Design Postcards: Bogotá, Colombia

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The Colombian capital sits high on a plateau in the Andes at over 8,500 feet, cradled by steep green mountains. Here, design heritage and culture can be found in markets and murals, metal and thread, in historic places and purpose-built spaces.

In the city's historic center, the Museo Botero and the Museo del Oro anchor two ends of a cultural spectrum. Botero is Colombia's most internationally recognized artist, and his sculptures and paintings stretch forms into chubby satire, while the gold museum holds one of the world's most significant collections of pre-Hispanic ritual objects, designs made not for display,...

Borealis wall covering by Designtex

Dezeen Showroom: US textile company Designtex applied a soft, painterly aesthetic to this wall covering, which is part of its non-vinyl range made with bio-based content.

The Borealis wall covering features a hazy, multicoloured pattern that looks like layers of downward brushstrokes, giving the impression of a landscape glimpsed through a rainy window or a painting viewed in blurred close-up.

Designtex created the wall covering to promote emotional wellbeing through its calm feel, thus intending for it to be used in wellness, senior living and hospitality interiors.

The design is digitally printed on the brand's...

A Saddle-Inspired Leather Chair

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You've seen leather and steel chairs before, but probably never one that looked like this:

That's the Pepe, by Italian architect/designer Raffaella Mangiarotti.

I have no equestrian background and have no idea how comfortable this is, but I covet it.

The vegetable-tanned leather is stretched long over the steel frame and stitched into place, then the excess is sliced off by hand:

The chair is in production by Italian furniture manufacturer Opinion Ciatti.

WHDA upgrades Australian school with steel-framed sports court

Australian architecture studio WHDA has updated the Swan Hill Specialist School in Victoria, adding a steel-framed sports court with colourful brise soleil that acts as its "catalytic social heart".

The upgrade of the school, which provides education for children with disabilities from both Swan Hill and the surrounding rural areas, was funded by the local government's Inclusive Schools Fund and carried out by Melbourne-based WHDA in two phases.

The first phase, completed in 2023, saw the introduction of the new sports court, followed in 2025 by a second phase that added a student-run cafe alongside a library...

Foster + Partners unveils plans for first pub project

British studio Foster + Partners has announced plans to restore The Eagle and Child pub in Oxford, UK, which is the architecture firm's first-ever project involving a public house.

Dating back to 1840, The Eagle and Child pub is best known as the meeting spot of the Inklings – a literary group including writers JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis.

The overhaul of the Grade II-listed building is Foster + Partners' first pub project and its smallest undertaking since 2017, when it worked with the Red Cross charity to design emergency relief tents.

"The St George's cross speaks of the power of design to transform public space"

The proliferation of St George's flags across England raises questions about design's capacity to influence political forces in today's world, writes Catharine Rossi.

Every time I go for a walk through my town, there are more and more flags. Hanging off lampposts, stuck up in windows, attached to car aerials, suspended over bridges, even graffitied onto road markings.

There is the occasional blue, red and white of the Union Jack, but mostly they are red crosses against white backgrounds – the flag of Saint George, patron saint of England (and many other countries beside). Until recently, the symbol's nationalist associations have rendered...

"It's more difficult being a small brand today" says Acne Studios founder

Ahead of its 30th anniversary, Acne Studios founder Jonny Johansson explains why customers don't influence the fashion brand's sustainability decisions in this interview.

Since its founding in Stockholm in 1996, Acne Studios has gone from a niche denim brand to a high-powered fashion house with stores all over the world, including a recent opening in Chengdu, China.

Earlier this summer, it unveiled its new Paris headquarters, an art-filled space in a converted laboratory that Johansson said exemplifies the brand's focus on collaboration.

"It's about [working with] all these people who are participating in our world, it's a conversation," Johansson told Dezeen.

"We don't just...

Chilean rock library forms centrepiece of Mareida restaurant by DAW

Forty-eight rocks were handpicked from a Chilean mine to form the centrepiece of Mareida, a London restaurant designed by Macarena Aguilar Izquierdo of Santiago-based studio DAW.

Mareida is the brainchild of owner Prenay Agarwal, who wanted to bring Chilean food, design and culture to London.

The rock library is one of several custom pieces inside the Fitzrovia restaurant, intended to connect the interior with the country's diverse natural landscape.

Aguilar Izquierdo and Agarwal travelled to Combarbala, a mining town in northern Chile, to select stones of Combarbalita, a semiprecious volcanic rock unique...

Growing Up Braving the Sea 2

Lego and Nike add modular sports playground to Shanghai primary school

Design studio OLA Shanghai has collaborated with toy brand Lego and sports brand Nike to create a colourful modular playground at a primary school in Shanghai, China.

Created as the latest collaboration between the two brands, the brightly coloured playground designed by OLA Shanghai was installed in a previously grey courtyard space at Baoshan No 2 Central Primary School in north Shanghai.

The 550-square-meter space was covered in bright flooring made from recycled shoes that were processed with Nike Grind technology, which has been used to turn 280,000 worn shoes...