Whale backbone inspires spiral staircase
Canadian architect Andrew McConnell works the animal's vertebrae into a beguiling upward spiral
Jean Nouvel creates Paris art island
Pritzker-Prize winning architect oversees the redevelopment of a former Renault factory on île Seguin
The rail bridge as public art
Andrew Leicester's bridge in Los Angeles references the indigenous peoples of the San Gabriel Valley
MoMA buys flat-pack kitchen
Art museum acquires an original Le Corbusier fitted kitchen from his iconic Unité d'Habitation in Marseille
John Baldessari reworks the yellow school bus
The LA artist's contribution to the Art Fund's public education campaign references the chrome yellow school bus
Korea's Hae-gue Yang debuts at Haus der Kunst
Venetian blind installation in Munich is inspired by immigration and Germany's past
Frank Gehry's fish lamps alight at The Gagosian
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect shows his piscine interior lights, sculpted from a type of Formica
John Pawson designs new Schrager Miami venture
The hotel impresario's Miami Beach Edition Residences will have their own skating rink and bowling alley
Photographers' Gallery - three great collage shows
The London gallery steams ahead in championing collage as the photographic medium for 2013
Dutch artist's duck arrives in Sydney harbour
Florentijn Hofman's duck sculpture will float in Darling Harbour until January 23 as part of the Sydney Festival
What to expect from Simon Starling at The Tate
The artist is the second annual Tate Britain commission. What will he bring to the Duveen galleries?
Daniel Libeskind adds to Jewish Museum, Berlin
Architect reworks the Central Flower Market Hall, a 1960s industrial building with curving walls by Bruno Grimmek
David Bowie first new single and video in 10 years
Where Are We Now? has video directed by artist Tony Oursler referencing Bowie's time in Berlin in the Seventies
New city proposed on banks of the Ganges
Studio Symbiosis plans futuristic-looking development of regimented rectilinear towers along riverbanks of Kanpur
Zaha Hadid design becomes first 'faked' building
Chinese developers 'pay homage' to Beijing's Wangjing Soho, and they're due to complete before the original
Le Corbusier, painter, photographer and polymath, gets full NYC retrospective at MoMA next summer
Jean-Louis Cohen, author of our wonderful The Future of Architecture Since 1889, curates MoMA show
Gucci goes manga
Italian fashion house commissions Japanese artist Hirohiko Araki to produce international comic ad campaign
McDonald's furniture revamped by Patrick Norguet
Likeable Paris-based designer takes Maccy Ds upmarket with hand finished concrete furniture
Texas pavilion borrows from Mexican beach huts
Cooper Joseph Studio creates deceptively light box on three columns in our favourite material - concrete!
BIG designs with a twist in Miami
The Danish architects raise the bar for Miami condos with a truly innovative design
Chinese designers build 'cave' on the back of a bike
Liu Yang and Xu Dan create a cave of black foam on the back of a cargo bike
Martino Gamper makes a meal out of Moroso
Italian designer reworks classic furniture to dramatic effect
The Portuguese architects' straw ziggurat
The IUT Group bring modern design to bear on one of the world's oldest building materials
Holiday with Matthew Barney
Tate Tours' New York break includes a trip to the avant-garde artist's studio
Daniel Lorch's organic desk lamp
Berlin designer attends free workshop and comes up with innovative new design for Philips
Tyrolean festival venue mimics its surroundings
Architects Delugan Meissel use the crevices of the surrounding area to indicate entrances to the building
Don McCullin goes back to war
War photographer explains how 'fake tans and Jamie Oliver' made him head for Syria
Join Ed Kashi on New Year's Day in New York
The VII agency photojournalist teaches a one day workshop at The Coney Island Polar Bear Club
Haiti to get new stadium designed by Carlos Zapata
Dangerous slum area Cité Soleil to get new stadium designed with Palestinian and Haiti national team players
The Design Museum's extraordinary stories
Hundreds of designs grouped around six themes tell the incredible stories behind everyday objects
2012 in photography
It was the year when a photograph became the most widespread tweet in history, print prices began scaling the dizzy heights of the art market and a 'non-photographer' won one of the most prestigious photo prizes
2012 in design
Start-ups grew up, designer-makers emerged and the Olympics shot three young product designers to stardom
2012 in art world arguments
From Hirst Vs Hockney to Putin Vs Pussy Riot, we look at some major 'artistic differences' of the last 12 months
2012 the year performance art returned
Catherine Wood, curator of contemporary art and performance at Tate Modern, talks us through a year in which the decade-long rise in art of activism, choreography and the performative finally broke through to the mainstream
2012 in architecture
In an age of e-readers libraries seemed to pop up everywhere, emerging economies built entire cities to cope with rapid urbanisation and young guns eschewed big commissions to create something small, local and sustainable
Norman Foster reworks New York Public Library
The Pritzker-Prize winner outlines his plans for The New York Public Library's Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Steve McCurry's Iconic Photographs #4
He ruined his cameras getting it but Dust Storm was destined to become one of Steve McCurry's best ever shots
China's post-Mao generation gets bold new show
ON | OFF takes its name from the web software routinely used to get round China's internet censorship
Pennsylvania architects build hobbit house
Extreme US Tolkien fan commissions an inspired Lord of The Rings folly for his Middle Earth memorabilia
Hauser & Wirth go mad in the country
The international contemporary art gallery plans to open a new exhibition space in the English countryside
Meghann Riepenhoff’s homemade galaxies
The photographer makes whole clusters of stars, black holes and sun flares from her dark room in San Francisco
Is China's lakeside city the future of urban planning?
