This week on Dezeen, rental website Airbnb unveiled its latest themed holiday home, a grass-and-mud-covered hut underneath a tree hosted by Donkey from the movie series Shrek.

Named Shrek’s Swamp, the small house, which is being hosted by Donkey while Shrek is away for Halloween, was described as “a stumpy, secluded haven fit for a solitude-seeking ogre”.

In architecture news, Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban created a prototype house that will be built in Morocco following a devastating earthquake earlier this month.

The latest iteration of Ban’s Paper Log House model, the structure has columns made from cardboard tubes with walls and a roof made from prefabricated wooden panels.

In design news, Lego abandoned its plans to use recycled plastic bottles to make its bricks as an alternative to using virgin plastic.

The Danish toymaker dropped the plans after its pilot programme showed that adopting the recycled material at scale would ultimately increase the company’s carbon footprint due to the manufacturing process and equipment needed.

This week saw a mass-timber McDonald’s restaurant in São Paulo revealed. Designed by local architecture office Superlimão Studio, the building is supported by a tree-like timber structure.

The 2,150-square foot (220-square metre) building was built as part of the fast food chain’s “Recipe for the Future” initiative.

In Mexico, the largest and tallest mass-timber structure in the country was completed. Designed by Dellekamp Schleich to “set an example for innovative construction methods”, the 940-square-metre office building was built in Mexico City.

Also this week, in other mass-timber news, the New York City Economic Development Corporation launched an assistance program to encourage the adoption of mass-timber in New York City.

In other architecture news, a pair of social housing blocks were revealed. In New York, architecture firm Studio Libeskind unveiled a housing block with sculptural facades that contains 44 apartments for low-income senior citizens .

In Paris, Christ & Gantenbein created a 124-metre-long block containing 104 apartments, which was clad in steel.

Popular projects this week included an extension in Australia wrapped in pale pink breeze blocks, a house under the ground in the Netherlands and a cliffside hotel on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.

Our latest lookbooks featured living rooms enhanced by decorative and striking art pieces and colourful bedrooms.

This week on Dezeen

This week on Dezeen is our regular roundup of the week’s top news stories. Subscribe to our newsletters to be sure you don’t miss anything.