Most Loved: in the next movie in our exclusive video series, London designer Tord Boontje explains how the decorative paper lampshade he designed in 2004 challenged the dominance of Minimalist design. More
Slides and climbing frames connect brightly coloured playrooms in this kindergarten and play space by Crossboundaries, set within a formerly derelict building in Zhengzhou, China (+ slideshow). More
Pressed plants and colourful petals are frozen within these glass plates by German designer Meike Harde. More
Canadian studio Cargo Architecture used a restrained materials palette for this woodland vacation cottage in Quebec, which has a swing seat and a wood store built into its facade. More
New images of architect Jeanne Gang's Vista Tower in Chicago have been released to entice buyers to purchase luxury condominiums within the supertall skyscraper (+ slideshow). More
Bay Area illustrator Peter Berkowitz has constructed a tiny wooden bedroom for himself in a friend's living room to avoid paying San Francisco's "absurdly high" rents. More
Belarussian designer Constantin Bolimond has created a modular sex gadget made up of elements that differ in shape, texture and colour, and provide a variety of vibration, rotation and temperature settings (+ slideshow). More
Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron has completed a new gallery to house the permanent collection of the Frank Gehry-designed Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. More
Opinion: temporary architecture is having a "moment" in Europe, and it has some serious lessons to offer architects that are still obsessed with permanence, says Aaron Betsky. More
A group of aviation experts has unveiled plans for a supersonic speed plane named Boom, which is being developed as a replacement for Concorde. More
Fed up with the beauty ideals portrayed in the media, designers are challenging body image with products, clothes and accessories that distort the figure and face, highlight preconceptions and poke fun at unrealistic trends. Here are 10 of the best we've seen. More
Apollo Architects & Associates has completed a top-heavy building in Japan's Aichi Prefecture containing both an art gallery and a family residence (+ slideshow). More
Comments update: unrealistic body-image expectations are the hot topic this week, after Soo Kyung Bae created a collection of jewellery designed to highlight the area between a woman's thighs. More
Layers of compacted earth form walls for this house by architecture studio Blaanc, which is set in the middle of a vineyard in Portugal's Montijo municipality (+ slideshow). More
Adult sex toys are in the midst of a design revolution, says Rita Catinella Orrell, who has written a book on the subject called Objects of Desire. More
US design studio Brook&Lyn has used pastel-coloured panels and a huge circular mirror to create the first physical showroom for Everlane, at the online clothing retailer's San Francisco headquarters (+ slideshow). More
London design studio Bompas & Parr has used bioluminescent algae to create a collection of orb-shaped necklace pendants that glow when shaken. More
A slatted wooden screen wraps around the extended living space of this 1960s bungalow in Sydney, forming a protective surface that shields the interior from direct sunlight and views from the street (+ slideshow). More
US designers Yitan Sun and Jianshi Wu have proposed transforming Manhattan's Central Park into a sunken landscape encircled by a below-grade megastructure with office, housing, retail and cultural space. More
American consumers who learned about design through Ikea are starting to appreciate other brands and are "very ready and ripe" for online retailers like Ahalife, according to Shauna Mei, founder of the e-commerce site that has just hired former Net-A-Porter director Christopher Colfer to drive the brand's global expansion (+ exclusive interview). More