Five years ago this week an all-star lineup of architects comprising Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Tadao Ando released proposals for a cultural complex on an island off the coast of Abu Dhabi. Hadid's designs were for a performing arts centre projecting towards the harbour while Gehry put forward plans for a Guggenheim contemporary art museum, Nouvel proposed a Louvre classical art gallery and Ando designed a maritime museum. All four are currently still in development.
In the Netherlands, a ziggurat-like college by Erick van Egeraat opened its doors for the first time and NL Architects won a competition to design a new civic building in the northern town of Groningen, which is now scheduled to complete in 2016.
We featured images of a hair salon that a few readers thought looked like the set of a horror movie, as well as furniture installations by Jaime Hayon and Studio Job for mosaic brand Bisazza. A steel-clad weekend cabin got many thinking about the practicalities of living out in the wilderness.
See all our stories from February 2007 »