Dezeen's review of the year: January 2013
To finish the year we're rounding up the biggest news stories and most popular projects from each month, starting with January. We kicked off 2013 with a focus on 3D printing, as the race began to 3D-print a house (pictured).
3D printing
Nokia became the first mass manufacturer to release open-source 3D-print files and Foster + Partners announced proposals to take 3D printing to the moon.
A desktop recycling plant was designed so users could turn plastic objects into 3D-printing filament to fuel their printing appetites and the technology sparked a boom for home-printed sex toys.
Copying
Copying was also in the news, as Zaha Hadid's Wanjing Soho complex in Beijing was imitated elsewhere in China and American furniture brand Emeco settled a legal dispute over a ripped-off version of its classic Navy Chair.
Most popular
Of all our stories in January, a glass office building disguised as a barn by MVRDV was the most popular.
This was followed by Sruli Recht's decision to have a slice of skin removed from his belly, which he used to make a ring.
A five-storey Tokyo townhouse fronted by a stack of gardens came in third.
Next was another house in Japan, this time with a shimmering glass-brick facade that provides glimpses of a tree-filled courtyard behind.
Rounding off the top five was the aptly named X House, with a cross-shaped plan that projects over the edge of a hillside near Barcelona.
Dezeen's month
At the beginning of the year Dezeen launched World Design Guide, an online guide to the key architecture and design events around the world. Dezeen was also featured in a list of the 50 top websites you can't live without by UK newspaper The Times.
We began our year's travelling in Germany, and our reports from the imm Cologne furniture and product fair included a DIY kit for making curtains by the Bouroullec brothers. Our next stop was Maison & Objet outside Paris, where Benjamin Hubert launched a range of terracotta pots with rubber lids and a ceramic lamp.
See all our stories from January 2013 »