A chaotic displays help Rem Koolhaas avoid sentimental retrospection, says Edwin Heathcote.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby, the designers of the 2012 Olympic torch, are the UK’s best-known design duo. The self-described “masochists” explain how they design simple things that turn out to be fiendishly difficult to make.

Iain Sinclair’s relentless pessimism about the London Olympics fails to depress Chris Hall.

Solitary, decaying and useless, London’s favourite derelict building stands proud and aloof amid legal wranglings, property speculation and the soulless transformation of its surroundings. For the “Ruins” issue, we made Battersea Power Station our Icon of the Month.

This London duo’s fixation with the art of creation is challenging the notion that product designers should focus on the end result.

It’s a tough time to leave university. But in the face of debt, an uncertain economy and fierce competition for work, these 15 design graduates have, between them, amassed an outstanding collection of innovative and diverse projects.

It’s a tough time to leave university. But in the face of debt, an uncertain economy and fierce competition for work, these 15 design graduates have, between them, amassed an outstanding collection of innovative and diverse projects.

It’s a tough time to leave university. But in the face of debt, an uncertain economy and fierce competition for work, these 15 design graduates have, between them, amassed an outstanding collection of innovative and diverse projects.

Celebrated curator Libby Sellers is about to open her first permanent gallery in central London.

Design practice BERG has adopted science fiction authors William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Warren Ellis as its “giant uncles”, but it is less interested in the distant future than in today’s ever smarter technology. The really hard task, they say, is “inventing next year”.

Jestico and Whiles’ design for the Mayfair club flirts with 1960s nostalgia to reinterpret Hugh Hefner’s vision of a louche bachelor heaven.

While not all of the items on this list feature for purely aesthetic reasons, these are the things I encounter every day and simply can’t do without.

Charles Holland finds the ICA transformed into a Regency grand salon for an exhibition that explores the links between two ages of pastiche and populism.

Designers have found inspiration in everything from knitting needles to Japanese rock gardens for the pick of this year’s exhibits.

Designers have found inspiration in everything from knitting needles to Japanese rock gardens for the pick of this year’s exhibits.

The responses of young designers to world events ranged from hand-made radiation detectors to seesaw-powered washing machines.

The design festival made quite an impression (literally, in the case of Lulu Guinness’s Pin Art Machine) in this, its second year, with more than 150 events, an impressive array of exhibitors and a Victorian prison teeming with emerging designers.

London has two new skyscrapers: the Heron Tower, the tallest building in the City, and the Shard, the tallest building in the EU. We took sculptor Richard Wentworth to appraise them as additions to the street scene – and peek at OMA’s super-discreet bank HQ along the way.

Dirt is both a fetish and a pressing social problem in this exploration of filth in all its forms.

As the internet allows the general public a front-row view of catwalk shows, labels are seeking ever more exclusive venues.