Swiss photographer and World Press winner Jean Revillard has pictured a story that while disappearing from the headlines, continues to inflict abject daily inhumanities on those who have fled their homes and come to Calais in search of a better life on the other side of the English Channel. The human reality of immigration is forcing a return to nature that sees man dwelling like a wild animal, while rough capitalism and populist politicians set up camp in the safe embrace of fear.

Shaun Gladwell is back in Venice. Two years ago he came here to present his skateboarding piece Storm Sequence. During this Biennial’s edition the Sydney-based artist transformed the Australian Pavilion into a visual experience with his typical slowed-footage video of figures undertaking acts.

When natural disasters strike, the response goes way beyond shelter: roofs are not the only things that serve decimated communities. Architect Shigeru Ban will show his revised proposal for a temporary concert hall in L’Aquila at the beginning of July, yet alongside his driven sense of social responsibility, a series of projects that vary in scale demonstrate his desire to make ‘impossible things possible’.

As part of the Reykjavik Arts Festival, Stray Beacons sees four Icelandic artists invited to exhibit in lighthouses that sit on remote corners of the island. From Curver Thoroddsen’s temporary pizza parlour, which offers puffin as a topping, to the Icelandic Love Corporation’s brass band opening, it’s an uplifting experience that explores the localised subtleties and singularities of the landscape.

When it comes to a journey that includes a passage in which what goes up must come down, the chukudus of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo are winners. These wooden ‘scooters’ look like they have been wheeled off the set of the Flintstones; onomatopoeia on the move with its environmental credentials more accidental than by design.

From oozing glass vases and bulbs that go bad, to exploring the individual signatures of crate making, Dutch designer Pieke Bergmans investigations of customisation and mass production are blown together in a series of experiments. Naming her studio Design Virus, Bergmans’ has an irregular obsession with coincidences and material qualities.

The Hupophone and the Sound Hoover are strange acoustic creatures whose sounds and forms come straight from the self-styled Viennese ‘Noise Master’, Hans Christian Tschiritsch. This travelling minstrel’s journeys have taken him from the caves of Granada to southern Siberia, with his inventive ambition concentrated on the sound experience rather than perfect instrument making.

Opportunity in emergency, at this year’s Milan furniture fair a number of small design shops asserted themselves with presentations that damned any suggestions that the economy of ideas was running dry. Edging out a lot of the competition was the debut furniture collection from Paris-based Moustache, which features work from Matali Crasset, Big-Game and Inga SempŽ, and aims to fill the chasm between design-art and mass production.

From museum heavyweights to individual responses, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus is being celebrated in number of ways. German design duo osko+deichmann’s contribution to the party adds a new dimension to bent tubular steel - the symbol of modernity in furniture design - with the introduction of the kinked tube. The devil is in every detail...

Watchers will have to wait until next year to see how Turkey swallows the contents of that capricious chalice, the European Capital of Culture. In the meantime its design scene warmed-up with the Istanbul Design Weekend.

Since the last issue of DAMnˇ it seems that everyone and their mother has been busy with some kind of design-related product, project, presentation or performance. From Milan to New York via Berlin and taking the third street on the left to Istanbul, this issue of Productivity features big names, lots of promise and welcome dashes of humoured inspiration.

Showing and selling news from leading designers and international brands: B&B Italia continues the story of Gaetano Pesce’s Up series; Kvadrat opens its Bouroullec-designed Copenhagen showroom and office; Bisazza unveils its third US flagship store in Chicago; Flexform opens a new showroom in London during September; and Jamie Hayòn gets Together for Camper in Tokyo.