Introducing The Design Book

Phaidon Editor Joe Pickard previews our compact yet authoritative compendium of product design

Joe Pickard with The Design Book

MVRDV reinvents city living in Switzerland

Dutch architects rip up design brief and come up with something entirely different

Housing, Emmen, Switzerland - MVRDV

Three new library designs put books front of mind

As their role within society changes, big name architects are queueing up to create new libraries

Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale Library, Caen - OMA

Simon Starling sets his sights on the stars

The Turner-Prize winner's new work draws from the southern hemisphere's late Great Melbourne Telescope

From In Speculum (2013) by Simon Starling

Alvar Aalto’s Artek Stool 60 gets a makeover

Rei Kawakubo, Tom Dixon, Mads Nørgaard and Monocle Magazine rework the design classic for its 80th birthday

Artek Stool 60 - Alvar Aalto, Mike Meiré

How posters survive and thrive in a digital age

New York show Graphic Advocacy shows how the form is still the cornerstone of effective communication

Occupy Oakland by R. Black (2011); Renewable Electrification Series - Solar by Eric Benson (2008); Saudi Women to Drive by Mohammad Sharaf (2011) all from Graphic Advocacy

New UN HQ is inaugurated in Copenhagen

Architect 3XN follows up its jaw-dropping Blue Planet Aquarium in the city with new star shaped building

UN City, Copenhagen - 3XN

Maurizio Cattelan covers windows in Toilet Paper

Images from Italian artist's biannual magazine, Toilet Paper adorn the windows of Palais de Tokyo in Paris

Maurizio Cattelan's Toilet Paper images on the windows of Paris' Palais de Tokyo

Zaha Hadid's new Baku building up for two awards

Heydar Aliyev Centre is short-listed for prizes at the World Architecture Festival and the Inside Festival

The Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku by Zaha Hadid

Designed to be different

French start up Fontegrise endeavours to create products on the edges of art and functionality

Fontegrise recycled furniture

Pininfarina designs Singapore tower

Ferrari design team creates condo with garages that will light the cars within like gems

Pininfarina's Ferra tower in Singapore

Meet the photographer whose camera gets in the way

Texas born Bobby Scheidemann's series Nothing to Hide reflects on our desire to photograph absolutely everything

From Nothing To Hide by Bobby Scheidemann

Introducing the Carlo Scarpa monograph

Phaidon editor Tom Wright talks about our forthcoming book on the mid-century modernist architect

Phaidon editor Tom Wright with a working copy of Carlo Scarpa

Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic at Pace Gallery

Six-hour performance at Manhattan gallery yesterday featured Abramovic, RoseLee Goldberg and Alan Cumming

Jay-Z and Marina Abramovic at Pace Gallery yesterday

Watch the Bouroullec Brothers' electric carousels

The brothers just sent Phaidon.com a video of their Quiet Motion installation at this year's Milan Furniture Fair

Quiet Motion by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Meet the photographer who plays with his food

Rene Mesman's unlikely pairings are visually arresting, although gastronomically unlikely

One of Rene Mesman unusual food combinations

James Turrell appears on Charlie Rose

Artist says Frank Lloyd Wright would like new Guggenheim show and thanks his aunt for turning him on to Monet

Rose (left) and Turrell, courtesy of Charlie Rose's Instagram account

How New York collectors rework their homes

Artists, architects and clients all collaborate to produce homes that work for their residents and their collections

Ethan Wagner and Thea Westreich Wagner

Google's new Kings Cross HQ

The search firm's London headquarters will complement the local area's strong industrial heritage

AHMM's plans for Google's UK headquarters

Zaha Hadid buys The Design Museum

The prize-winning practice will use the space as an exhibition space and to house its archive

Zaha Hadid (left) and The Design Museum's Shad Thames site (right)

The story behind a new Sol LeWitt mural

Six years after the artist's death, another LeWitt mural is going up in Manhattan. How did that happen?


