Rima Sabina Aouf

Every year, some surprising throughlines emerge from the programme of Dutch Design Week. This time, contributing editor Rima Sabina Aouf spotted attempts to revive democracy and a proliferation of alien creatures.

Students from London's Architectural Association have developed a low-cost and easily repeatable way to build with tree forks – a type of timber that is usually discarded as waste even though it is unusually strong.

Meta has added to its Ray-Ban smart glasses series with the Meta Ray-Ban Display – its first pair to combine AI and an augmented-reality display.

The Netherlands' Nieuwe Instituut has opened the fourth in its series of New Store pop-up shops, this time inviting consumers to participate in the production and recycling of a clothing item made from local wool.

New materials brand Hyphyn has launched what it claims is the world's first biodegradable performance vinyl fabric, which breaks down over 90 per cent in two years in landfill conditions without leaving behind microplastics or toxic chemicals.

The most desirable phones are no longer only the ones with the most advanced features. These are the best contemporary dumbphones with deliberately pared-back functionality, tested.

Pedestrians are walking 15 per cent faster and stopping to linger 14 per cent less than they used to, according to a study from MIT's Senseable City Lab that hopes to guide the design of public spaces.

Technology company Meta has said "the wrist is the key" to the future of human-computer interaction after its engineers created a gesture-sensing wristband prototype.

Design studio Formafantasma has created a picture book for children, exploring humans' relationship to the natural world through a fable-like adventure.

In More Than Human, London's Design Museum explores what happens when we design not for people but animals, plants and other living things. Curators Justin McGuirk and Rebecca Lewin share five works that give an insight into this new frontier of thinking.

Tech company Fairphone has unveiled the latest version of its "ethical smartphone", this time combining modularity with the option to activate a minimalist interface with one switch.

Designer Paul Crofts and furniture brand Isomi have applied 3D-knitting to sofa design with Knit One, a foam-free modular couch debuting at NeoCon 2025 this week.

Google has dialled up the fun in its updated design language, Material 3 Expressive, after user testing found that people have an appetite for "wild and way-too-playful" interfaces, Google Design vice-president Vanessa Cho shared with Dezeen.

The future potential of earth as a building material was the focus of this year' soil-rich Morocco pavilion at this year's Venice Architecture Biennale.

Visitors to the Venice Architecture Biennale can drink coffee made from canal water in a Golden Lion-winning intervention by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

A curlicued brutalist hotel whose facade resembles two faces kissing and a bank crowned with towers inspired by clay castles are among the modernist buildings celebrated in Togo's first-ever Venice Architecture Biennale pavilion.

The data centre expansion required to support artificial intelligence is expected to keep fossil fuels in use for longer, a new report by the think tank BloombergNEF has found.

EcoLogicStudio has opened a new studio and design lab in Turin, Italy, modelled on the typology of a house, as the studio seeks to explore how its experimental biodesign work can integrate with day-to-day domesticity.

Charismatic objects that squeak, rumble and clang have been produced by industrial design students at Ohio State University.

Chinese smartphone company Infinix has unveiled a concept for a tri-fold phone that packs down to the size of a credit card and can be used as a clip-on camera.