Fresh from ringing in the new year, we’re looking ahead to what lies in store for 2016, presenting fresh faces making a mark on design and architecture, as well as established names who seem to be hitting new highs

The architecture and urbanism festival calls for an end to the relentless churn of construction and challenges our thinking about city-making, but does it offer solutions for the future of its host city, asks Debika Ray?

Architecture’s frenzied courtship of art has finally been reciprocated, but John Jervis argues that this relationship may already have done more harm than good

The undeniable impact of the eerie French drama The Returned owes much to its unsettling locations, writes Charles Holland

From Lyon's experiment in public lighting, to Ireland's efforts to establish its international design reputation, our latest issue looks at the design that has a tangible impact on people's lives and moods

Art deals, shady gold, smuggled antiquities, laundered money – the chic, yet sinister, aesthetic of the latest crop of tax-free zones is the architecture of financial inscrutability, says Edwin Heathcote

Ahead of the Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture next week, the event’s co-curator, Alfredo Brillembourg of architecture practice Urban Think Tank, explains the continuing significance of China

From plywood to crowdfunding, they're being hailed as the next big thing – but how long will that fuzzy feeling last?

An unlikely government agency, involving a Belgian design studio and a Rotterdam research institute, is hoping to restore order to Tirana after decades of architectural anarchy

From “artisanal” and “timeless” to, erm, "iconic", these words are the most slippery and overused in the design industry. Of course, we haven’t used any of them in our latest issue ...

Serious money is moving into the city’s old shipyards, now one of Europe’s most vibrant creative quarters. For ICON 150, Enya Moore went to find out whether the area's rapid transformations means the designers will eventually be moving out. These photos, by Raoul Kramer, accompany the article

On the occasion of our 150th issue, we have totally rethought the content and design of the magazine. The new Icon is all about the objects and architecture of everyday life – whether innovative tech and fashion, or cities pushing up beautiful skylines. Take a look inside...

Beyond the A13, the staid seaside towns and the flat, muddy fields of its heartland lies an alternative Essex – an unlikely hotbed of radical modernism, writes Charles Holland

A new London vernacular has emerged over the past five years – but is the moral laziness it represents an omen for the city’s future?

The absence of a “Bond Villain’s Lair” aesthetic in Spectre, the latest instalment in the James Bond franchise, reveals the disconcerting state of London's corporate architecture, says Edwin Heathcore.

The hostess bars of Tokyo’s hedonistic Shinjuku district have an unlikely neighbour: Amorphe’s vast, futuristic Buddhist temple

Rem Koolhaas mixes preservation and provocation in Moscow, turning a Soviet-era workers’ canteen into a contemporary art space, says Edwin Heathcote

In the Home issue, Charles Holland took a trip down memory lane to rediscover a series of modernist gems in villages around Essex. We asked Catherine Hyland to take some photographs to accompany the article – see them here and follow @iconeye on Instagram for more

Democratic, inclusive and grounded, Chicago’s inaugural architecture biennial distinguishes itself from its more established counterparts through its ambition to make a lasting contribution to the host city, says David Michon

The worlds of art and architecture exist in a constant state of mutual jealousy. As the Turner prize exhibition opens, we consider whether the nomination of architectural collective Assemble for this year’s award is likely to bring them any closer together