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recycled paper waste turns into a branch-like lattice in a living spatial installation
a lattice of hand-formed papercrete branches form a porous, tree-like spatial structure. The post recycled paper waste turns into a branch-like lattice in a living spatial installation appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
Papercrete Structure Defines a Porous Installation by Raza Zahid Morphosis by Raza Zahid is an experimental installation that transforms discarded paper into a living spatial system. Developed through research into paper waste and the cultivation of microgreens on paper substrates, the project explores how growth, decay and material reuse can coexist within an architectural framework. The installation occupies a 5 × 5 × 5 meter volume defined by slender powder-coated metal frames, each supporting clusters of hand-formed papercrete branches. Drawing from traditional paper-mâché techniques, shredded paper is reconstituted into a structural medium capable of maintaining form, texture, and the capacity to host plant growth. Collectively, these panels create a porous spatial envelope that reconstructs the visual and structural memory of a tree. Each component is unique, shaped by hand and marked by material traces, producing variation in density, light, and shadow throughout the volume. Spatial conditions within the installation vary as one moves through it: passages shift between compression and openness, light filters through uneven surfaces, and shadows interact dynamically across the structure. The resulting environment occupies a space between interior and exterior, evoking the scale and texture of a grove within an industrial setting. light and shadow weave a quiet maze on the floor | all images courtesy of Raza Zahid Biological Processes and Craft Activate a Living Material System Morphosis incorporates a temporal dimension by cultivating microgreens directly on the papercrete surfaces. The growth and eventual decay of vegetation introduce cyclical changes, making the installation responsive to time and biological processes. Surface becomes landscape, and structure functions as a host for life. The project by designer Raza Zahid also engages with craft and fabrication. It involves intensive manual processes and the training of makers to understand the behaviour of papercrete, bridging traditional knowledge with contemporary experimental practices. This integration of material innovation, ecological processes, and handcrafted production situates Morphosis as both a spatial experiment and a living demonstration of sustainable, material-conscious design. By combining recycled materials, biologically active surfaces, and modular construction, the installation introduces organic complexity and softness into a rigid industrial environment, creating a spatial condition that recalls ecological systems within urban and manufactured contexts. enclosed by paper branches branches gather in unique compositions, creating shifting layers of opacity through the lattice of paper branches greenery begins to envelop the structure every assemblage of branches and greenery is unique a tall narrow entrance heightens both verticality and intimacy a vertical of branches rising 5 meters a lattice of hand-formed papercrete branches form a porous, tree-like spatial structure a dialogue between the organic and the industrial papercrete branches feature layered textures and embedded microgreens exploring the panel joinery system successful growth of greenery on the first panel microgreens taking root on papercrete project info: name: Morphosis designer: Raza Zahid | @razazahid dimensions: (L) 5 m X (W) 5 m X (H) 5m materials: Recycled Paper, Metal, Adhesive/Binder, Microgreens collaborator: Areeba Imran commissioned by: Institute of Architects, Pakistan for the IAPEX 25 exhibition: Expo Center, Lahore, Pakistan sponsored by: Architects World designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom The post recycled paper waste turns into a branch-like lattice in a living spatial installation appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
OPEN’s ‘shede culture museum’ is shaped from rammed-earth, glass and bronze
the shede culture museum by OPEN architecture in china rises from a water-based landscape of gardens, islands, and bridges. The post OPEN’s ‘shede culture museum’ is shaped from rammed-earth, glass and bronze appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
in a chinese garden, shede culture museum tops out Rising from a circular garden pond, OPEN Architecture‘s Shede Culture Museum has topped out in Shehong, China. The project is expected to complete in 2027, and will stand as a new threshold for a distillery along the Fu River. The project occupies a peripheral site that has long remained unused despite its proximity to the main entrance. OPEN identifies this edge condition as an opportunity. The museum draws visitors into a landscape that bridges production and public life, and uses land and water to create a tranquil arrival experience. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182700 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-01.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="461" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-01.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-01-768x433.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> visualizations © OPEN Architecture A built landscape of pond and islands At the center of the Shede Culture Museum is a ninety-meter circular pond, which the team at OPEN Architecture inserts into the existing garden. Its geometry establishes a continuous field without corners, where a covered walkway traces the perimeter as a semi-transparent ring. Within this water surface, three volumes appear as separate figures. Their placement follows the classical principle of One Pond, Three Mountains, translating a historic garden composition into a contemporary architectural system. Mist and gentle water movement animate the surface, introducing shifts in atmosphere throughout the day. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182701 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-02.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="654" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-02.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-02-125x100.jpg 125w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-02-768x614.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> the Shede Culture Museum is set within the East Garden of a distillery in Shehong China three buildings, three material expressions Each of the Shede Culture Museum’s three buildings engages the pond in a different way. OPEN Architecture designs one to volume hover above the surface, while one sits within it and one extends below, peering slightly above the waterline. These volumes are defined by material. The Glass Box is wrapped in a thin veil of flowing water that runs continuously down its facades and recirculates below. The Earth Box is formed from local yellow soil using rammed-earth construction, directly referencing the fermentation pits used in spirit production. The Bronze Box is clad in perforated panels whose patterns encode verses about spirits in Morse code, introducing a layer of text embedded within the facade. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182702 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-03.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="654" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-03.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-03-125x100.jpg 125w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-03-768x614.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> three volumes engage the water differently by hovering, resting, or extending below the surface Movement between water and enclosure Visitors move across bridges and through the volumes, alternating between enclosed galleries and open views across the pond. The sequence of spaces shifts between darker interiors and brighter passages, guided by changes in light and reflection. Below the waterline, the buildings connect into a continuous interior. This lower level houses a theater, rehearsal space, and supporting functions, allowing the above-ground volumes to remain visually distinct. The separation between what is seen above and what is connected below shapes a reading of the museum as both fragmented and unified. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182703 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-04.