historic hotel receives metallic 'tasting tongue' by studio deng in montpellier

STUDIO DENG GIVES HISTORIC COURTYARD a TONGUE FOR FAV 2025

In the historic courtyard of Montpellier’s Hôtel de Rozel, Studio Deng unveils The Tasting Tongue, an installation for the 2025 Festival des Architectures Vives (FAV) that imagines what happens when every object holds an invisible tongue. A metallic foil form drips from a windowsill into the small stone courtyard, carrying 130 pink felt ‘taste buds’ that sway in the breeze and invite visitors to insert, bend, and rearrange them. By encouraging this gentle interaction, the piece becomes a shifting archive of shared flavor memories and turns the intimate site into a playful experiment in collective sensory fiction.

the entrance of the historic courtyard | images © Studio Deng, unless stated otherwise

a reflective ‘invisible tongue’ and its field of 130 taste buds

Studio Deng’s project begins with a simple provocation: ‘What if built elements could taste their surroundings?’. The New York-based design team envisions columns, windows, and flowerbeds each extending their own quiet sensorium, capable of perceiving the wetness of grass after rain or the crackle of popping candy carried on the wind. Selected as one of the winning teams for the Festival des Architectures Vives, the designers sought an intervention that could activate the compact residential courtyard without overwhelming it. Their response was to materialize this imagined ‘invisible tongue’ as a reflective, flowing sheet of metal that catches shifting light and weather while offering a surface for collective participation.

From this shimmering form sprout 130 playful taste buds in four types (sweet, sour, bitter, and salty) modeled after micrographs of human taste receptors. Crafted from soft pink felt typically used for hamster nests, they add a humorous and tactile dimension to the installation. Visitors are invited to choose a bud and place it into the tongue’s surface, a simple gesture that transforms the act of tasting into a spatial, collaborative ritual.

the imaginative associations came directly from the public | image © Paul Kozlowski

FROM FESTIVAL INSTALLATION TO ART-EDUCATION LEGACY

Over the course of the festival, the courtyard evolves continuously: children twist the buds into new shapes, neighbors return to observe its transformations, and passersby compare the ‘flavors’ they contribute. The result is a living, communal map of sensory impressions, blurring the boundary between observer and object.

The Tasting Tongue later traveled to the chamber room of a 14th-century monastery for Architecture en Fête, where the reflective form adapted to a new historic environment. After both exhibitions, Studio Deng donated all the metal sheets and felt components to Children’s Relay for use in art-education programs—extending the installation’s speculative tongue into future hands and contexts.