This week on Dezeen, an airport designed by Foster + Partners for Mexico City was scrapped midway through construction and a pair of skyscrapers envisioned by SOM were put on hold.

The $13 billion airport – designed by Foster + Partners with Mexican studio Fernando Romero Enterprise – was canned, following a referendum in which just one in every 90 registered voters participated. Local architects have protested the decision, calling the vote "fake", "unlawful" and an example of Mexican politics' endemic "corruption".

Meanwhile in Chicago, plans for a pair of skyscrapers designed by SOM to complement Santiago Calatrava's doomed Spire were halted, after the mayor expressed concerns about the current designs.

In the UK, Peter Zumthor finally completed his Secular Retreat, a holiday home on a Devon hilltop. Built from hand-rammed concrete, more than 10 years after it was commissioned, the house will be available to rent through Alain de Botton's Living Architecture endeavour.

Zumthor told Dezeen that he sees his mission to create buildings that could last for centuries as one of the few things architects can do to counteract climate change. "I can only do so much," he said. "What I do, I do simple buildings."

This week also saw Thomas Heatherwick's shopping centre Coal Drops Yard open to the public. The building comprises two Victorian-era warehouses, connected with curving rooftops that meet at a kissing point.

In a video interview, Heatherwick told Dezeen he hoped that Coal Drops Yard will become a "new heart" for King's Cross.

India laid claim to having the world's tallest statue this week, holding a lavish inauguration ceremony for a 182-metre-high monument to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Michael Graves Architecture and Design ran lift cores through the structure to create a viewing gallery at 153 metres up the statue.

In tech new, Apple announced it has designed the world's greenest laptop. Its new MacBook Air will be made with a 100 per cent recycled alloy shell, halving the computer's carbon footprint.

In the UK, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield and Richard Rogers were among the leading British architects who wrote to prime minister Theresa May, warning that Brexit would have a "devastating" effect on the UK's architecture industry.

And following a massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, designer Yves Béhar responded with a strong graphic denouncing US president Donald Trump for his hate-filled rhetoric.

Japanese brand Muji unveiled designs for a driverless bus that can handle all kinds of weather conditions. The Sensible 4 is public shuttle bus designed to withstand the arctic winters of Finland, where it will debut in 2020.

Another transport design also made the news – Ferrari's Monza SP1 and SP2 both come without a windshield or roof, but feature the company's fastest ever engine.

Popular projects on Dezeen this week included the painstaking restoration of Captain Kelly's cottage in Tasmania, a slender residential building in East Harlem with a pink brickwork facade, and Jean Nouvel's tricolour skyscraper in Marseilles.