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="655" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-04.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-04-125x100.jpg 125w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-04-768x615.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> a ninety-meter circular pond defines the project and organizes movement through water and land Material time and environmental systems The selection of earth, glass, and bronze ties the architecture to the processes of making Shede spirits. Each material carries a different temporal quality. Rammed earth records the compression of soil and the passage of weather. Bronze surfaces develop patina over time. Water flowing across glass introduces constant change. Environmental strategies are integrated into the design. A ground heat pump system works with water thermal storage to regulate temperature. Solar panels on the Bronze Box contribute energy, while air-source heat pumps support hot water supply. Rainwater is collected and reused, and water drawn from the Fu River, already part of the distillery’s operations, feeds the pond system. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182704 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-05.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="460" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-05.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-05-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> below the pond, the volumes connect into shared spaces including a theater and support areas a thin veil of flowing water runs continuously down the facades of the Glass Box <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182705 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-07.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1022" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-07.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-07-800x1000.jpg 800w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/OPEN-architecture-shede-cultural-museum-china-designboom-07-768x960.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> rammed-earth construction referencing the fermentation pits used in spirit production the Bronze Box is clad in perforated panels rendering Morse Code project info: name: Shede Culture Museum architect: OPEN Architecture | @open.architecture location: Shehong, China client: Shede Spirits completion: expected 2027 visualizations: © OPEN Architecture interior, landscape design: OPEN Architecture architectural, structural, MEP, landscape construction documents: China Southwest Architectural Design and Research Institute interior construction documents: Beijing Tsingshang Architectural Design and Research Institute structural consultant: AND Office MEP, sustainability consultant: LINK Engineering Consultant curtain wall consultant: RFR rammed-earth consultant: On Earth Studio waterscape consultant: Shanghai Sushui Art Design Co., Ltd acoustic, theater consultant: JH Theatre Architecture Design Consulting Company lighting consultant: Gradient Lighting Design scenographer: Shanghai MANA Culture & Technology Co., Ltd signage design: Tothree Design Co., Ltd The post OPEN’s ‘shede culture museum’ is shaped from rammed-earth, glass and bronze appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
where future homes could be for SAGA space architects: on moon, mars and underwater
the studio has already built a moon habitat tested in the arctic, a mars shelter concept that runs on dust storms, and an underwater structure at the bottom of copenhagen harbor. The post where future homes could be for SAGA space architects: on moon, mars and underwater appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
Human homes on moon, mars, space and underwater The most frequent medicine taken on the International Space Station is sleeping pills because astronauts in orbit live in a light cycle that doesn’t match their biology. Their bodies don’t know when to sleep or when to wake, and the disruption lasts for weeks or months, affecting their performance, mood, and physical health. For SAGA Space Architects, the Copenhagen-based architecture and space studio founded by Sebastian Aristotelis and Karl-Johan Sørensen, this is not a spacecraft problem. It’s the home design’s fault, and for those who want to go to the Moon, Mars, and the ocean floor and live there, the structure has to adapt to their needs first. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182784 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-01.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="544" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-01.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-01-768x511.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> all images courtesy of SAGA Space Architects Saga space architects focuses on designs for well-being The Moon is the next nearest surface to Earth, and NASA’s Artemis program is building toward a permanent human presence there within this decade. Mars represents the longer horizon, a planet with a 24.6-hour day, evidence of past water, and enough distance from Earth that any mission there requires a home capable of sustaining life for years without resupply. The ocean floor is closer and already accessible, but less than 0.01 percent of it has been directly explored. Each of these three environments holds resources, research potential, and, in the case of Mars, the question of whether human civilization can exist beyond a single planet. For SAGA, all three also hold the same design problem: a person needs to live there, and nothing in any of them was built for that purpose. As a means to solve the problem of the growing trend, the studio has built a Moon habitat tested in the Arctic, a Mars shelter concept that runs on dust storms, an underwater structure at the bottom of Copenhagen Harbor, and a training facility for the European Space Agency. When they started designing these, they began with the human body. SAGA Space Architects designs for human needs when their location and environment change, in the sense that a person who spends months in a confined habitat still needs surfaces that feel like something. They need to know what time of day it is or have a place that is quiet when they sleep and lit correctly when they work. These, among others, are some basic conditions under which they continue to live at all. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182785 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-02.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="1258" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-02.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-02-650x1000.jpg 650w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-02-768x1181.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> view inside FLEXHab Natural materials and technologies bring the life in This is why the natural materials appear in structures that SAGA Space Architects have designed for the Moon, Mars, space, and the ocean floor: cork on the floors and storage surfaces, natural wool felt on the walls, recycled textile panels hand-dyed in the studio, poly-fiber textiles lining sleeping pods, and Alcantara vegan suede on bench surfaces. These are domestic materials, the kind found in well-considered apartments and not laboratories, added inside the future homes that must also withstand pressure, hurricane-scale winds, and temperatures of -30°C. In every project, they occupy the same room. The circadian lighting system, for example, that runs through LUNARK, the Rosenberg habitat, and FLEXHab is a clear expression of this: a technology that can give the astronaut living inside it a sunrise, a midday, and an evening, regardless of what is happening outside. Here, constraint and form in terms of design and the environment face each other, allowing the team to treat each as a design input. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182786 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-03.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="1230" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-03.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-03-665x1000.jpg 665w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-03-768x1155.