Comments update: the winning design in the much-hyped Guggenheim Helsinki competition was among the most commented stories on Dezeen this week. Read on for more on this, plus other lively comments threads.

Finnish line: little known French-Japanese firm Moreau Kusunoki was named as the designer of the new Guggenheim outpost in Helsinki, but many readers weren't taken with the black-clad design.

"A black building on that scale in a city with little light in winter," wrote Derek_V. "'Very respectful to the site indeed."

Some commenters were concerned about whether the design met the rules of the competition. "Rules are for those who don't otherwise know how to design," retorted Finlandese. "There may have been better ones in the 1700+ entries, but Moreau Kusunoki's plan was way better than the other finalists."

"It's refreshing, and gives me hope to see that the winner is NOT Hadid or Ghery again," agreed regular Dezeen commenter Concerned Citizen. Read the comments on this story »

Eenie-meenie-Mendini: Hackles were raised after Italian designer, theorist and editor Alessandro Mendini told Dezeen that there are "no more ideologies" in design.

"He isn't looking hard enough, and possibly does not know how to see them," wrote Beatrice. "Expecting for established media to represent the shock of the new? That's a failure on his part."

"I believe we are in an era of explosion of meaning," added Warren. "We are exploring new possibilities and multiple ideologies at once."

TFO offered another theory: "True radical change comes with a crisis, the last, most substantive one being industrialisation. We're on the cusp of another – but the formalists need to die off by one or two generations before anything really takes hold... if the world lasts that long." Read the comments on this story »

Tree-hugger: a pair of Royal College of Art graduates designed a system for strapping stairs around the trunk of any tree to create a spiral staircase, but some commenters were worried.

"This will kill the trees! Please stop visually contaminating nature," wrote Guisforyou.

Peter was a bit more eloquent: "Did the designers calculate the pressure on the cambium layer and talk to a biologist to see if it would harm or kill the tree?" he wrote. "That looks like a lot of pressure to me."

"Funny one would feel bad for the tree that carries it, not for the one that was chopped down to carve the steps," retorted Rem. "I think neither cares." Read the comments on this story »

Printer jam: Francis Bitonti, the designer behind the printed dress for Dita von Teese, told Dezeen that 3D printing had stagnated thanks to a combination of toy-like machines, over-priced materials and legal wrangles. Many readers agreed.

"The root problem is that folks don't understand what it takes to take a digital design, move that to physical and then scale," wrote Nate Evans.

"This technology is too important to lose," added Peter W. "Companies need to understand it's not all about selling toys to the masses – we need TOOLS for the masses." Read the comments on this story »