This month French artist Daniel Buren decks out the Pompidou-Metz with an installation of colourful stripes, Ai Weiwei's sculptures go on show at the Lisson Gallery, and the design spotlight moves to New York as ICFF gets underway.

The theme of the June issue is "Oceans". In our cover story, Icon contributing editor Julian Worrall writes a letter from Tokyo, describing the tsunami and its aftershocks, and the effect - in a metropolis well prepared for disasters - on life there.

In his Disassembly series, Canadian photographer Todd McLellan dissects discarded machines, laying out their parts with forensic precision. He then "sets the parts free", dropping them from the ceiling and freezing them mid-frame using strobe lighting to capture exploded views. Watch the time-lapse film here.

Jürgen Mayer H has designed a modernist airport and dropped it in the middle of nowhere.

Hiroshi Nakamura has allowed the spaces traced by surrounding branches to dictate the form of his latest work, a museum in the Japanese city of Oyama.

The Easter weekend is your last chance to see Gabriel Orozco's retrospective at the Tate Modern. The Mexican artist's oeuvre includes a re-assembled Citroen car, an array of burst tyres and a dramatic checkerboard skull. Here, we pick over the show's bones to reveal themes of playfulness, mortality and the "hyper-pluralism" of the 90s art scene.

Spanish architect Ecosistema Urbano has built an environmentally friendly kindergarten that cohabits with the wild industrial hinterland of Madrid without hiding away.

For decades, the best that British seaside towns have been able to offer is faded glamour. We invited London design studio Proud Creative to bring about a Rhyl renaissance

It’s Adolf Loos season over at the RIBA this month, featuring a spread of talks and events that celebrate the work of the Czech architect. Meanwhile, Martino Gamper lectures in San Francisco, the CCA presents Architecture in Uniform and luminaries of the design world come together for Milan Furniture Fair.

The dramatic facade of these apartments in the Portuguese village of Alcácer do Sal is a functional response to residents’ needs.

In the wake of the arrest of dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Icon magazine joins those organisations and governments calling for his immediate release.

At next week’s Milan Furniture Fair, there’ll be a new exhibition dedicated to showcasing the best in British design. Designjunction will be taking over the Zegna showroom in the heart of Zona Tortona to bring together products from exclusive brands including Modus, Innermost, Benchmark and Anglepoise.