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> multipurpose room inside the FLEXHab Take the Dandelion Shelter on Mars that harvests static electricity from dust particles with acrylic-coated carbon fiber spikes on its exterior. The dust storm becomes the power source, and the shelter electrolyzes air into water, farms algae, and produces oxygen before any human arrives, a preview of how the future home can integrate with the Martian climate rather than fight it. The same logic appears in the underwater habitat Uhab, where the pressure and isolation of the ocean floor are treated as analogs for the pressure and isolation of space, making the water a training environment rather than a barrier. In each case, the condition that makes the place hostile is also the condition that the design is built around. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182787 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-04.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="818" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-04.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-04-768x768.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> view of Rosenberg Space Habitat Structure follows the same logic, as the Rosenberg habitat’s shell shape, positioned mathematically between a triangle and a circle, was chosen so that six of those shapes fit inside a SpaceX Starship cargo bay. The LUNARK habitat folds from its transport configuration to its full interior volume, too. The Dandelion Shelter stacks twenty units into a single Falcon Heavy payload. In every case, the form is the solution to a transport problem, and the transport problem is the first design brief. SAGA Space Architects isn’t positioning its works as a vision of a better future because each project is built, tested, and inhabited already. Aristotelis and Sørensen lived in LUNARK for 60 days in the Arctic; Aristotelis spent 48 hours at the bottom of Copenhagen Harbor in Uhab; the Mars Lab was deployed in the Negev desert and inhabited as part of a live experiment; and FLEXHab sits at the European Astronaut Centre, where crews are already training in it. What SAGA Space Architects is building isn’t a series of renderings. These are now actual spaces that could let us into the future of homes out of Earth. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182789 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-06.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="1230" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-06.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-06-665x1000.jpg 665w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-06-768x1155.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> the hexagonal structure can be transported out of Earth <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182788 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-05.jpg" alt="SAGA space architects" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-05.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-05-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> view inside of Rosenberg Space Habitat view of Uhab, dubbed the smallest functional underwater habitat <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182790 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-07.jpg" alt="the structure has been tested successfully at 7 meter depth in the Copenhagen Harbor for 48-hours" width="818" height="1227" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-07.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-07-667x1000.jpg 667w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-07-768x1152.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> the structure has been tested successfully at 7 meter depth in the Copenhagen Harbor for 48-hours <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182791 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-08.jpg" alt="view of Mars Lab" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-08.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-08-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> view of Mars Lab <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182792 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-09.jpg" alt="Mars Lab is the studio's first habitat with expanding structures" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-09.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/future-homes-SAGA-space-architects-moon-mars-underwater-designboom-09-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Mars Lab is the studio’s first habitat with expanding structures the habitat forms part of an experiment to study the experience of living in a confined space project info: studio: SAGA Space Architects | @saga_space_architects The post where future homes could be for SAGA space architects: on moon, mars and underwater appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
studio RE+N’s floating pavilion hovers like a thin white wing above chinese tea mountain
the pavilion’s stepped platforms descend the slope in parallel with the tea terraces. The post studio RE+N’s floating pavilion hovers like a thin white wing above chinese tea mountain appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
a curved canopy tops the Floating white Pavilion in Songyang Studio RE+N introduces an open-air steel pavilion at the summit of a terraced tea mountain in Songyang County, Zhejiang Province, China. Positioned approximately 500 meters above sea level, the 85-square-meter structure operates as both a viewing platform and a rest point within an active agricultural landscape. Located within the Organic Tea Valley of Xinxing Town, the project engages with an environment shaped by tea cultivation and previously accessible only through narrow picking paths. The design adopts a minimal intervention strategy, placing a lightweight structure on slender supports to reduce impact on the terrain. The pavilion’s curved roof follows the contours of the hillside, establishing a formal relationship with the surrounding topography. A path of granite steps extends existing tea-picking routes, creating a continuous circulation path that connects the pavilion to the terraces below. The structure appears intermittently along this ascent, reinforcing its integration with the landscape. The spatial sequence is defined through a controlled transition from enclosure to openness. At the entrance, the roof edge limits outward views, creating a compressed condition. As movement continues downward along stepped platforms, visibility gradually expands. At the lowest point, the lifting of the roof reveals a wide view across the tea valley. This progression is achieved through the alignment of the roof geometry with the slope of the site. the Floating Pavilion hovers above the tea terraces with the village beyond | all images by Kejia Mei lightweight steel structure supports the pavilion by Studio RE+N The design team at Studio RE+N employs prefabricated steel components for the structural system. The roof utilizes a composite assembly consisting of a steel grid sandwiched between upper and lower plates, forming a tapered profile that integrates structural performance with drainage and visual continuity. Platforms extend from a transverse beam using wedge-shaped stiffeners, while semicircular openings at column connections allow light to reach the surface below. Tension cables between columns function as safety barriers without obstructing views. Due to the steep terrain and limited access, all elements were prefabricated off-site and transported using carts and cable systems along existing agricultural paths. Lighting is integrated at the base of the columns, projecting upward onto the underside of the roof to create diffuse illumination during evening hours. Since its completion, the pavilion has been incorporated into both visitor circulation and agricultural use. The path leading to the structure supports movement through the terraces while also improving access for tea farmers during harvest periods. the pavilion appears to float above the terraced tea fields, its curved steel roof echoing the hillside contour the stepped platforms descend the slope in parallel with the tea terraces tea farmers tend the terraces beneath the pavilion, whose stepped platforms have become part of the setting the blade-like steel roof catches the last light of day, with the village and valley stretching into the distance serving as a viewing platform the pavilion overlooks the tea mountain slopes the cantilevered deck and stepped platforms descend beneath the curved roof two visitors stand at different levels of the lowest platform, gazing across the full mountain valley panorama <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182685 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/studio-re-n-floating-white-steel-pavilion-china-tea-mountain-designboom-818-4.