China's next new city will be designed by US firm KPF, next to Hunan's regional capital, around a 40-hectare lake
Jeff Koons designs Mouton Rothschild wine label
Artist follows in the footsteps of Francis Bacon, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Picasso
Street art forms backdrop to India's first biennale
The inaugural Kochi-Muziris Biennale features some innovative street artworks alongside its gallery-style exhibits
Rare photographs of Buckminster Fuller surface
Hidden in the LIFE archives for over 40 years rediscovered photos capture him at work and play
Owen Hatherley blasts architectural photography
Marxist writer says contemporary architectural culture "no longer has an interest in anything but its own image" (but he saves a heap of praise for some well-respected Phaidon practitioners of the art!)
Anish Kapoor's first ever show in Australia
Artist finally makes it down under with career overview at MCA Sydney
What's going on at Gagosian?
First Koons agrees to a show with David Zwirner, then Hirst parted company, now Yayoi Kusama says she's off
Daniel Libeskind rolls out ultimate prefab
Shipped within months and built in weeks - your chance to live in a dream home, anywhere in the world
Time magazine's photojournalism of the year
James Nachtwey, Eugene Richards and photographers from VII and Magnum feature in best of 2012
Artist of the Week: Damien Hirst
Does the so-called enfant terrible of British art still have anything worthwhile to say?
Morag Myerscough on Peter Blake's Beatles cover
The colourful designer discusses the pop artist's legendary Sgt. Pepper album artwork
SOM build 'city within a city' in Abu Dhabi
Vast hospital complex by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill aims to foster a sense of community in the emirate
The only way is up
Dutch architect Hans van Heeswijk employs (non) lateral thinking for his out-of-town developments
Steve McCurry's Iconic Photographs #3
Photographer explains how he spent hours waist deep in water to get his iconic photograph Stilt Fishermen
Damien Hirst leaves Larry Gagosian
First Jeff Koons holds show with rival gallery David Zwirner, now it emerges that Damien Hirst is off
ar+d Emerging Architecture Award winners
A Japanese glass house numbers among the winning works by architects under the age of 45
Monopoly for minimalists
US designer Matthew Hollett reduces the classic board game it to “its basic mechanics”
'Idiot' who defaced Tate's Rothko jailed for two years
Self-styled yellowist fails to escape jail sentence as judge castigates him for damaging 'gift to the nation'
Warhol surfboards hit the market
Californian surfboard shaper Tim Bessel releases first in a series of artistic collaborations
David Rockwell's Imagination Playground
Designer more used to creating spaces for Gordon Ramsay and Broadway shows creates Washington installation
M.I.A. opens India’s first biennale
The British-Tamil singer inaugurates India's largest international contemporary art event
Barber Osgerby design new £2 coin
Design studio behind the Olympic flame celebrates 150 years of the London Underground with newly minted coin
Daniel Baer on Richard Avedon's Observations
The man behind our Joel Meyerowitz retrospective discusses the photographer's legendary monograph
Ten questions for graphic artist Jamie Hewlett
The comic artist and co-creator of Gorillaz and Tank Girl talks to us about art, kids books and Japanese animation
'Lost' TV series inspires new LA art show
LOST (in LA) pairs French contemporary art with the massively successful desert island TV show - no, really
Herzog & de Meuron's Miami Art Museum 'reconnects residents with climate'
Speaking at Art Basel Miami, Jacques Herzog pledges an end to fur coat, air-conditioned culture
Portugal's eco-friendly forest resort
Luis Rebelo de Andrade and Diogo Aguiar create low key architectural gem in spa town of Pedras Salgadas
Alex Moulton 1920-2012
We celebrate the inventor of Norman Foster's favourite bicycle and one that's featured in Phaidon Design Classics
Yale Art Gallery expansion opens tomorrow
