From golden syrup to golden shoes, this week’s Design Line ponders how the language of design is being co-opted for political messages, as well as including stories about material tracing, manufactured outrage and un-radical retrofitting.

For Design Reviewed #1, Oli Stratford swelters through the heat in Bali to review The Desa Potato Head resort’s zero waste strategy.

Less Gesamtkunstwerk and more 3D-simulated catalogue, the first Muji-branded hotel in Shenzhen offers Brendan Cormier a hollow experience.

A trip into Eimear McBride’s novel Strange Hotel reveals the rich literary potential of hotel architecture.