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="614" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/studio-re-n-floating-white-steel-pavilion-china-tea-mountain-designboom-818-4.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/studio-re-n-floating-white-steel-pavilion-china-tea-mountain-designboom-818-4-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> the roof is supported by a single transverse beam and wedge-shaped steel stiffeners at the lowest level, the roof lifts and the full tea valley panorama is revealed at sunrise, golden light floods through the columns of the pavilion the full mountain valley panorama is framed by slender columns custom cylindrical luminaires project light upward along the curved roof soffit, making the pavilion glow at dusk, the curved roof soffit glows from below against the blue mountain silhouette the pavilion’s curved roof, with its upturned edges, glows like a lantern on the dark hillside project info: name: Floating Pavilion architect: Studio RE+N | @studio_re_n location: Organic Tea Valley, Xinxing Town, Songyang County, Zhejiang, China area: 85 sqm lead architects: Yuting Zhang, Pu Zhang design team: Jianwu Han, Meng Zhang client: Xinxing Town Government structural engineer: Lihui Feng construction coordinator: Xiangdi Ji contractors: Hangzhou Baiguyuan Construction Co., Ltd. & Zhejiang Huafang Construction Co., Ltd. photographer: Kejia Mei designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom The post studio RE+N’s floating pavilion hovers like a thin white wing above chinese tea mountain appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
designboom takes over me milan il duca with ‘room for dreams’ at milan design week 2026
this april, during Milan Design Week, designboom steps beyond the digital screen to host ROOM FOR DREAMS, a site-specific takeover of the ME Milan Il Duca. The post designboom takes over me milan il duca with ‘room for dreams’ at milan design week 2026 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
DESIGNBOOM CHECKS INTO MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2026! We dream in hotels, jet-lagged, suspended between time zones, held in transient comfort. What if our dreams weren’t just nocturnal illusions, but blueprints for a better world? During Milan Design Week 2026, designboom checks into the ME Milan Il Duca hotel with ROOM FOR DREAMS, a site-specific takeover transforming the iconic Aldo Rossi-designed hotel into an immersive laboratory for creative hope. Through a series of large-scale installations, a dedicated cinema space, live talks, workshops and social encounters, the project interrogates the state of dreaming as a tool for architectural and social transformation. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182600 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/yfCRbQpc9wJy7S5HDhwhgR.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1228" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/yfCRbQpc9wJy7S5HDhwhgR.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/yfCRbQpc9wJy7S5HDhwhgR-666x1000.jpg 666w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/yfCRbQpc9wJy7S5HDhwhgR-768x1153.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> our ROOM FOR DREAMS location: the iconic Aldo Rossi-designed ME Milan Il Duca ROOM FOR DREAMS: A MULTILAYERED TAKEOVER The project unfolds across the hotel’s public spaces, featuring a curated selection of designers, cross-disciplinary creators, and brand collaborators that come together to build a multi-layered, sensory exploration of dreams as design tools. In partnership with SolidNature, Ressence, La Marzocco, Oppo, and INDX|GLOBAL, designboom creates a layered landscape for visitors to experience live programming alongside interactive installations that shape an immersive cultural platform. The cinema space is shaped in collaboration with Paris-based PAF Atelier: a spatial system conceived as a journey through layers of the unconscious, where architecture guides the visitor through shifting dream states. Through abstract, symbolic forms, the project materializes the elusive mechanisms of dreaming, proposing a utopian reinterpretation of reality shaped by image and sensation. CURIOUS? JOIN US IN MILAN <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1182638" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1800x900-ADV-RfD_Desktop-Double-Page-01-2.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="409" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1800x900-ADV-RfD_Desktop-Double-Page-01-2.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/1800x900-ADV-RfD_Desktop-Double-Page-01-2-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Practical Information Location: ME Milan Il Duca, Piazza della Repubblica, 13, 20124 Milano MI Dates: April 21–26, 2026 Hours: 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM Daily Nearest Metro: Repubblica (M3) The post designboom takes over me milan il duca with ‘room for dreams’ at milan design week 2026 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
‘we will survive this moment as well’: massimiliano gioni revisits history’s ‘new humans’
curated by massimiliano gioni, the new museum's inaugural exhibition recalls visions of humanity that are both utopian and monstrous. The post ‘we will survive this moment as well’: massimiliano gioni revisits history’s ‘new humans’ appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
the new museum exhibits early visions of new humans Proposing an unsettling vision of humanity, New Humans: Memories of the Future takes over the New Museum‘s recently completed expansion. The museum’s Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni curates the show by gathering more than a century of artists’ responses to moments when technology and society reframed the meaning of being human. Across four floors of the OMA-designed building, earlier visions of the future are presented alongside present-day questions that remain unresolved. For Gioni, this moment of change feels symbolic, and he tells designboom during an interview ahead of the opening: ‘We are living in a moment in which some changes in the world of technology are coming to an existential questioning.‘ He points to the experience of being asked by a machine to prove one’s own humanity, an uncanny reversal that has now become familiar. He suggests that, within that uncertainty, people turn toward myth. He explains: ‘We come to a place where science and technology are so mysterious they appear magical,‘ Within this frame, artists operate as storytellers who help make sense of the shifting and uncertain world around us. In some cases they imagine utopias — in others, they envision something darker. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182570 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-02.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-02.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-02-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Klára Hosnedlová, Shelter. image © designboom monstrous and progressive humanity on display New Humans: Memories of the Future opens alongside the New Museum’s physical expansion, a context that shapes Massimiliano Gioni‘s outlook. Opening a new building today carries a different set of expectations than it did in 2007, and he describes the project as ‘a vote of confidence in the future,’ even while acknowledging a sense of hesitation. Even the architecture by OMA reinforces that direction, with a form like an arrow pointing forward. Meanwhile, the curatorial approach turns back to history’s attempts at imagining what lies ahead. This backward glance becomes a method. Structured through what Gioni calls a ‘bifocal lens,’ the exhibition places archaeology beside prophecy. It traces optimistic futures that once felt possible alongside those menacing worlds that ultimately became realities with frightening consequences. Some artworks recall visions tied to progress and expansion, while others render humanity’s most monstrous moments. All together, they suggest that the concept of utopia remains unsettled, shaped through competing ideas of what a future might demand. In this sense, ‘New Humans’ evokes both ambition and consolation, and invites visitors to consider how earlier imaginations of humanity inform what comes next. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182569 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-01.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-01.