Hotel Everland, a mobile hotel designed by Swiss architect duo Sabrina Lang and Daniel Baumann, has been travelling around scenic spots in Europe. The one-room hotel has travelled to Lake Neuchatel, the roof-deck of the Leipzig Museum of Contemporary Art, and the roof of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (where it will remain until the end of the year). The artists are well known for their belief that the viewer should become part of the artwork. A pre-fabricated timber frame houses the brightly-coloured interior, with a deluxe bathroom, a king size bed, and a small lounge. Rubberneckers are welcome to browse during the day, but after 6pm it is reserved for paying overnight guests only.

The Association of College and University Housing Officers International has held the second stage of the 21st Century Project ideas competition, asking designers to present visions of housing 25 years from now. The winning team — Yang Tian, Suping Li, Yuzhu Zheng and Nathan Herold — came up with a scheme which embraced new technology, including LED panels that would allow the inhabitants to customise part of the building façade to reveal their personality, like a structural avatar. The next stage of the 21st Century Project will involve a competiton held at actual sites across three academic institutions, with plans to build a prototype of the winning design.

Love it or loathe it, there is no denying the iPod has become a ubiquitous part of modern entertainment, life and design, so it was only a matter of time before the little gizmo began inspiring architecture. Hong Kong-based James Law Cybertecture International is working on another Dubai landmark-in-the-making, The Pad, aka iPad: a sleek, shiny, white residential tower, which leans back in its "docking station" at a familiar 6-degree angle, to maximise waterside views over Business Bay. Each of the luxury units and lofts will feature modern necessities such as a bathroom that monitors your weight and temperature, 360-degree iRotating rooms and, of course, an iPod docking station. The iPad should be up and running by 2010.

It's hip to be a CUBE in Berlin. Having just won the international design competition for the new Deutsche Bahn Berlin HQ, 3XN is set to return to the German city, 10 years after their international breakthrough with the Danish Embassy. The design is a cube in name and shape, with a geometric patterned outer surface and a vast, open, four-level atrium at its core. The planned site for CUBE, Washingtonplatz, is one of the most well-known commercial locations in Europe, and is surrounded by a number of high-profile German government buildings.

As if there was every any doubt about it (at least among the locals) Melbourne's status as the design capital of Australia is set to be reaffirmed in Victoria's upcoming State of Design Festival. Running from the 16th to the 24th of of July, this year's festival will have four distinct event arenas: The Premier's Design Awards, the Design Capital 'business of design' conference, Design for Everyone, held at 30 exhibitions and events throughout Victoria, and the Design Made Trade trade show.

The Association Oeuvre Notre-Dame du Haut, the owners of Le Corbusier's famous chapel at Ronchamp, are seeking a permit to build a new visitors centre, a cluster of housing for nuns, and a meditation space on the site, and have revealed Renzo Piano as their designer of choice. They hope to transform the chapel into a working religious building instead of an architectural tourist destination. But the Fondation Le Courbusier has promised to begin litigation if the plans do go ahead, due to concerns that the new buildings will destroy the sense of pilgrimage and impoverish the chapel.

You've heard of the IKEA apartment, with interior design straight from the cult brand's notoriously labyrinthine showrooms. Now you can have a competely flatpack IKEA house: the Swedish furniture company has established their first housing development in Gateshead on Tyneside in the UK. The development has 93 pre-assembled flatpack homes, called Bo Klok, meaning "live smart" in Swedish. Operating under the principle of "goods for the many", a three-bedroom house would cost around £149 000 and would come with a £250 IKEA voucher, as well as 22 Skimmia shrubs and an apple tree in the garden. Plans are already underway for a second 100-home Bo Klok development in Sunderland, UK.

17 April 2008: Belgium has celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Atomium, an oddity of modern architecture touted as the "most astonishing building in the world." Built for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels, the Atomium is a towering structure made up of nine giant aluminum-clad spheres linked with steel tubes. The sci-fi design represents an iron atom magnified 165 billion times... Source: The Boston Globe