This week on Dezeen, we rounded up the best architecture, design and interiors posts of the year, taking in the most controversial stories, the best quotes from Dezeen’s many interviews and a slew of interesting interiors.
The biggest trends in architecture this year ranged from the serious to the playful. Responses to big topics, such as the controversy over unpaid internships and climate change, sat alongside under-the-sea architecture and playgrounds for adults.
Some stories proved controversial with our readers, with opinions divided over a chair that offers a solution to “manspreading” and whether architects will lose their jobs to artificial intelligence.
In interiors, we looked at the best restaurants as well as notable shop fit-outs. These included a pastel-coloured New York CBD store and new iterations of designer clothing stores Dolce & Gabbana and Louis Vuitton.
Photographs of Pyongyang, Istanbul and Melbourne appeared on Dezeen this week. Cristiano Bianchi and Kristina Drapić revealed images from their book Model City Pyongyang, which features pictures of architecture in the North Korean capital.
Marc Goodwin added to his series of images of architecture practices around the world, with photographs of firms in Istanbul, whilst Tom Blachford used long exposures and lens rotation for his shots of a “cyberpunk” Melbourne by night.
A secluded hut on the shores of a Norwegian lake that is only accessible by boat or skis when the water freezes, and a rentable wooden cabin north of Ottawa allowed readers to dream of escape this week.
Another remote house surrounded by natural beauty was a house clad in burnt-larch timber planks by Mary Arnold-Forster Architects that blended into its rugged Scottish Highlands environment.
In London, architects Russell Jones designed a two-bedroom home for a plot in Tottenham that is clad in corrugated cellulose sheets dipped in bitumen for an elegant, dark finish.
Elsewhere in the UK capital, CAN added a blue and white candy-striped extension to a Victorian terraced house that houses a bright, white kitchen area and features a striking pink curtain.
In North America, two design firms have created homely interiors for clinics, designed to make patients feel at ease – one is for people suffering from hair-loss, whilst the other is for animals.
Bond Vet clinic in Brooklyn was fitted by Isyln Studio out with timber-clad walls, tactile rugs, orange poufs, comfy cushions and dark blue painted features.
Søren Rose Studio went even further, creating a dining area and lounge in muted tones in Harklinikken’s Manhattan clinic, to make visitors feel at home.
The design world prepared for the festive period this week, with London’s Tate Britain gallery given a haunted house facelift by artist Anne Hardy who transformed the facade into a “temple marooned by rising sea-levels”.
Elsewhere, designer Yinka Ilori created a stylised Christmas tree for a hotel that consisted of five brightly painted stacked forms, for a unique take on a traditional tree.
And for those still wondering what to buy a loved-one for Christmas? We have the answer in the latest Craig Green collaboration with Moncler Genius – a voluminous colour-block puffer that rolls down like a sleeping bag.
Other popular stories with Dezeen readers this week included a building at the Adidas headquarters in Germany, designed by COBE, a mixed-use building by Droo with a “crumpled paper” facade, and the cave-like Single Person gallery in Shanghai.
https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/21/this-week-roundups/