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-01-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Massimiliano Gioni ahead of the New Museum opening. image © designboom Dialogue with Massimiliano Gioni designboom (DB): The show explores moments when technological or social shifts changed how people imagined the future of humanity. What made this the right moment to revisit that idea? Massimiliano Gioni (MG): It’s a few considerations. One is that we are living in a moment in which some changes in the world of technology are coming to, I don’t know if it’s an existential threat, but certainly to an existential questioning. In my catalog essay I use the examples of computers asking you to prove you’re not a robot. No longer do we just question if we are speaking to a machine or a person — we have actually come to a point in which a machine is asking you to demonstrate that you’re a person. In these moments of existential doubt, I think we retreat in the space of myth. We come to a place where science and technology are so mysterious they appear magical. And so we enter again into the space of myth. Artists, as the makers of myths, are probably the ones to start from to learn and understand the stories that we tell each other to understand such changes. So there is that, which let’s call the historical moment. And secondly, there is a more private or personal moment, which is the opening of the New Museum. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182571 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-03.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-03.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-03-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. image © designboom MG (continued): To open a building today in 2026 is a very different proposition than when we opened in 2007. Ideas around expansion and novelty were different eighteen years ago. Today, maybe in the wake of COVID, ideas of growth and expansion are certainly different. They come with different expectations, responsibilities, self-doubt, and questioning. So we thought, we are opening a new building that is somehow a vote of confidence in the future. It means we still believe there is somewhere to go. And we open also with a building that is somewhat futuristic in its evocation. The structure is literally shaped like an arrow pointing forward. So it seemed somehow inevitable to look back at different ideas of the future, some of them that have arrived, some of them that arrived with terrible consequences. Through interrogating those futures, I think we maybe see a way forward. The show is built on a symmetry or a bifocal lens. It’s split between archaeology and prophecy. By doing so, it looks at some future pasts from which we can receive a warning. The show is also full of terrible ideas connected to ‘new men’ and ‘superior men.’ On one end, that serves as a warning of futures we don’t want to inhabit ever again. On the other, it also serves as a consolation in the sense that, if we have survived previous moments of change, we will hopefully survive this one as well. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182572 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-04.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-04.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-04-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. image © designboom DB: Our editorial theme this season is Utopia, Applied, with utopia being a dissatisfaction for things as they are, and an eternal desire to make them better. We’re interested in utopia less as an abstract ideal and more as something that can shape real thinking and action. In your view, how does this exhibition engage with that kind of utopian thinking? MG: That’s a very good question, to which I don’t have a full answer. On one hand, it’s very much about ‘utopias’ in almost the literal sense of a non-place or a different place. The fourth floor is all about cities of the imagination. Utopias are also first and foremost cities — they’re a topos, it’s a place. I was thinking about the show and reading the book Is There Any World to Come? by anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. He asks at this moment in time if it even makes sense to imagine a world to come. He borrows from Bruno Latour a very interesting distinction about two types of utopias. One is the ‘Plus Ultra’ utopia — of which there is a lot in this show — which calls for more technology, more things, improved access to resources or ideas or technology. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182573 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-05.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="818" height="614" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-05.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-05-768x576.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. photo © Dario Lasagni MG (continued): The opposite way of thinking is an ideal future that is not created through constant abundance and growth, but more as a practice of coexistence, as a scaled-down economy of decrease rather than increase. The idea of the ‘future as more’ may not necessarily be the answer. The answer could be a ‘future of less.’ Take Indigenous wisdom, for example. We have a beautiful commission by Santiago Yahuarcani, who’s actually an Indigenous artist from the Amazon. I also don’t want to be nostalgic in the idea that necessarily less will be the future. They are probably both possibilities. But yes, I think one criticism could be that the show imagines technology as progress and advancement, and maybe the future doesn’t necessarily have to pass that way. But again, I’m not evaluating these futures and giving them words of efficiency or sanity. There are a lot of futuristic ideas that, thank goodness, failed, or ideas that unfortunately took place. The idea of a ‘new man,’ particularly, was associated also with very frightening ideas that became a reality, of ‘inferior’ races, of racism and so on. New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. photo © Dario Lasagni DB: Do you think artists today still imagine the future with the kind of bold optimism that defined earlier avant-garde movements, or has that attitude changed? MG: I don’t know. We live in a time in which we are expected, also as museums, as curators, to somehow give a vote to the politics and ethics of artists. It’s a very specific moment in time. It wasn’t like that. I’m not necessarily comfortable with that. My job is not to give a license of goodness. I hope this show presents a bigger question. I don’t necessarily subscribe to any of the ideas or ethical positions shown throughout the exhibition, because I would also be a monster. To show a poster of Mussolini doesn’t mean that I think Mussolini is a great guy, or that his politics were correct. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182574 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-07.jpg" alt="massimiliano gioni new humans" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-07.jpg 1200w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-07-818x545.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/new-museum-expansion-massimiliano-gioni-new-humans-interview-designboom-07-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /> New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. image © designboom MG (continued): So I don’t know if artists are thinking optimistically or not. Some of the greatest work of art in the history of humanity revealed the horror of us as humans. It would become very narrow if we were to think that museums have to just subscribe to the positiveness of human life. There is plenty of it, but there is also lots of horror. Maybe because I’m Italian I tend to think tragedy is superior to comedy. I do think there is an instructiveness in looking at negative examples, if anything, to avoid repeating. In the exhibition catalogue I quote from Is There Any World to Come?, which references a ‘prophylactic apocalypticism,’ which means we envision the worst so that it will not happen. I think some artists envision the world so that it will not happen — if you can imagine it in a way, hopefully it won’t happen. New Humans: Memories of the Future, 2026, exhibition view. New Museum, New York. image © designboom The post ‘we will survive this moment as well’: massimiliano gioni revisits history’s ‘new humans’ appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
synthetic incubators reclaim LA’s inglewood oil field in a post-human landscape
