This week on Dezeen, we announced that RIBA has awarded its Royal Gold Medal for 2022 to Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi in recognition of his 70-year career.

Doshi, who was also the first Indian architect to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize, was commended for his work with local technologies and crafts, which the judges said helped to "define the direction of architecture in India".

At age 94, his portfolio spans more than 100 built projects including his own studio, Sangath, in Ahmedabad (top image) and collaborations with Louis Kahn and Le Corbusier.

"The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953 when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal," Doshi said. "Today, six decades later I feel truly overwhelmed to be bestowed with the same award as my guru."

RIBA also announced the winner of its annual House of the Year award – an "intriguing and distinguished" farmhouse extension in Gloucestershire designed by Alison Brooks Architects.

But a survey of the shortlisted projects carried out by British studio Hawkes Architecture revealed that only one out of the 20 projects, McLean Quinlan's Devon Passivhaus, achieved top sustainability grades.

Over in the design world, Pantone unveiled a periwinkle blue shade called Very Peri as its colour of the year for 2022.

The colour was partly informed by the emerging digital universe known as the metaverse, where people were able to experience a parallel life while real-world interactions were limited during the coronavirus pandemic.

But in an opinion piece for Dezeen, Michelle Ogundehin argued that it's time to "reconsider the whole colour of the year carnival."

One of our most popular stories of the week was the news that xenobots, the world's first living robots, have evolved to reproduce in a way that has never before been observed in any other organism.

Researchers say the tiny procreating bots, which are made from stem cells of the African clawed frog, could help to explain the origin of life on Earth.

Elsewhere on Dezeen, our review of 2021 continued with a roundup of the best home interiors we've covered this year.

We also looked at a selection of 2021's most striking staircases, from BIG's double-helix Marsk Tower to a Kengo Kuma design fringed in metal-mesh curtains.

Other projects that proved popular this week include a rugged house in the Argentinian mountains, a Parisian home extension clad in polycarbonate panels and optical-illusion textiles that look different depending on the angle.

Our lookbooks this week focused on classic and contemporary Danish design as well as colourful kindergarten interiors.

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.