Will Sweeney's life-threatening London show

The artist's first British show for 10 years is inspired by Mexico, aliens and the lethal effects of cigarettes

From Microlife, by Will Sweeney

Architecture goes underground at Herzog & de Meuron’s M+ museum in Hong Kong

"For art to enter into the life of a city like Hong Kong it has to come from its own foundations," says Jacques Herzog

M+ Museum, Hong Kong - Herzog & de Meuron

Ferran Adrià opens Somerset House show

"Thanks to everybody involved in nursing a project that at first seemed to be a bit mad!" he says


Ikea creates flat packs for refugees

Swedish furniture giant tackles longterm housing for the world's dispossessed

IKEA refugee housing

Bouroullec Brothers AIM lamp now available to buy

After reinventing the chair (and the curtain) Ronan and Erwan turn their attention to lighting

AIM for Flos - Bouroullec Brothers

Coi's Daniel Patterson teaches the kids to cook

The innovative chef says “having the most vulnerable population eating the worst food is a terrible idea"

One of The Cooking Project's pupils, and a bowl of Patterson's Simple Vegetable Curry

Kate Moss is officially collectible

Christie's will host a sale dedicated to images of the supermodel this autumn

Detail from Kate Moss in Torn Veil, Marrakech, 1993 by Albert Watson

Arles goes black and white

Unseen Guy Bourdin and Hiroshi Sugimoto photographs head up a re-examination of monochrome imagery

Revolution 008, Caribbean sea, Yucatan, 1990 by Hiroshi Sugimoto

John Pawson talks Kuramata at the Design Museum

How the designer dissuaded the architect from becoming a monk and other tales from last night's talk

John Pawson - wearing the tie Shiro Kuramata gave him - and audience member and Wallpaper* editor Tony Chambers (with Kuramata pictured in the background)

The lighter side of Chris Johanson

"My old art is really negative" says the artist, "I would never make art like that ever again."

Untitled (Reasonable) 2012, by Chris Johanson

Frank Gehry goes back to the drawing board

Architect swathes controversial Toronto towers in curvaceous cladding and adds an 'echo' of what stood before

Frank Gehry's updated plan for King Street West, Toronto

Martin Parr turns his lens on the Swiss

The quintessentially English photographer focuses on Helvetican clichés in Think of Switzerland

Martin Parr, from Think of Switzerland (2013)

NY subway commuters see the light

Architect Nicholas Grimshaw teams up with artist James Carpenter to create glass oculus over transport hub

Fulton Street Transit Center - Grimshaw Architects

Colman Andrews' Fourth of July barbecue choices

Our Taste of America author picks his best Independence Day treats and tells the stories behind them

The humble hot dog, as illustrated by Joel Penkman, from The Taste of America

Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne get retrospective

Skye Sherwin on the French sculptors loved and collected by the likes of Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs and Valentino

Moutons de Laine (group of 3), 1965/1974
Wool, bronze and wood on wheels - François-Xavier Lalanne

Industrial Facility designs neighbourhood style office

Industrial Facility and Herman Miller transform the office into a 'richer', more collaborative place to do business

Locale - Industrial Facility for Herman Miller

René Burri receives Leica Hall of Fame Award

Swiss photographer joins Steve McCurry, Barbara Klemm and Nick Út as one of Leica's greatest ambassadors

René Burri and Leica's Andreas Kaufmann

French photographer captures false alarms

Marina Gadonneix's focus on disaster simulators explores the divide between the real and the perceived

From Playground Disorder by Marina Gadonneix

Ferran Adrià's London show opens this Friday

elBulli: Ferran Adrià and The Art of Food opens with a talk from the great man himself

El Bulli's plasticine food shapes form part of the new exhibition

Shigeru Ban turns to wood for Swatch

The Japanese architect says timber is 'the only renewable material' and has used it extensively in this new building

Shigeru Ban's new Swatch building. The Apollo 11 rocket model is a museum display, detailing the watchmakers' Omega brand's role in the moon landings.