architectural systems are positioned as agents of environmental regeneration. The post synthetic incubators reclaim LA’s inglewood oil field in a post-human landscape appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
Rock and Roll: Synthetic Incubators for a Post-Human Nature The project Rock and Roll proposes a system of synthetic incubators positioned within the Inglewood Oil Field, LA, reconfiguring a former industrial site through a combination of architectural prototypes and speculative ecological processes. The design by Zihua Mo and Chunyu Ma explores how constructed systems can operate as active agents within environmental regeneration, shifting focus from human-centered occupation toward autonomous, responsive infrastructures. At the core of the proposal is the development of ‘Homunculi,’ conceived as architectural entities with embedded sensing and reactive capabilities. These full-scale prototypes function as instruments for environmental interaction, generating data and spatial behaviors independent of human perception. Two primary components, the Rocker and the Roller, operate as an interdependent system. the Manimal Animal Incubator: synthetic embryos are cultured here to become leaders of new animal species, while treated waste is discharged into a ‘Waste Lagoon’ to nourish the site | all images courtesy of Zihua Mo and Chunyu Ma Architectural systems as agents of environmental regeneration The Rocker is a grounded structure composed of concrete and metal, designed to extract atmospheric moisture and redistribute it across the site based on humidity levels. In contrast, the Roller is a mobile, lightweight element that disperses biological material through irregular movement patterns. The interaction between these two elements is mediated through mechanical joints and double-pendulum systems, producing variable and non-linear motion trajectories that inform spatial organization. This operational logic extends to a larger network of architectural interventions distributed across the site. Four incubator types are introduced as part of a grid-based system, each assigned a specific role within a constructed ecological cycle. The Manimal functions as an animal incubator, producing synthetic organisms that are integrated into the site. The byproducts of these organisms are processed into a designated waste lagoon. The Putant, operating as a plant incubator, utilizes nutrients derived from this lagoon to cultivate modified plant species with filtering capacities, distributing seeds through wind-driven motion. The Fungle acts as a fungal incubator, breaking down pollutants and organic matter to support soil regeneration. The Outsect serves as an insect incubator, coordinating material exchange through a system of mobile, mechanical agents responsible for transport, capture, and dispersal. the Fungle Decomposition and Rebirth: roams the field to consume organic waste and decompose pollutants, forming a symbiotic nutrient cycle that revitalizes the soil for the entire synthetic nature Together, these elements establish a closed-loop system in which architectural components facilitate cycles of growth, decomposition, and redistribution. The project frames architecture as an active participant in environmental processes, using synthetic mechanisms to construct an alternative ecological framework. Rock and Roll presents a model in which technological systems and biological processes are integrated within a single operational landscape. The proposal reconsiders the role of architecture in post-industrial contexts, suggesting a shift toward adaptive, process-driven environments that operate beyond conventional human-centered design. masterplan: the ‘Infected’ Inglewood Oil Field: an axonometric showing four specialized incubators, Manimal, Putant, Fungle, and Outsect, deployed in a grid to reconstruct the site’s ecosystem the Putant: a view inside the Cultivation Chamber where mutated plants are developed, and synthetic life is nurtured; the facility bridges the gap between mechanical and organic evolution the Fungle Decomposition and Rebirth: roams the field to consume organic waste and decompose pollutants, forming a symbiotic nutrient cycle that revitalizes the soil for the entire synthetic nature storyboard: the narrative begins in a deteriorated future Los Angeles, where the environment has collapsed; independent machines perform solitary tasks of watering and seeding the barren earth the Symbiotic Connection: through a universal joint and double-pendulum mechanism, the two entities unite; this partnership creates a chaotic, unpredictable pattern of ecological rebirth atmospheric monitoring: the Outsect oversees the field, dispatching mechanical insects for tasks; synthetic, half-mechanical animals now thrive in this restored synthetic nature physical prototypes of the Homunculi, the Rocker and Roller: proto-architectural prototypes explore the symbiotic relationship between moisture extraction and seed dispersal project info: name: Rock and Roll: Synthetic Incubators for a Post-Human Nature designers: Zihua Mo, Chunyu Ma location: Inglewood Oil Field, Los Angeles, CA, USA designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom The post synthetic incubators reclaim LA’s inglewood oil field in a post-human landscape appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
venice biennale reveals renovated central pavilion ahead of 61st international art exhibition
renovation and restoration architecture and design
the intervention reorganizes the building into a flexible exhibition space where restored elements by carlo scarpa meet new spatial strategies. The post venice biennale reveals renovated central pavilion ahead of 61st international art exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
la biennale di venezia unveils reimagined central pavilion La Biennale di Venezia reveals its fully refurbished Central Pavilion at the Giardini, completing a 16-month intervention just ahead of the 2026 Art Biennale. The project reworks one of the exhibition’s most historically layered buildings into a spatially coherent and technically integrated environment. The renewed pavilion will host In Minor Keys, the upcoming exhibition curated by Koyo Kouoh, opening to the public on May 9th, 2026. The team approaches the Central Pavilion as a layered architectural organism. Through successive additions and modifications, accumulated over more than a century, are reorganized into a legible spatial system. The intervention clarifies circulation and hierarchy, positioning the Sala Chini as the primary distribution node from which exhibition spaces unfold. A ring of public-facing functions, including a bookshop, cafeteria, educational spaces, and technical areas, is arranged around the core galleries. These service spaces are treated as distinct elements, allowing the exhibition rooms to operate as flexible environments. Conceived as white box galleries, they are fully liberated from visible technical systems, which are now embedded within walls and ceilings. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182622 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-08.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-08.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-08-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Central Pavilion refurbished with funding from the Ministry of Culture as part of the PNC under the PNRR | all images by Marco Cappelletti / Marco Cappelletti Studio, courtesy La Biennale di Venezia / MiC from accumulated layers to spatial clarity The project adopts a critical approach that selects, interprets, and reorganizes historical layers. Original elements of the Central Pavilion such as the windows designed by Carlo Scarpa are restored and reinstalled, while the Sala Brenno del Giudice is reconfigured according to its 1928 spatial logic. Openings toward the canal-facing terrace are also reinstated, reestablishing visual and physical connections with the Giardini. Rather than preserving all traces indiscriminately, the intervention filters the history of the Biennale’s building, removing incongruous additions while retaining its structural and spatial memory. Two new external structures reinterpret the traditional Venetian altana. Positioned adjacent to the cafeteria and a multifunctional hall, these lightweight additions extend the pavilion outward without competing with its masonry mass. Constructed from carbonized laminated timber and X-LAM panels, they introduce a porous threshold between interior and landscape, framing new relationships with the surrounding gardens. New skylights combine photovoltaic and diffused glass, providing even natural illumination while contributing to on-site energy production. Operable modules enable natural ventilation, while motorized shading systems allow complete blackout when required. All technical infrastructure is concealed within the building envelope, maintaining spatial clarity. The project targets LEED Gold certification, aligning with broader sustainability criteria, including energy efficiency, reduced emissions, and improved indoor environmental quality. