This year’s highlights include the remodelling of a Richard Seifert brutalist ‘corncob’ tower, a celebration of Japanese carpentry and a wearable hot-water bottle
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In a case of contents outshining the container, the V&A’s national museum of everything takes the public up close and personal to a gallimaufry of precious things, from porcelain to poison darts, textiles to tiaras. Elegantly shoehorned into the gargantuan hangar that was originally the broadcasting centre for the 2012 Olympics, it’s an Amazon warehouse crammed with global treasures, setting visitors off on an odyssey of “curated transgression” through an immersive cabinet of curiosities.
Subtly abstracting Islamic architectural precepts for the current age, a new social and cultural centre for Houston’s Ismaili community, which will also be enjoyed by the wider public, evokes an experiential serenity that recalls the laconic simplicity of minimalist art. Beautifully built and characterised by an inviting sense of openness, it’s “a renewal rather than a reproduction”, says its architect Farshid Moussavi; a nuanced distillation of geometric and spatial possibilities set within a luxuriant garden landscape.
