This week Monocle’s Tokyo bureau chief Fiona Wilson tells us about Metabolism, an obscure and futuristic Japanese architectural movement from the 1960s that drew on influences ranging from living organisms to communism.

A sit-down with the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, plus a digest of what you might have missed from Stockholm Design Week.

Monocle’s Lisbon correspondent Trish Lorenz explores the enduring appeal of azulejos — the decorative tiles that have been a mainstay of Portuguese craftsmanship and design since the 16th century.

We report from Stockholm Design Week, including emerging talents and design at the Norwegian Embassy. Meanwhile, as Netflix releases a new documentary series about design, we speak to one of its producers, former ‘Wired’ editor in chief Scott Dadich.

The building has recently opened after a 16-year wait. Designed by Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas, it is an aesthetic triumph – but a fraught political climate has made for a mixed reception.

We visit a show at Central Saint Martins that shines a light on ceramics design. Plus, a visit to a Portuguese rug atelier who is fusing traditional techniques with a contemporary aesthetic, and a conversation with photographer Paul Barbera about his new book documenting the workspaces of some of the biggest creative talents in Japan.

This week design journalist Kassia St Clair unpicks a row that’s rolling on in the aftermath of sculptor and artist Anish Kapoor’s much-publicised attempt to copyright a colour. We hear who’s come out red faced and which parties stayed whiter-than-white in the fall out.

This week we don our sporting colours to mull over the role of stadiums in our cities and think about the role of colour in sport. Plus, a tour of a modernist complex in Belo Horizonte by the late Oscar Niemeyer.

Few items of clothing have as much symbolism stitched into their history as the keffiyeh. Mary Pelletier explains how this traditional scarf became a political icon in Palestine.

We visit an exhibition of drawings and paintings that cast light on the formative years of the late Zaha Hadid and ask about the enduring pull of the French capital in the world of couture, with a rundown of January’s packed fashion calendar. Plus: the finest from Paris’s preeminent design tradeshow Maison & Objet.