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182625 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-11.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-11.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-11-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> exhibition spaces the central pavilion as spatial and curatorial nucleus The Central Pavilion’s transformation reflects a longer historical shift within the Biennale itself. Originally constructed between 1894 and 1895 as the Palazzo Pro Arte, the building evolved throughout the 20th century into the Italian Pavilion, while continuing to host the exhibition’s main collective show. A decisive change occurred in 1999 under Swiss curator Harald Szeemann, who introduced the model of a unified international exhibition curated as a singular project. Since then, the building has functioned as the primary site for the Biennale’s curatorial narrative, distinct from the national pavilions distributed across the Giardini. Today, spanning approximately 5,450 square meters within a 51,000-square-meter garden complex, the Central Pavilion consolidates its role as the spatial and conceptual anchor of the exhibition. With construction completed in March 2026, installation works are now underway. The reopening of the Central Pavilion also marks a recalibration of how the Biennale stages its exhibitions, aligning a historically complex building with the spatial and technical demands of contemporary curatorial practice. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182620 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-04.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1091" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-04.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-04-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-04-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> mezzanine <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182628 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-16.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1227" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-16.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-16-667x1000.jpg 667w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-16-768x1152.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> view of the Sala Chini <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182629 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-17.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1091" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-17.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-17-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-17-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> enfilade of exhibition rooms <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182621 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-06.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1091" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-06.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-06-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-06-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> entrance hall <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182624 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-10.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1091" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-10.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-10-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-10-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Sala Brenno with Carlo Scarpa’s window <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182626 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-14.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1227" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-14.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-14-667x1000.jpg 667w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-14-768x1152.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> garden seen from the multipurpose hall <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182627 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-15.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-15.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-15-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> garden view from the exhibition spaces <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182618 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-01.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-01.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-01-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> bookshop <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182619 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-02.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1227" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-02.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-02-667x1000.jpg 667w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-02-768x1152.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> bookshop <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182630 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-19.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-19.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-19-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> cafeteria loggia <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182631 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-20.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-20.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-20-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> cafeteria loggia <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182632 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-22.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="1091" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-22.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-22-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-22-768x1024.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Cafeteria loggia from the Rio dei Giardini <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182623 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-09.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="545" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-09.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/venice-biennale-renovated-central-pavilion-61st-international-art-exhibition-designboom-09-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> elevation facing the Rio dei Giardini project info: name: Requalification of the Central Pavilion architects: BUROMILAN – Milan Ingegneria S.p.A. (lead), Labics S.r.l., arch. Fabio Fumagalli engineering and systems, ia2 Studio Associato (MEP and fire safety) location: Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy | @labiennale geology: Francesco Aucone gross floor area: 5,450 square meters project management: Arianna Laurenzi (Head of Special Projects, La Biennale di Venezia), RUP (responsabile unico del procedimento), Cristiano Frizzele construction supervision: Massimiliano Milan contractor: Setten Genesio S.p.A. The post venice biennale reveals renovated central pavilion ahead of 61st international art exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
searching for utopia, jane jacobs looked no further than the city sidewalk
activist jane jacobs rejected the masterplanned 'ideal city', framing utopia instead as an ever-evolving place shaped by its sidewalk life. The post searching for utopia, jane jacobs looked no further than the city sidewalk appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
