This week on Dezeen, we covered the news that British architect and artist Chris Wilkinson passed away aged 76.

Wilkinson, who co-founded the RIBA Stirling Prize-winning studio WilkinsonEyre, died this week.

He is best known for his contribution to British architecture, having created buildings such as the Magna Science Centre and Gateshead Millennium Bridge, the Mary Rose Museum and the Stratford Market Depot in England.

Following his death, we included the news in our list of the great architects and designers we lost in 2021.

One of our most popular stories of the week was the news that Australian studio Fender Katsalidis topped out its spire-headed skyscraper, making it now the world's second-tallest building.

Standing at 678.9-metres-tall, Merdeka 118 is second only to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which measures 828 metres in height.

In other architecture news, UK practice Zaha Hadid Architects became an employee-owned studio in response to mounting requests to make architecture a "more accessible and egalitarian" profession.

The studio, which was founded by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid in 1980 announced that it has established an employee benefit trust (EBT) and will reinvest all of its profits back into its studio.

In London, residents at Embassy Gardens told Dezeen that they were "livid" with £450 a day heating costs for the transparent swimming pool, which is said to be too cold to use.

The southwest London residents are calling for the Sky Pool, which was completed by Architecture studio HAL earlier this year, to be closed during the colder months to save money and energy.

Wearable technology featured in design news on Dezeen this week. PhD student Iga Węglińska created two tops that remind wearers to practice mindfulness or other techniques that reduce stress.

The garments flash with lights or change colours in response to a rise in heartbeat, sweat or temperature – bodily responses that can occur as a result of stress.

In our ongoing review of 2021, we rounded up ten of the top Chinese architecture projects that we've covered in the past 12 months.

We also pulled together a selection of the year's low carbon buildings, from White Arkitekter's wooden tower in Skellefteå to BakerBrown Studio's wind-powered garden pavilion for the Glyndebourne opera house.

Popular projects this week included an A-shaped cabin in northern Wisconsin, a timber-clad dwelling in Devon and a cool white villa on the Greek island of Paros.

Our lookbooks this week focused on purple interiors that recall Pantone's colour of the year and tactile homes with exposed concrete blockwork.

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.