The university's incredible refurbished gallery complex includes one of Louis Kahn's earliest commissions
SANAA designs new Louvre annexe
Pritzker Prize-winning architects create Louvre Lens on the French Belgian border
Design of the Week: Akkurat
Cult designer Laurenz Brunner on the most popular Swiss typeface of the last decade
Keith Coventry talks about Junk Paintings at Pace
The former YBA on a current show of new work in London inspired by Malevich and McDonalds
Sebastiaan Bremer’s ode to the family holiday
The Dutch photographer adds splashes of ink and paint to old family photos
Jessica Dimmock on NYC's homeless gay teens
The VII photographer follows a few of New York City's homeless gay young people for The New Yorker
Temporary Printing Machine a hit at Design Miami
London design team combine screen printing with digital technology to produce a portrait machine fit for a gallery
Shore and Parr among top bankable photographers
Confidence is growing the modern and contemporary photography market, say London analysts Art Tactic
Max Dudler makes sweet music (library) in Essen
Marbled windows created from 12 photographs taken at local quarry correspond to 12 notes in a score
Frank Gehry's first building in Australia
Dubbed The Paper Bag, Sydney's new University of Technology features an undulating wall of 320,000 bricks
The highlights from Miami Art Week
Kathy Battista, director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby's Institute, reports back from last week's art fairs in Miami
School's out in Detroit
A cache of photos taken at Cass Technical School in Detroit reveal the fun before the fall
Buildings that changed the world - Brasilia, Brazil
President Juscelino Kubitschek's commission for a new capital city helped seal Oscar Niemeyer's reputation
Carlos Arroyo creates three buildings in one
Spanish architect designs ingenious reflective façade for a school for the performing arts in Belgium
What to expect from Kraftwerk at The Tate
The pioneering German electronic group play The Turbine Hall next February - here's what we think will happen
Ten questions for photographer Hélène Binet
When architects want to display their building in the best possible light (and shade) there's only one person to call
New York's AIDS memorial gets the go-ahead
A canopied garden is to be built in Greenwich Village, on the site of the city's original AIDS hospital
Taner Ceylan joins Paul Kasmin Gallery
The New York gallery announces at Miami Art Week that it now represents this smokin' Turkish painter
Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil's Picasso of Concrete
Latin America's greatest architect died of respiratory failure in Rio yesterday, ten days short of his 105 birthday
Christmas with the Zumthors
Would you like to rent the Pritzker-prize winner's Swiss holiday home this season?
Terraced housing Chilean style
Santiago architects Elton + Leniz build this stepped seafront house right on the vertiginous Pacific coast
The obligatory design-related Christmas lights story
Teresa Sapey lights up Calle Serrano in Madrid - beat that Marmite!
Joel Meyerowitz shot by Fred R. Conrad
The New York Times' staff photographer compares their session to "Rembrandt going into Picasso's studio"
Beijing's pedal-powered mobile home
The two-metre wide Bao House by dot Architects is made from polyurethane and sits on the back of a tricycle
The art works that almost made the fourth plinth
Grayson Perry on a new ICA show featuring 21 works commissioned for the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square
//hapo Museum in South Africa tells history of nation
Unusually named Copper-clad structure aims to do for South Africa what Libeskind's Jewish Museum did for Berlin
Neville Brody remixes the RCA's font
Graphics legend and RCA dean Brody reworks the college's classic font
French port turns its station into a theatre
Contemporary motifs meet neo-classicism when Saint-Nazaire's bomb-damaged station is renovated
Elizabeth Price wins the Turner Prize
The Jury admired the seductive and immersive qualities of the 45-year-old artist's video trilogy
