Concrete facades could soon capture solar energy to power buildings, using a prototype photovoltaic cladding developed by materials company LafargeHolcim and electronics manufacturer Heliatek. More about Photovoltaic concrete facade uses sunlight to generate energy
Silicon Valley companies including Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook are threatening democracy by usurping governments as the key provider of public spaces and services, according to a new book examining the rising power of tech giants. More about "Whole chunks of our environment are being privatised" says Silicon States author Lucie Greene
Samsung has revealed a prototype of its long-awaited foldable smartphone, which allows consumers to own a tablet and a phone in one device. More about Samsung unveils Infinity Flex smartphone that unfolds to become a tablet
Gadi Amit's studio New Deal Design has collaborated with tech start-up Helm to create a home server to save people from "being caught up in the next massive online breach". More about Helm Personal Server lets users take control of their data security
University of Cape Town researcher Suzanne Lambert has created a zero-waste building material made with human urine, which hardens at room temperature, as an alternative to environmentally taxing kiln-fired bricks. More about Bio-bricks made from human urine could be environmentally friendly future of architecture
A team led by US architect David Hertz has developed an energy-efficient technology for harvesting fresh drinking water from the air, which is contained within a shipping container for easy transport. More about WEDEW turns air into drinking water by creating artificial clouds in shipping container
New York design studio Breakfast has combined elements of the brick with the pixel to make Brixels, a building block for moving architectural art. More about Brixels are modular blocks that can be combined to create moving walls
Japanese brand Muji has revealed designs for an autonomous shuttle bus built for all weather conditions, set to hit the roads in three Finnish cities by 2020. More about Muji designs "friendly" autonomous shuttle bus for Finland
Pratt Institute graduate Jae-Hyun An has created a prosthetic leg that allows amputees to perform ballet like never before. More about Prosthetic leg for amputees designed by Jae-Hyun An to encourage new genre of ballet
A double-curved concrete shelled pavilion, constructed using a 3D-knitted formwork developed by Zaha Hadid Architects and ETH Zurich, has gone on display in Mexico City. More about Zaha Hadid Architects and ETH Zurich debut concrete pavilion with 3D-knitted formwork
Apple has launched a MacBook Air with a 100 per cent recycled aluminium alloy shell, reducing the carbon footprint of the computer by almost half. More about Apple designs "greenest Mac ever"
Dutch designer Marjan van Aubel has developed a self-powered hydroponic rooftop greenhouse that generates solar energy to optimise good conditions for growth, in a bid to tackle the issue of food shortages. More about Marjan van Aubel's rooftop "greenhouse of the future" aims to solve food shortages
An artwork created by Paris-based art collective Obvious using artificial intelligence has been sold at Christie's auction house in New York for nearly half a million dollars. More about Christie's sells AI-created artwork painted using algorithm for 2,000
Self-driving cars should swerve to protect young people over the elderly and humans over animals, according to the Moral Machine survey of more than two million people, conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. More about MIT surveys two million people to set out ethical framework for driverless cars
London-based eyewear brand Kite has teamed up with Benjamin Hubert's design agency Layer to launch a service that takes 3D scans of customers' faces, then uses them to produce perfectly fitting frames. More about Kite offers eyewear that is 3D-printed to fit exact measurements of any face
Students from Sweden's Umeå Institute of Design have created a minimal, low-cost earthquake alarm that is also a source of calm during non-destructive incidents. More about Terra alarm alerts people before an earthquake hits
Swiss company Küschall has made a wheelchair it claims is the world's lightest, using wonder material graphene. More about Superstar is a graphene wheelchair that promises strength and lightness
The Chinese city of Chengdu is planning to launch an illumination satellite disguised as an artificial moon within the next two years, as a replacement for its street lights. More about Chengdu plans to launch artificial moon to replace its street lights
San Francisco might put the brakes on Uber and Lyft, after a new report has pinned the city's worsening congestion on the ride-sharing services. More about Uber and Lyft blamed for San Francisco's congested streets
If humans can't reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, can we design our way out of climate-change catastrophe? Last week's UN report shone a light on geoengineering, a discipline that proposes large-scale interventions to counteract global warming. So what ideas are geoengineers proposing? More about Five geoengineering solutions proposed to fight climate change