This week the designer of the Queen Elizabeth II memorial was revealed

This week on Dezeen, we revealed that British studio Foster + Partners has been chosen to design the Queen Elizabeth II memorial in St James' Park, London.

Foster + Partners' memorial will comprise a glass-clad bridge informed by Queen Elizabeth II's wedding tiara, along with a statue of the late queen.

The studio won the commission after beating a shortlist of firms including Heatherwick Studio and WilkinsonEyre. The memorial will be located close to Buckingham Palace.

Foster + Partners was also in the news this week for its design of One Bloor West, a 308.6-metre tall Toronto tower that is set to become Canada's first supertall skyscraper.

The skyscraper has so far reached 300 metres and will have 85 stories once completed.

Contributing editor Rima Sabina Aouf asked if we've come to the twilight of the smartphone in a popular feature story this week.

Aouf explored how artificial intelligence (AI), wearable technology and the emergence of "dumbphones" could change our relationship with technology and potentially bring about the end of the smartphone.

We rounded up our favourite products from Copenhagen design festival 3 Days of Design, which included a table with a built-in chessboard and chairs made from a steel frame with a shrink-to-fit textile cover.

Other 3 Days of Design stories included furniture made from construction waste and eye-catching architectural hardware designs.

In other design news, this week saw the launch of two intriguing bags. In Paris, Swedish designer Gustaf Westman unveiled his handbag-style baguette holder, a spiralling design that was 3D-printed in recycled plastic specially to carry the slender loaves.

Meanwhile, in New York, designer Nik Bentel drew on the city's on-the-go music culture for his design of two acrylic handbags, one of which functions as a mixer and the other as a speaker.

British studio Zaha Hadid Architects revealed designs for two new projects. In the United Arab Emirates, the firm is designing a masterplan for Khalid Bin Sultan City in Sharjah for environmental management company Beeah Group.

It also unveiled its geometric Vilnius Airport terminal in Lithuania, which will feature a pleated timber-lined roof informed by Lithuanian cultural heritage.

Major League Baseball team the Athletics is getting a new stadium in Las Vegas, designed by Danish studio BIG, which will feature five overlapping, arched volumes.

BIG broke ground this week on the stadium, which will be covered in a metal shell designed to resemble an armadillo – an animal native to the American southwest.

Popular projects this week included a house wrapped in bushfire-resistant metal, two conjoined charred-timber houses in Germany and another merged house design, the Twin Houses in London designed for a blended family.

As the weather in the northern hemisphere heated up, we took a look at luxury houses with refreshing outdoor swimming pools.

This week on Dezeen

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