During the reconstruction period in West Germany. a new control instrument entered the political landscape: urban planning. Its objective was to make a strict division between labor and living . People should work in the city, and live in the country. The fact that commuters were obliged to buy a car to cover the distance between the city center and the periphery merely boosted the economy. And produced slip roads, city highways and traffic jams lasting for kilometers. The car-friendly city - an unsuccessful historical concept or bitter-sweet reality?

As part of the Audi Urban Future Award, New York architects Diller Scofido + Renfro devoted some thought to the issue of mobile dwellings, responding to changes in residential patterns. Many older people above all in the United States have cut their ties with conventional notions of domesticity.

In the media age racing cars not only have to be fast, they also have to look fast and stand out on the racing track thanks to colors, lines, numbers and logos. In "Go Faster" Sven Voelker illustrates that this was not always so and shows what characterizes those models with particularly successful styling.

The projects by the artists' and architects' collective "Raumlaborberlin" are far from being conventional. The group of eight, which is at present developing the exhibition architecture for the "Audi Urban Future Award" that is curated by Stylepark, is currently presenting a very special kind of installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz.

The "AUFA Audi Urban Future Award 2010", which is curated by Stylepark, has set itself the task of thinking about the city of tomorrow as regards the issue of mobility. We are running a series of articles in coming weeks on some aspects of automobility and urban planning as relating to the AUFA - the latter will culminate on August 25 with a presentation of the findings in Venice in the form of an exhibition and the selection of the first prize winner.

System furniture was long considered the epitome of no-fun and über-rational design, but now it is undergoing a revival. The new items of system furniture are proof that functionalist Modernism is being seen in a new light and mark the end of the heyday of design art and limited editions.

Be it purses, chairs or roofs: Wickerwork, one of the world's oldest construction methods is experiencing a revival.

"Maison&Objet" is taking place in Paris from September 3 through 7, 2010.

Hardly any other metropolis has been subjected to such radical upheavals in the last century as the German capital. The exhibition "Das ungebaute Berlin" (Unbuilt Berlin) shows the projects which never saw the light of day. Who, for example, remembers Max Bill's suggestions for expanding the New National Gallery in 1981?

Brothers Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec have realized their bathroom vision for Hansgrohe's Axor design line. The result of the six-year developmental study is a complex, 85-piece bathroom series. With their design approach, the Bouroullec brothers have opened up the bathroom into the living area.

Recently published, the "Container Atlas" provides evidence that a new age of container architecture has dawned. It follows the trend towards temporary buildings trend and is a kind of pop-up architecture that no longer lays claim to historical longevity.

Vienna has for years now been trying to establish itself as a capital of international fashion. And Austria's largest fashion spectacle, the "10 festival for fashion & photography", has just finished. But the country's most successful designers were not in on the act.

The villas Richard Neutra built in the 1930s and 1940s, primarily in California, are regarded as icons of Modernism. However, the fact that he also completed projects in Europe has to date gone pretty much unnoticed. An extraordinary exhibition at Marta Herford Museum showcases Neutra's European villas, which were built in the last ten years of his life.

Jerszy Seymour conjures up a society of amateurs, but not in the sense of "unprofessional", but rather of "lovers and friends". And when it comes to volcanoes, the designer himself becomes an amateur. A trip into a passionate and explosive world.

The ambitious project "Belgrade Design Week" is a passionate attempt to establish the Serbian capital as a new design hub. However, the festival succeeds in creating something far more valuable, and that is bringing together like-minded people in an invigorating city.

For over ten years now, Eva Paster and Michael Geldmacher have been creating classic industrial design, whereby since 2005 the focus has been on furniture. What makes the designs by the Munich duo who go by the name of Neuland stand out: the profound and logical approach, yet with an easy feel to it, characterized by a strong sense of rhythm and clear structures.

The topic of this year's Halle Design Prize was "Travelling" and the exhibition of the best designs was held in an old tram depot. Jury member Thomas Edelmann spoke to the curator Vincenz Warnke.

This year's Art Basel would seem to be an indication that the financial crisis has been overcome, as gallery owners were pleasantly surprised by the visitors' unexpected spending spree.

U.S. American artist Mike Bouchet is showing a dismantled prefabricated house, model "Sir Walter Scott" in Frankfurt's Schirn Kunsthalle. The sculptural exhibit was developed from the installation "Watershed" that Mike Bouchet erected in the harbor of the Arsenale in Venice as part of the Biennial.

Once again, with his "Innen Stadt Außen" (Inner City Outside) exhibition Olafur Eliasson proves that he is able to achieve great effects with relatively modest means.

Design Miami/Basel took place this year for the fifth time parallel to Art Basel, where the international art world gathers each June. The focus is still on high-end one-offs.

China has given the Expo a new lease of life. With enthusiasm and pride, the Chinese presented pavilions from all over the world and the pinnacle of current achievements. However, there are also a few flaws here and there. Observations on the Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Pupils from Westminster Academy in London were set the task of creating fantasy public spaces. The Serpentine Gallery is now presenting the results of the Fantasy Architecture competition.

The Audi Urban Future Award aims to analyze the future of our cities in the context of questions of mobility, and to offer concrete suggestions for their reconfiguration. During a Conference in London initial results are presented in a workshop. The process is documented and discussed in a publication.

In recent years, the Designer's Days in Paris have emerged as a summer festival, with a very mixed audience strolling through the galleries and showrooms.

In the new issue of the Stylepark magazine for product culture, we and our authors take a close look at whether in Milan, New York or Shanghai "it's all in the detail".

This year's DMY Design Festival in Berlin showed experimental prototypes by young designers and injected life into the disused Tempelhof airport.

Our economy is based on growth, but growth has its limits. And thus our current urban planning stands on wobbly foundations. Architect Peter Haimerl and his team are working on a new city for the future. "Zoom Town" is an urban concept that coordinates various forms of mobility with each other in an overarching urban fabric.

The exhibition "Climate Capsules - Means of Surviving Disaster" has opened at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. What interest's curator Friedrich von Borries are the cultural images for future environments.

Architect Renzo Piano's design for Central St. Giles breathes new life into a part of London that was otherwise in a sorry state. Urban design that as a stroke of good fortune.

The symposium on "Regionalism in current industrial design from Japan and Europe" offered an opportunity to converse with designer Makoto Koizumi who does not yet have a presence outside Japan. In conversation with Nina Reetzke he explains what his furniture collection "Tetsubo" and his new interpretations of the "9tubohouse" are all about.

Herbert Hirche - only the design cognoscente tend to know his name today. Now Werkbundarchiv in Berlin is hosting a retrospective to mark the 100th anniversary of the designer's birthday. It gives an idea of the breadth and quality of Hirche's oeuvre.

"Go on with your patchwork, like a little lady", wrote George Eliot, a reminder of the socially aspirational art of making quilts. This British artistic practice went on to influence crafts internationally, think of the Amish quilt. Linking art and social life at all levels, it is the subject of an ongoing exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

On behalf of Munich's Neue Pinakothek Alessandro Mendini has curated a retrospective of the last 30 years of Italian design. Sandra Hofmeister talked with him about the "Objects with a Soul" and eclecticism in design.

What will cities of the future look like? How will we move around in them? Archigram's utopia provide answers which are still exciting. Thanks to the Archigram Archival Project the designs and activities of the British architect group can now be viewed in detail on the Internet.