Backyard bees, Frankenstein cities, and a walk through the cemetery

Internationally renowned designer Bethan Laura Wood is building a library like no other; she gives us a tour of Kaleidoscope-o-rama; Nam Le, award winning author of The Boat, takes us to the two places that shaped him as a writer; and Annie Smithers cooks Elizabeth David's courgettes à la grecque.

Solarpunk's vision for a brighter future, the churn of aesthetic trends online and why we find some foods disgusting.

Besha Rodell casts her gaze back on the food scene that was 2023 and makes her predictions for 2024; Journalist and author Nathan Thrall takes us to the city he calls the most divided in the world – his home city of Jerusalem.

Exposed brick, smashed avocado, hanging Edison bulbs, the patina of industry and reclaimed wood furniture – this is the algorithmic aesthetic writer and critic, Kyle Chayka investigates in his new book, Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Also, the history of Neturaface, dubbed the gentrification font; and a conversation with Grand Designs Transformations host, Anthony Burke about the relationship between architecture, economic insecurity and home renovation.

Kevin McCloud on the definition of good design, why Grand Designs is such a compelling proposition; Yanis Varoufakis reflects on growing up in the shadow of the Parthenon, on his idyllic childhood and its contrast to the brutal political reality against which it was set; and a new series in which Annie Smithers cooks her way through Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking. 

Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen reflects on the contradictions, conflicts and the disordered and divided appetites of the modern individual and Colin Bisset gives a design history of the comfortable chair. 

This week, a haunted edition of Blueprint: a meditation, through food, cooking and place, on loss and the insistence of the past.

The settler-colonial project involved the imposition of European conceptions of natural landscape on the one hand, and the built world on the other. Jack Pascoe, Owen Hatherley and Michael-Shawn Fletcher consider the legacy of colonialism - its persistent myths and enduring imprint on the Australian landscape.

From the landlord special - beige-grey laminate, vast empty spaces, and colourless walls - to the neutral-coloured knitwear favoured by todays wealthy elite, we discuss aesthetic conformity and homogeneity in the worlds of fashion, architecture and design.

Professor Laleh Khalili discusses the movement of cargo, capital and cruiseliners across the globe and the human economy and exploitative labour practices upon which it relies.