Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando made the list with a pair of giant, concrete helical staircases that twist around the centre of the He Art Museum in Guangdong, China. The staircases are housed in a central courtyard and spiral upwards to connect all four floors.
The roundup also includes a staircase that doubles as a climbing wall and a flower-like staircase with petal-shaped steps.
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Dezeen Showroom: Japanese brand Time & Style celebrates simple, straight lines in the design of its modular Horizontal Sofa, created for furniture makers Boffi De Padova.
The Horizontal Sofa comprises a series of square seating cushions balanced on a slender brass framework.
It comes as part of a wider collection created by Time & Style for the Italian furniture brand, which also includes a chaise longue, cabinet, pouf and marble-topped table.
The Horizontal Sofa by Time & Style features angular seating cushions
"It is a complete collection that interprets the living space, respecting balance and proportion in search of perfect comfort," explained Boffi De Padova.
The modular sofa, which is entirely crafted in Italy, is available as a two- or three-seater.
These units can be placed in a room independently or arranged together to form an L-shaped seating system. Additional upholstered corner elements can be added to expand the sofa even further.
The cushions sit on a slender brass base
There is also the option for slim drawers to be incorporated at either end of the sofa, offering a spot to showcase ornaments or lighting fixtures.
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Dezeen promotion: a selection of artworks featured in magazines Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair has been made available to purchase as prints by Fine Art America.
The three Fine Art America collections transform hundreds of photos and drawings created for the magazines into ready-to-hang prints and canvases with a range of framing options.
Above: prints of sketches by Charles Barsotti for The New Yorker. Top image: photography by Clifford Coffin and George Hoyningen-Huene
They form part of a wider range of wall art launched by art marketplace Fine Art America with mass media company Condé Nast in 2015.
Titled the Condé Nast Art Collections, the range comprises 136 different collections and thousands of prints made from art featured across the company's various magazines – including Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.
Among the artwork featured in the Vogue series are photos by American fashion photographer Clifford Coffin, including his 1949 image called Models Sitting On Sand Dunes.
The portfolio of American-Russian fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene also features, with black and white images like The Divers Date taken in 1930.
The New Yorker range also features cover art from the magazine
Fine Art America converted a mix of cover art and comic drawings into prints to make The New Yorker wall art range, including the iconic canine sketches by American cartoonist Charles Barsotti.
Bob Staake's abstract portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's lace collar for The New Yorker's October 2020 edition is among the cover art featured in the series, alongside Abigail Gray's reinvention of the wartime icon Rosie the Riveter for the Women's March in 2017.
Cover art also features in the Vanity Fair series, including copies of illustrated issues produced in the early 20th century.
Photography and cover art also feature in the Vanity Fair series
The artwork from the Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair series can be purchased from Fine Art America as canvas prints, metal prints, acrylic prints, wood prints or posters.
They are also available with several mounting options including seven different colour frames, which allow users to tailor their artwork to the interior of a room in which it will be used.
Founded in 2006, Fine Art America is the "world's largest art marketplace and print-on-demand technology company".
Alongside making the works of leading photographers and brands accessible to purchase, the marketplace also exists to help emerging artists sell art, home decor and apparel.
To see more of the company's Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair series or explore the Condé Nast Art Collections in full, click here.
London studio Peter Barber Architects has created a terrace of social housing for Greenwich council on a tight site in south London that was previously occupied by garages.
Designed for residents over 60, the row of housing was built on a long site, which Peter Barber Architects founder Peter Barber said was previously thought to be undevelopable.
"We've found it really interesting working on this complex little site," he told Dezeen. "It's great to be able to build much needed social housing and make a new street too. All on a site that was previously thought to be undevelopable."
Peter Barber Architects created a terrace of social housing in south London
The two-storey, brick housing block contains 11 apartments arranged along a new mews street. To make the most of the tight site, Peter Barber Architects arranged the homes in a "double stacked" formation, which is known historically as a Cottage or Tyneside flat.
On the ground floor, the block contains five two-bedroom homes that each have a rear outdoor space as well as a day room for the residents. The first floor contains six one-bedroom flats that are each accessible from individual stairways that lead to private terraces.
The brick terrace contains 11 homes
"The scheme has no wasted space in the form of common area circulation, no common corridors or shared stairs. Instead, the project's circulation is the mews itself," explained Barber.
"Each home has a street-front door either in the form of a gate leading to a first-floor roof terrace or an arched ground floor entrance," he continued. "Every home has a good-sized roof terrace or a sunny back garden."
Each home has a street entrance
Barber believes that arranging the homes along a pedestrianised street, rather than in a block with a single entrance, will encourage interaction between the residents and others in the community.
"The stats for loneliness and isolation amongst older people make for depressing reading," he said. "A significant proportion of older people live alone. Many have retired and therefore no longer have the social connections that come through work. Kids have left home, partners have perhaps died."
"We believe that street-based housing can help with this," he continued. "Our mews seems likely to make people quite visible to one another."
"We hope it will become a place in which residents will be recognised by one another as they go to and from their homes, and we think it is more likely that people will feel like exchanging a friendly word in a street than they would in a common area corridor, lift or stairwell of a more conventional apartment building."
A new mews street was created as part of the development
Alongside the housing, the addition of the common room will also encourage interaction between the residents, although it is currently closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"The common room is currently locked because of the pandemic," explained Barber. "Its use will be a matter for residents – morning coffee get-togethers? Tea parties? Birthday celebrations? Party nights?"
"Wouldn't it be great if it became available to other local residents so that people living around could get to know the new people on the block – let's see," he added.
Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, an "optimistic" hue of yellow, are the two shades that Pantone has named as its colours of the year for 2021.
American colour company Pantone believes that the pairing of shades will help people "fortify themselves with energy, clarity and hope" in a world that's set to face increasing uncertainty.
Pantone has chosen two shades for its Color of the Year 2021
The bright yellow shade, called Illuminating, is meant to evoke the "optimistic promise of a sunshine-filled day", while Ultimate Gray is a much quieter hue that speaks more of "composure, steadiness and resilience".
Pantone says the colour can almost be compared to durable natural elements, like time-weathered pebbles on a beach.
A bright yellow hue called Illuminating is one of the colours
"The selection of two independent colours highlight how different elements come together to express a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting," explained Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.
"Practical and rock-solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a colour combination that gives us resilience and hope," she continued.
"We need to feel encouraged and uplifted, this is essential to the human spirit."
The tumultuous year of 2020 has led other companies to choose similarly affirming shades as their 2021 colours of the year.
A few months ago paint brand Dulux announced theirs as Brave Ground, an earthy beige hue that is supposed to reflect "the strength we can draw from nature, our growing desire to align more with the planet and looking towards the future".
Ultimate Gray is the other shade in the colour duo