Rebranding via a smoke bomb

Italian photographer Filippo Minelli Silence/ Shapes_Ongoing photo series is taken up for a new corporate identity

Silence/ Shapes_Ongoing - Filippo Minelli

Punk rock meets modernism in Marseilles

Konstantin Grcic joins The Bouroullec Brothers in reworking Le Corbusier's Appartement No50

Appartement No50, Marseilles, Le Corbusier - Konstantin Grcic

Why did Frank Gehry hire a human rights lawyer?

And which of the United Arab Emirates does he like, and which does he say is "like every cruddy city in the world"?

The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, by Frank Gehry

Will this typeface foil the spies?

South Korean designer and former state intelligence worker creates fonts to slow down eavesdropping software


New Manhattan skyscraper allows sun onto High Line

Studio Gang develops ‘solar carving’ technique that uses incident angles of the sun’s rays to sculpt building form

Solar Carve Tower - Studio Gang

Ann Woo plays her cards right

New York-based Chinese photographer eschews interpretation, seeking only what's real in her new photo series

Playing Cards - Ann Woo

Low comedy meets high art at Slapstick!

A new exhibition at Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg pairs Laurel and Hardy with Fischli and Weiss

Stills from Harold Lloyd's Saftey Last (1923) and Gordon Matta-Clark's Clockshower (1973)

All aboard Doug Aitken's art and music train

Station to Station promises to be a transcontinental 'nomadic happening' with artists, writers, bands and chefs

The promotional image for Station To Station

Can you see what's going on here?

We like Béla Borsodi’s optical illusion created for new VLP album, Terrain

Béla Borsodi -Terrain for VLP

Paintballing now part of 2013's Frieze Projects

The London art fair's annual commissions break away from the traditional canvas and plinth creations

Goodbye to Manhattan (2010) by Ken Okiishi

The unsung hero of Secessionist Vienna

The often overlooked pioneer of modern design, Koloman Moser, finally gets a New York retrospective

Three Women Squatting - Kolman Moser

Koolhaas' son makes a documentary about dad

Film REM is an "exploration of what architecture means to those who inhabit it and create it"

Koolhaas senior in his son's documentary, Rem

Nicholas Grimshaw's masterplan for Wimbledon

Nicholas Grimshaw and Grant Associates juggle heritage and modernity with new look for UK's home of tennis

Wimbledeon Masterplan - Grimshaw Architects and Grant Associates

Henning Larsen, 1925-2013

The Danish architect, known for The Royal Danish Opera House and The Malmö City Library has died, aged 87


When John Pawson met Shiro Kuramata

Deyan Sudjic describes the Japanese designer's influence, and his mentoring of one Brit in particular. . .

John Pawson (left) and Shiro Kuramata (right)

Giuseppe Colarusso plays with form and function

Giuseppe Colarusso's Improbabilità series is a playful exploration of objects and their uses


Take a look at India's new tree-lined apartments

Edouard François' Gurgaon 71 development sees high-rise horticulture planned for the outskirts of New Delhi

Gurgoan 71 by Maison Edouard François

World cup football fans to be housed in floating hotels

Thousands of 'refreshed' fans celebrating their team's 2022 success in the sea - what could possibly go wrong?

Floating hotel - Sigge Architects

Have you seen Renzo Piano's new house?

Architect's latest scheme named after ancient philosopher Diogenes who traded comfort for living in a barrel

Diogene - Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Vitra

Heatherwick denies copying Olympic cauldron

British designer says claims made by American firm Atopia that he copied its pitch are 'spurious nonsense'

Thomas Heatherwick's cauldron (left) and Atopia's pitch (right)

OMA's Bordeaux bridge doubles as a stage

"The bridge is not the ‘event’ in the city," say OMA "but a platform that can accommodate all the events of the city.”

