There is a noticeably large number of women in design in Scandinavia. From Nanna Ditzel to Front Design, female designers have always played an important role in Nordic countries. Does this have something to do with design style? Or is it quite simply a question of equality?

Creativity, quality and economic viability can all be associated with the term design. The Scandinavian governments have taken advantage of this and are investing in promoting both the discipline and their own image.

Sometimes they use original plan, other times they rely on an aged furniture item – Erling and Egon Petersen, two brothers from Ormslev, Denmark go to endless lengths in their quest to breathe new life into an original design from the previous century.

Be it park benches, conference tables or outdoor chairs – there's always an additional use to Thomas Bernstrand's designs, even though they stand in the tradition of classic Scandinavian design.

Currently hardly a car-maker has prioritized special topics. Instead, cars are on show that can potentially do everything. Give you a sporting drive, be safe off-road, and look like a limousine.

Wismar: Summer academyMunich: Women in artK20: Window imagesZurich: Freitag – Out of the BagRotterdam: Architecture biennial

Not much longer to go, as in early June the Berlin Brandenburg airport opens. Heike Nehl and Sibylle Schlaich at Moniteurs designed the signage system. In fact, the first signs have already been put in place on the construction site.

In Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film epic "2001: A Space Odyssey" one of the main characters is the computer "HAL 9000". Today we encounter it at any door in the design of video-monitored intercom systems.

As is the case in many sectors, in architecture average just doesn't quite cut it. That said, there are plenty of everyday houses that can be considered "quite good". Now Oda Pälmke has taken a closer look at them.

Karlsruhe: Sound ArtBerlin: Chairs without legsDelft: The Essence of CoolBerlin: Art and PressBoston: The Allure of Japan

In the wake of the enthusiasm for cooking, or so many trend gurus have long been prophesying, it's now the garden's day. But it's not just the trend-conscious urbanites who are discovering allotment gardens anew, and not just guerilla gardening and self-supply that are blossoming again – the garden promises veritably paradisiacal states.

"I don't draw – I photograph!," says John Pawson. And we can readily believe him: in the course of the last decade the British architect has shot over 250,000 photos. And for the first time a selection is on show at Munich Technical University's Architecture Museum attached to Pinakothek der Moderne.

Art has a problem with design, proposes Michael Erlhoff, Professor of Design Theory and History at Cologne's International School of Design. He focuses on the social perception of design and hopes that the technocrats will get worn down.

The townhouse as a type is evidently very much in line with the times. And so it is hardly surprising that Hans Stimmann, once Municipal Building Director in Berlin, has brought out a book on it. The title intimates that the tome is intended to help planning, and it's a high-end volume of examples of specimen townhouses. Does the townhouse really have the muscle to counteract our inner cities emptying?

In China the babies don't wear diapers, but slit-pants. And everyday life in China otherwise has many particularities that are little known in Europe. The exhibition on "Chinese Suff" at Frankfurt's Museum für Angewandte Kunst presents all manner of wears and wares from China.

Diane Arbus: RetrospectiveVienna: HomedepotEast German design: forgotten?Urbanism: Hands-onDAM: Zhang Ke

Although people in Europe do know that bamboo can be used in many different ways, hardly anybody really knows very much about its characteristics. The situation is very different in Anji, China, where there is hardly any aspect of living where life is not hard to imagine without Bamboo.

Encouraged by this teaching experiences at European design academies, Harald Gründl of Eoos Design Studio contributes four hypotheses on design to the debate on design training

More creative. More sustainable. “Delicate” – a book about food that shows just how this fundamental human necessity can become a sensory delight, a political statement or even a crazy performance. As surprising as it is critical, this book presents a variety of projects demonstrating current developments in international culinary culture: at times alluring, at others sensual, and then there are some that are just plain disgusting.

For Helmut Staubach, Professor of Product and Transportation Design at Universität Berlin Weißensee the ambiguity of the boundaries between art and design constitutes an opportunity for both disciplines.

In terms of graphic design, Switzerland is a world leader. Züricher Museum für Gestaltung, the Zurich Design Museum, is currently demonstrating why, in a show that provides an overview of all Swiss design has to offer and is well worth seeing.

Roman Signer: Street imagesMoMA: Cindy ShermanAlbert Oehlen: The old and the newBlickfang: 20th jubilee

Georg-Christof Bertsch, Honorary Professor for Intercultural Design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Offenbach, warns designers against making a laughing stock of themselves by striving to be auxiliary artists. It is in fact the increasing complexity of industrial design as a profession itself that is presenting the challenges facing this sector today.

Of course, Coca-Cola, Campbell’s Tomato Soup and Zippo lighters are familiar even to Europeans. But have you heard of Lasko’s “Box Fan”, the “Snuggie” fleece blanket or “Little Red Wagon” for kids? If not, then it’s high time for an excursion into the wonderful world of American consumer goods.

The "Testify! The Consequences of Architecture" exhibition at Deutsches Architektur Zentrum in Berlin explores individual experiences with architectural projects worldwide.

Evidently Friedrich von Borries has the one or other problem with bananas. That being so it cannot harm to read exactly what the fruit has to do with design, low sensations and art – and which concept of design will pop out of the banana skin in the end.

Demographics, infrastructure and resources are key factors driving urban development. Audi is for the second time holding the Audi Urban Future Award, an architecture prize designed to foster research into the mechanisms of urbanity.

Are teachers who are themselves barely able to lay claim to noteworthy practical experience in design in a position to train others? This is a question that has been raised by Egon Chemaitis, retired Professor of Design Foundations at Universität der Künste Berlin. He cites four reasons, which from his point of view have contributed to the shift in design education in the direction of art.

Max Ernst: Laurels and strawberriesJohn Pawson: Photographic perspectivesGuggenheim: Being singular pluralMannheim: Competition Neue Kunsthalle

Design education at HfbK Hamburg has been reorganized, and we reported on the implications. In the highly diversified event entitled "Warum gestalten?" (Why design?) the Design department explored various perspectives from radical urban criticism through to multi-perspective developing.

The new underground extension at Frankfurt's Städel Museum is connected to the outside world by circular skylights. They provide the new hall built under the garden with daylight, which, however, does not quite reach all the exhibits in sufficient measure.

While Deutsche Bahn has long since given up trying to educate their passengers by naming their trains after artists, musicians or writers, in Austria such candid slogans are making their way across the country every single day, providing passengers with food for thought and a voice for social interest groups.