Seoul Searching

It was green. Curvaceous, shimmering, metallic, pink and playful. Generous amounts of marble and a lot of Sottsass inspiration. But also the opposite: a dash of bleak asceticism. This year’s design week in Milan was more about furniture as a solo player, rather than generic office designs. In the city, we were impressed by the new Ventura Centrale and 5Vie districts - not least the magnificent exhibitions by Luca Nichetto and Färg & Blanche.

Lava stone toys and fish skin bags – necessity has become the mother of art in Iceland. It’s also a haven for creatives from all corners of the world. Salka Hallström Bornold returns to the annual event DesignMarch and sees a city undergoing massive changes.

They shoot out like exclamation marks in the landscape. Enormous, white and unnatural, but with an uncanny beauty. Gerry Johansson has photographed windmills on a variety of rural locations in Sweden. Nils Forsberg bows before the Swedish master of desolate landscapes.

A comfortable collection that seamlessly integrates into residential or commercial environments. Design by Lievore Altherr Molina.

A feminist platform and an experimental workshop – the members of glass collective Boom are united in the search for new work methods and a desire to broaden the arena for glass.

Stockholm continues its transformation into a shopping metropolis, but Gothenburg does the opposite. The Swedish town takes the same path as a number of world cities and invests in collaborative economics.

The flat landscape calls for a special kind of architecture. Rasmus Graakjær explains why Danish architects like to merge with nature.

Next to sprawling Seoul, a new city is built: sustainable Songdo. Here, vegetables are grown in the shadow of skyscrapers and mobile masts. Form photographer David Relan went there.