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 »
Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Manon van Hoeckel is crowdfunding her In Limbo Embassy – a travelling office that aims to facilitate open discussion around immigration in the Netherlands. More
CRG Architects has unveiled a proposal to replace slum housing with a pair of skyscrapers comprising stacks of brightly coloured shipping containers. More
This footwear from the Swiss Barefoot Company is designed to protect wearers' feet by wrapping them in Dyneema – a fabric stronger than steel and Kevlar (+ slideshow). More
Curving glass walls enclose bamboo-planted courtyards in this tea house, which occupies a formerly derelict building complex in one Beijing's ancient neighbourhoods (+ slideshow). More
Space Group Architects has renovated a 19th-century house in east London, adding details inspired by Minimalist artists and a sunken glass-walled extension (+ slideshow). More
Architectural designer James Furzer has developed a modular homeless shelter that would hang off the sides of existing buildings, and launched a campaign on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to finance a prototype. More
These underpants created by British scientist Joseph Perkins are woven with a silver mesh to protect sperm from radiation emitted by Wi-Fi-enabled devices. More
Zaha Hadid has created a swooping canopy for New York's High Line – in an area of the elevated park abutting the construction site for a building designed by the architect. More
A glass "sky pool" is planned to be suspended between apartment blocks in London's new Nine Elms quarter, close to Battersea Power Station. More
LA-based CHA:COL has completed a "bare bones" office for tech startups that features a retrofitted shipping container and a wooden bleacher that doubles as a storage unit (+ slideshow). More
Austrian arts collective Neon Golden has created an immersive light installation that mimics the movements of fireflies (+ slideshow). More
Australian architect Tim Angus has added a garden room to his mother's Melbourne residence using dark wooden rafters recycled from an old warehouse (+ slideshow). More
Students from the Institute of Architecture and Design Chihuahua have used scaffolding, wood and fabric to turn a disused park fountain into a shaded urban spa for local residents (+ slideshow). More
This small family chapel in rural Austria has a white concrete shell and glass gable walls, allowing views right through the building to the rolling countryside beyond (+ slideshow). More
Open-source furniture company Opendesk has created customised workspace fittings for self-build computer brand Kano (+ slideshow). More
Prompted by the client's love of the Tin Man character in the Wizard of Oz, architect Jun Sekino left the steel framework of this Bangkok house exposed inside and out (+ slideshow). More
Architecture studio Penda has devised a modular facade system for a high-rise block in Vijayawada, India, that will allow residents to customise the appearance of the building with hanging gardens and balcony details (+ slideshow). More
Pharrell Williams has launched his third collection with G-Star RAW, which includes denim garments made using recycled plastic removed from the oceans. More
Zurich citizens can now relieve themselves at a pink marble public pissoir, installed at an open-air car park by local architecture firm Bureau A (+ slideshow). More