The best design and architecture of 2025

1. V&A East Storehouse by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, London 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. Experiential serenity … Houston’s new Ismaili Centre, by Farshid Moussavi.Photograph: Iwan Baan Elegantly shoehorned … V&A East Storehouse by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.Photograph: © Hufton+Crow Exacting, beautiful .. Craft of Carpentry exhibition at Japan House, London.Photograph: Jeremie Souteyrat/Japan House London Exuberant assemblage … Design and Disability at the V&A.Photograph: Peter Kelleher Intact and alive … the Ukrainian cinema and concert hall, Kharkiv.Photograph: Pavlo Dorohoi Thoughtful … Kusheda Mensa’s Palma pouf in Copenhagen.Photograph: Emily Cole Delicately portrayed … Noah Davis, 1975.Photograph: Kerry McFate/Noah Davis/David Zwirner Glimpse behind the scenes … Showtown museum, Blackpool.Photograph: Joel Goodman/The Guardian Nifemi Marcus-Bello exhibition Material Affirmations: Oríkì Acts I-III at Tiwani Contemporary, Nigeria.Photograph: Erik Benjamins Exceptional … Suna Fujita’s teapot at Milan Design Week 2025.Photograph: Loewe Inspiring healing … Marcia Bennett-Male and her Black Mary statue in Calthorpe Community Garden, King’s Cross.Photograph: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Images 2. Ismaili Centre by Farshid Moussavi, Houston, US 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. 3. Hans Hollein Transforms, Pompidou Centre, Paris As the Pompidou Centre bids adieu for a five-year long renovation , its final architecture show was devoted to the work of Austrian architect Hans Hollein , a postmodernist provocateur who navigated the currents of the avant garde for five decades while designing everything from exquisite jewellery shops to pneumatic structures. Infamously, he proposed reducing architecture to a series of pills contrived to conjure spatial and sensorial experiences without going to the bother of actually constructing a building. 4. Space House: Squire & Partners, London Something of an architectural bogeyman in his day, Richard “Colonel” Seifert specialised in monumental office developments, such as London’s Centre Point and Tower 42 in the City, once the UK’s tallest building. But he is now coming in from the cold, with renewed interest in his unapologetically modernist oeuvre. The remodelling of Space House in Kingsway breathes bold new life into one of his distinctive “corncob” towers, with 90% of the original structure retained and restored. 5. The Craft of Carpentry , Japan House, London The tools and techniques of the exacting and beautiful craft of Japanese carpentry temporarily transformed the...

Preview: ~500 words