Herzog & de Meuron is going through what might be described as a wilfully eccentric phase in its work. The buildings completing around now are incredibly difficult to classify or to place in any context other than as steps on an artistic journey that has no equal or equivalent in contemporary architecture, but will increasingly polarise critics and fans alike.

Tord Boontje talks in the most quiet and earnest of tones, but he’s clearly delighted at the success of his Happy Ever After installation at Milan this year.

Not content with taking over telly, celebrity chefs are invading our kitchens with Nigella chopping boards and Anthony Worrall Thompson sandwich toasters. Do they leave a bad taste in the mouth?

If Humberto and Fernando Campana look a little tense in these photos, it’s because they’ve spent the whole morning arguing. Fernando, the one in the leather jacket, lost his wallet the night before and he’s been stressing about it ever since. It all got too much for his older brother Humberto, who tried to get Fernando to calm down, but to no avail.

The defining event at this year’s Milan Design Week was not a product launch or a party, but a takeover announcement. Cappellini – the most aristocratic of Italy’s small, family-run furniture houses – has been rescued from bankruptcy by a conglomerate and its figurehead, the legendary Giulio Cappellini, forced to surrender day-to-day management to the suits.

Alsop Architects’ Sharp Center at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) in Toronto, Canada, has just been completed, turning the previously low-profile college into one of the most recognisable structures in the city.

Collecting sea shells and rearranging the furniture might not sound like a wild time, but give it a chance and this game from Nintendo will take up a permanent residence in your head.

Already dubbed the geek palace by Wired magazine, Frank Gehry’s research building for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology opened in May.

They seek him here, they seek him there, and they find him (perhaps) in Manchester. An intriguing urban game from Blast Theory.