This week MVRDV’s fake hill opened, and then closed again, in London

This week on Dezeen, the Marble Arch Mound designed by Dutch studio MVRDV was forced to partially close shortly after opening in central London.

The £2 million artificial hill in central London opened on Monday but was subsequently ridiculed by critics due to the poor quality of its planting.

In response, Westminster City Council closed the 25-metre-high attraction to new customers and issued refunds to disgruntled visitors.

Speaking to Dezeen, MVRDV admitted that the fake hill was not complete and should not have opened.

"Some elements were not ready, and it would have been better to wait until the greenery looked better," MVRDV told Dezeen. "But let's give nature a chance."

Nendo creates spherical Olympic cauldron with hydrogen flame

This week was also the first full week of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Japanese design studio Nendo's spherical cauldron was the centrepiece of the opening ceremony.

The cauldron was positioned within the 68,000-seat Japan National Stadium, which was designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates and is set to host the track and field athletics events at both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Zaha Hadid Architects creates 3D-printed concrete bridge in Venice

In Venice, Zaha Hadid Architects and ETH Zurich unveiled a 3D-printed concrete footbridge that was assembled without mortar.

Another 3D-printed pedestrian bridge, which recently opened in Amsterdam after six years of development, was the focus of commenters attention.

One commenter said the bridge designed by Joris Laarman looked "like it was randomly plopped onto the site".

BREEAM and LEED green certification schemes are "meaningless" says Andrew Waugh

In a piece as part of our carbon revolution series, British architect Andrew Waugh said that environmental certification schemes were "meaningless".

According to the architect, schemes like BREEAM and LEED focus too much on operational emissions rather than emissions from a building's construction.

The Dezeen guide to kitchen layouts including peninsula, island and galley styles

We continued our series of Dezeen Guides with a look at kitchen layouts.

The guide explains eight of the most common kitchen arrangements with links to hundreds of examples to inspire you.

Ibuku completes "unprecedented" bamboo building in the Balinese jungle

Popular projects this week include a gymnasium made entirely from bamboo in Bali, a Corten-clad prison overlooking a fjord in Greenland and a monolithic concrete house in a Portuguese forest.

Our lookbooks this week focused on cosy cabin bedrooms and rooms with Japandi interiors.

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week's top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don't miss anything.

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