it's december (!) and designboom kicks off its annual TOP 10 round up of the year’s most talked about projects with a look at ten museums and cultural centers featured on designboom over the past 12 months. 2018 saw the opening of several much-anticipated museums and cultural centers around the world. bold designs characterize the buildings, as established names in the field of architecture have collaborated with some of the biggest cultural institutions across the globe to bring their creative visions to life. stretching out into dundee’s river tay, kengo kuma’s geometric V&A dundee museum is inspired by scotland’s dramatic cliffs, while álvaro siza designed a series of concrete structures for an arts complex in south korea.

design-lovers everywhere are soon journeying to miami, where — over the next week — art basel miami beach and design miami/ are taking place. the two events, together with a host of offsite installations, exhibitions, workshops, talks and creative programming, take over the coastal city in monumental miami fashion. stay tuned as designboom brings you the latest must-see exhibitions and events, and discover designboom’s list of recommendations for the week ahead.

the seventh edition of the amsterdam light festival opened this week. every year, luminous, high-end artworks co-created with international artists, designers and architects are selected by the jury to light up the city and this year designboom has been part of the deciding jury. this year the artists were challenged to work within the theme of 'the medium is the message'.

 

in other news, tokyo-based architect and artist hidemi nishida designed a very unique viewpoint at oslofjord in moss, norway — the ‘fragile table’ is a big wooden public installation overlooking the norwegian mountains and north sea. to climb up the gigantic table, the tourists use a ladder leaned against it and then sit on the enormously high chairs enjoying the calmness and beauty of nature.

EV-startup rivian has unveiled its first vehicle an all-new, all-electric pickup truck. the R1T has up to 400-miles of range on a single charge and the power to go from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds. the R1T comes with four small but powerful electric motors which have 147kW power capacity at the wheel and total output can be configured to between 300kW to 562kW. there are a choice of three battery packs – 105 kWh, 130 kWh and 180 kWh. according to rivian this translates to 230+ miles, 300+ miles and 400+ miles on a full charge and an integrated fast charger.

suspended over the entry plaza, the brazilian pavilion for expo 2020 dubai, designed by architect gabriel kozlowski and partners with renowned scenographer gringo cardia, takes the form of a floating nest of tree branches. this sculptural piece generates an inverted topography that is supported by 6 rammed earth walls representing the 6 brazilian biomes. featuring several exhibition spaces, a viewpoint, and a restaurant, the pavilion allows the visitors to fully enjoy the brazilian heritage.

 

in other news from our readers this week, ukrainian artist and founder of OLK manufactory okasana levchenya designs traditional kilims with a contemporary take — the common antique patterns turn into pokémon characters and other famous fantastic figures. hiding amid trees and flowers, pikachu and master yoda are hand-woven using the very technique the local craftsmen developed centuries ago.

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