OMA's designs for Pont Jean-Jacques Bosc

American designer creates sandcastle suburbia

Chad Wright's Master Plan project populates his local sea shores with the tract housing of his childhood

Master Plan -Chad Wright. Photo by Lynn Kloythanomsup of Architectural Black

Artist builds his own egg-shaped home

The Exbury Egg will serve as Stephen Turner's seaside home, as he studies the effects of climate change

Exbury Egg, PAD Studio, SPUD Group, and Stephen Turner, 2013, Beaulieu River, Hampshire, UK. Photo by Nigel Rigden

Ai Weiwei's animal heads unveiled in Toronto

Heads depict contemporary China's relationship with its history and how that's been eroded says curator

Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads - Ai Weiwei

Arts group to be evicted from Picasso's Paris studio

The loft where Picasso painted Guernica, and other artists once resided, is now at the centre of a fresh conflict

René Burri, Pablo Picasso (1957), Villa La Californie, Cannes, France

Thea and Ethan wow young collectors at Sotheby's

Our Collecting Art for Love, Money and More advisors make friends wherever they go - last night it was Bond Street

Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner - photo Chris Carr

Moleskine gets a makeover

Everyone's favourite notebook gets a new look from Milan-based graphic designers Achilli Ghizzardi Associati

New Moleskine Monogram logo - Achilli Ghizzardi Associati

Body artist Orlan sues Lady Gaga

The French artist alleges the American singer plagiarised her look, and is seeking $31.7 million

Lady Gaga (right) and Orlan (left)

Paul McCarthy's adults-only fairytale opens today

WS redraws the German fairytale Snow White as an immersive, X-rated New York installation

From Paul McCarthy's WS. Photo by Joshua White.

Curators are the stars at Paris Nouvelles Vagues

Skye Sherwin on what to look out for at a series of shows where the curator takes centre stage over the artist

Mark Jenkis, « Bordeaux », 2008 Tape Art (moulage réalisé au scotch), vêtement, chaussures, sac poubelle. Courtesy Galerie Patricia Dorfmann (Paris)

Renzo Piano's hand-made 'fragments' at Gagosian

The Pritzker-Prize winner is the subject of a retrospective at The Gagosian's 522 West 21st Street gallery

Renzo Piano

Carl Andre's hilarious Barbara Rose interview

Romp through the good old days of NY art scene gives new insight into his work and the insanity of life back then

Carl Andre building his Cedar piece in 1964

Andy Warhol's gay archive goes on sale

The latest online Warhol sale, Eyes on the Guise, focuses on the artist's gay works to mark Pride Month

Andy Warhol and Model, 1982

Möbius strip proposed for Taiwan arts centre

Culture finds a dramatic setting in Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut's Swallow's Nest concept

Swallow's Nest concept, Taichung, Taiwan - Vincent Callebaut

Your chance to win a Picasso from Sotheby's

Help an ancient Mediterranean city and get a chance to win a minor Cubist masterpiece

Detail from L'Homme au Gibus (1914) by Pablo Picasso

Andy Warhol's Perrier designs out next week

The spring water firm digs out its early eighties Warhol commissions to celebrate 150th anniversary

Warhol's Perrier bottles (c. 1982)

From skyscraper to strawscraper

Henning Larsen's Stockholm island tower given a green makeover by local architecture practice Belatchew Labs

Strawscraper/ Söder Torn, Södermalm - Belatchew Labs/ Henning Larsen

Inside the mind of Edgar Degas

New show Degas' Method in Copenhagen takes a sideways look at the impressionist's methods and motivations

Degas' Method - photo Anders Sune Berg - Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

Berlin photographer empties the UAE

In Matthias Heiderich's photographs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, pedestrians are conspicuous by their absence

From Matthias Heiderich's UAE series

Mickalene Thomas’s Art Basel 70s bar installation

New York artist throws together 70s bash, gets Beyonce's sister Solange to perform and Simon de Pury to DJ

Mickalene Thomas at Better Days

Charting the lives of great artists

The Italian design agency Accurat has charted the lives of Picasso, Dali et al. What can we learn?

