparked protests over shadows in Central Park. It has also prompted concerns over spiralling inequality in the city, with Steven Holl warning that "architecture with a sense of social purpose is becoming increasingly rare" in the city. See more New York skyscrapers »
Anna Winston | 20 November 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: sex toys
A bright pink sex toy-cum-furniture piece that can be mounted like a vaulting horse is among this week's most-read stories on Dezeen. Other popular pleasure devices in our archives include a blown-glass clockwork vibrator, a dildo with a compartment for storing the ashes of a deceased partner and a device that doubles as a pendant necklace. Explore more design for sex »
Anna Winston | 7 November 2015 | 1 comment
Today we like: bones
Happy Halloween! We're celebrating by resurrecting osseous designs from our archives, including skull-shaped chairs, toys made from fish bones and a restaurant decorated with skeletons. See all our stories about bones »
For more scary design, check our dedicated Pinterest board.
Dan Howarth | 31 October 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: champagne
It's Global Champagne Day, so we're raising a coupe to designs created for the bubbly beverage. Our archive includes a Hong Kong bar, a combined champagne and canapé holder, and a glass moulded from Kate Moss' left breast. See more design for champagne »
Dan Howarth | 23 October 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: design that looks like drawings
Nendo and Thomas Feitchner are among designers that have created products resembling precise line drawings, fluid pen strokes and messy scribbles. See more design that looks like drawings »
Dan Howarth | 19 October 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: coffee
Today is International Coffee Day, so celebrate by browsing the unusual and innovative designs for caffeinated drinks on Dezeen. A set of cups made from used coffee grounds, a concrete espresso machine and packaging for coffee-flavoured beer all feature in our archive. See more design for coffee »
Dan Howarth | 1 October 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: carbon-fibre furniture
Carbon fibre is ideal for furniture design due to its light weight relative to its high strength. Nendo recently embedded the material into expandable shelves, while designers including Kris Lamba, Thomas Feichtner and Marcel Wanders have all used carbon fibre to create sculptural chairs. See more design with carbon fibre »
Dan Howarth | 20 September 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: design using bacteria
Designer Ori Elisar has developed a bacterial ink and grown typographical symbols in a petri dish. Here are more stories featuring microbes, including a lamp powered by glowing octopus bacteria (pictured), clothes grown from single-cell organisms and cheese made from the sweat and tears of celebrities.
See all our stories about design using bacteria »
Marcus Fairs | 14 September 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: magnets
Magnets have long been used as a way of creating temporary connections for products as diverse as flat-pack furniture and bike lights. But now designers are finding increasingly weird and wonderful uses for them, with recent examples including wallpaper, spiky shoes, fluid clocks, and even a hoverboard. See all of our stories about design with magnets »
Anna Winston | 27 August 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: buildings on stilts
Stilts allow architects to build on difficult terrains, or to simply offer their clients better views of the surroundings. Recent examples include a woodland writer's cabin and a student-built viewing platform, while popular projects from the archive include a clifftop house near Sydney and an elevated tea house in Japan. See more buildings on stilts »
Amy Frearson | 25 August 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: crowdfunding
Once the preserve of independent product designers, crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter are evolving into powerful tools for financing and testing public appetite for architecture and infrastructure projects.
Recent examples include BIG's campaign to raise money for a prototype power plant chimney and a pedestrian bridge described as the "world’s first crowdfunded public infrastructure project". See more crowdfunded projects on Dezeen »
Anna Winston | 20 August 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: floating architecture
Floating architecture is becoming more common as architects explore ways to make the most of picturesque locations, deal with rising floodwaters, and alleviate pressure on available land. Examples range from tiny cabins to entire cities, and include the UK's "first amphibious house". See more stories about floating architecture »
Dan Howarth | 12 August 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: architecture in Vietnam
As Vietnam continues to invest in its tourist industry, all sorts of new architecture has been springing up in the country – from traditional thatched and bamboo structures by architects like Vo Trong Nghia and a21studio, to a 460-metre skyscraper underway in Ho Chi Minh City. See more stories about architecture in Vietnam »
Amy Frearson | 4 August 2015 | 1 comment
Today we like: weathering steel
Weathering steel – often known by the brand name Corten – continues to remain popular with architects. The pre-rusted metal, which is created when chemicals are used to speed up the oxidisation process, has recently been used to clad a Brisbane community centre and a mountaintop family retreat. The rust forms a weatherproof layer of protection. See all our stories about weathering steel »
Dan Howarth | 31 July 2015 | 3 comments
Today we like: trainers
It's been a big week for trainers: Converse has redesigned its classic Chuck Taylor All Star for the first time in almost 80 years while Zaha Hadid and Pharrell Williams have collaborated on a pair of Adidas shell toes (pictured). See all our stories about sneakers »
Marcus Fairs | 30 July 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: handmade bricks
Architects are beginning to rediscover the potential of handmade bricks, which offer wider variations of colour and texture than their industrially produced cousins. Recent examples include an asymmetric house in Belgium, a canal-side development in London and a housing complex in Rwanda. Explore more handmade brick architecture »
Anna Winston | 28 July 2015 | 1 comment
Today we like: mirrored buildings
Mirrored buildings that reflect their surroundings or appear not to be there are popular right now. Recent examples include this eye-deceiving desert shack, a mirror-clad woodland installation and a camouflaged countryside gallery. See all our stories about mirrored buildings »
Dan Howarth | 24 July 2015 | 1 comment
Today we like: perforated metal facades
Cladding a building with perforated metal is an easy way for architects to enliven the facade of an otherwise simple structure, like this honeycomb-patterned office in Germany.
Other examples on Dezeen include a truck-driving school in Paris, a water-cooling facility in Ohio and a parking garage in Miami. See all our stories about perforated metal facades »
Dan Howarth | 20 July 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: bicycles
The "world's lightest and most compact electric bike" has surpassed its crowdfunding goal in just two days.
Check out all the bicycles we've featured on Dezeen, including a design that folds into a backpack and a bike with a frame made from cardboard. See all our stories about bicycles »
Dan Howarth | 17 July 2015 | Leave a comment
Today we like: kinetic architecture and moving buildings
This week Bjarke Ingels unveiled plans to enliven Battersea Power Station with electric sparks (after designing a power plant that blows smoke rings) while Henning Larsen completed a building with a moving facade.
Here's a reminder of all our stories about architecture that moves, including a building that flaps its wings like a giant insect and a house with rotating bedrooms. See all our stories about moving architecture »
Marcus Fairs | 15 July 2015 | 1 comment