Detail from Accurat's Pablo Picasso chart

Legendary rock logo artist Arturo Vega dies

RIP Arturo Vega - the man who helped The Ramones sell more teeshirts than tickets

Arturo Vega's Ramones logo

Mont Blanc refuge is as pure as the driven snow

Geneva-based Group-H's environmentally sound climber's refuge takes shape in French alps

Refuge du Goûter, Mont Blanc - Group-H

Is this Banksy a great place to park £100k?

An early, fully authenticated Banksy print, Love is In The Air, goes on sale this month. Is it a good buy?

Love Is In The Air (2006) by Banksy

What to expect from Art Basel

Despite a packed season, this key European art fair still stands out, thanks to major works by big names

Martin Creed's Work 850 (2008)

War critique wins the Deutsche Börse Photo Prize

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin's updating of Bertolt Brecht's Marxist War Primer takes the £30,000 prize

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, Plate 26, 2011. George Bush serves a Thanksgiving turkey to US troops stationed in Baghdad in 2003, 2011

The history of design in six short videos

The Open University sums up six key design movements in a cute new animated series

A still from the Design in a Nutshell Bauhaus video

elBulli Adrià brothers spin a yarn at new restaurant

Japanese and Peruvian food and design meet at Pakta, Barcelona courtesy of a loom and El Equipo Creativo

Pakta - El Equipo Creativo

Viñoly’s NY apartments to be highest in the West

Around $100 million 'should' secure you a penthouse at 432 Park Avenue when it completes in 2015

432 Park Avenue - Rafael Viñoly

The Beano as reworked by Hemingway

Red or Dead founder Wayne and wife Geraldine rework brand guidelines for classic British comic

The Hemingways' Beano brand guidelines

Has Richard Prince burned his disputed paintings?

A new video apparently depicts the artist torching his work Graduation - "to show the guy what I'm prepared to do"

Richard Prince apparently burning his 2008 work Graduation

The Venice Biennale in pictures

As the dust settles on the 55th Biennale opening, Craig Garrett makes sense of what's on offer

The 387 Houses of Peter Fritz (1916-1992), Insurance Clerk from Vienna - Oliver Croy and Oliver Elser

OOIIO proposes 'frame hotel' on Peruvian cliff

Impossibly named Spanish architecture practice's Unbalance Hotel responds to brief from Lima promoter

Unbalance Hotel - OOIIO Architecture

Damián Ortega brings art and science together

The more basic stuff gets, the more marvellous Damián Ortega's art becomes and it doesn't come much more basic than a tool made by a chimp. Skye Sherwin takes a look at as his great new Freud Museum show, Apestraction

Damián Ortega - How to See
2013, Plexiglas vitrine, magnifying glass, thread and metal figures - Photo: Ben Westoby, Courtesy Freud Museum and London White Cube

Peter Zumthor unveils his new LACMA

First look at plans for the LA museum the architect is referring to as "The Black Flower"

Peter Zumthor - plan for LACMA

Joel Meyerowitz returns to St Louis

The city celebrates once again the series of pictures it commissioned from the photographer 36 years ago

St Louis (1977) by Joel Meyerowitz

Wilhelm Sasnal’s space and speedway series

Don't miss this brilliant new Hauser & Wirth show which plays on the notion of the fallen man

Wilhelm Sasnal - Untitled (2013)

New art quarter takes shape in the Netherlands

80km south of Amsterdam, in the historical forest town of Hertogenbosch, art is finding a new home. . .


John Pawson creates installation in Palladio basilica

Minimalist architect installs Perspectives in Venice's 16th century Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore

Perspectives by John Pawson installed in Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore. Photograph by Gilbert McCarragher