jane jacobs’ utopia is community There is a moment, early in The Death and Life of Great American Cities, when activist Jane Jacobs describes a city sidewalk in use: ‘People get advice from the grocer and give advice to the newsstand man, compare opinions with other customers at the bakery and nod hello to the two boys on the stoop.‘ The scene seems trivial, but she explains its importance: ‘The trust of a city street is formed over time from many, many little public sidewalk contacts.‘ It’s this accumulation of daily moments that shapes her version of utopia. Unlike the modernist masterplans and megastructures of Le Corbusier and Paul Rudolph, or the invasive urban interventions of Robert Moses, her vision builds itself over time and trust between people. During the modernist movement, Jacobs pushed back against the idea of the ideal city as something to be reduced to binaries and managed by experts, arguing instead for an understanding of it as an ever-evolving place shaped by those who inhabit it. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182533 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-02.jpg" alt="jane jacobs utopia" width="818" height="534" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-02.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-02-768x501.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Jane Jacobs handing out brochures and speaking with neighbors on Hudson Street about the proposed West Village Houses affordable housing project, West Village, 1963 | photo courtesy Bob Gomel an ideal city planned from above? For centuries, utopia existed as a projection. In Thomas More’s Utopia, published in 1516, the city is a complete and ordered world that’s already resolved. The appeal comes from its distance. It stands apart from the confusion of existing cities, offering a clean arrangement of space and society. Later into the twentieth century, modernist planning carries forward that impulse with renewed conviction. Take Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse as a clear example, where the city is conceived from above as a field of tall cruciform towers set within open green space, arranged along strict axes and separated by function. Housing, work, circulation, and leisure are each assigned their own zones, connected by wide, fast-moving roads designed for efficiency rather than encounter. The promise is immediate in its logic, as congestion is eliminated and circulation is streamlined. It is a legible vision where complexity is resolved ahead of time, and urban life is organized into a system that can be planned and predicted. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182535 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-01.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="589" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-01.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-01-768x553.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Le Corbusier’s ‘contemporary city’, 1925 orderly visions disconnected from people Paul Rudolph pushed that logic toward excess with his proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway megastructure. Commissioned in 1967, the proposal stacks highways, streets, and parking into a continuous elevated framework, with triangulated bands supporting new construction above. Circulation moved along elevated ‘people movers,’ and the concept of sidewalk life is overlooked. While it may seem visionary to some critics, the plan was undoubtably invasive. Ultimately it collapsed when the expressway itself was vetoed in 1969, with Jacobs a major figure in the protests. Jane Jacobs looks at these proposals and sees something that’s not so optimistic, warning of their soullessness and disconnect from humanity. She writes of these modernist visions: ‘They appear so orderly, so visible, so easy to understand… like a good advertisement.‘ But how does the city work once people begin to use it? How does it hold together across hours, across seasons, across small daily habits made without coordination? <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182550 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-06.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="650" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-06.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-06-125x100.jpg 125w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-06-768x610.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Paul Rudolph’s Lower Manhattan Expressway proposal, 1967 a celebration of sidewalk life Jane Jacobs’ answer to utopia comes from observation. She writes of stoops, storefronts, sidewalks, and corners because these are real places that never appear in plans. A sidewalk, she argues, ‘by itself is nothing.‘ It gains its meaning through the buildings that line it and the doors that open onto it, and especially through the overlapping uses that keep it active throughout the day and evening. It’s a city’s main public space and, when it functions well, it supports a shared sense of trust. And trust between people cannot be masterplanned. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1182547" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-03.jpg" alt="jane jacobs utopia" width="818" height="586" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-03.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-03-768x550.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> Jane Jacobs at a 1968 protest against the proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway diversity of use: a city full of life While Jane Jacobs’ ideas of the urban utopia are born from a neighborhood’s sidewalk life, her argument extends into the structure of the city itself. She writes about ‘diversity of use,’ noting that a neighborhood is most successful when it supports different functions at once. Workplaces bring people during the day, and homes maintain activity during the evenings and weekends. Shops and recreation fill the hours between. ‘The district must serve more than one primary function; preferably more than two.‘ she explains. ‘These must insure the presence of people who go outdoors on different schedules and are in the place for different purposes, but who are able to use many facilities in common.‘ In short, people must arrive to a neighborhood for different reasons at different hours. When its uses overlap, they reinforce one another. When they separate, the place will become a deserted wasteland during large swaths of the day, and will lose the ability to sustain itself. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182556 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-07.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="460" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-07.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/jane-jacobs-death-life-great-american-cities-utopia-designboom-07-768x432.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> MacDougal Street, New York | image via the Bowery Boys conditions for the human-centric neighborhood Other conditions she notes include short blocks, buildings of varied age, and density. Each one addresses a specific behavior. Short blocks allow movement to shift direction, increasing encounters. Older buildings, in some cases, may offer lower rents, making room for small enterprises. Density ensures continual activity across time. While these ideas read as inconsequential on their own, they combine to create a place that’s human-centric. Jacobs intentionally avoids the language of completion. There is no final state toward which the city moves. Instead, there is a continuous process of adjustment. A neighborhood changes as businesses open and close, as residents arrive and leave, as buildings age and adapt. Progress appears through these shifts rather than through large scale replacement. This reframes utopia so that the focus moves away from the image of a finished city toward the conditions that allow a city to keep improving. The emphasis falls on participation, with people shaping their surroundings through use and through their daily habits. Jane Jacobs, chairman of the Comm. to save the West Village at a press conference, 1961 the layered, ever-evolving city Emphasizing the idea of the ever-evolving city, Jacobs writes: ‘lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration.‘ A city does not need to be rebuilt from scratch in order to improve. Its spirit is found instead through its layers. This way of thinking extends into the present. Many contemporary practices work with existing conditions rather than replacing them, and the most utopian of these adaptive reuse projects are those that are spearheaded by the communities themselves. One of New York’s most beloved examples is its elevated park the High Line, while Theaster Gates and his Rebuild Foundation (read here) are leaving their mark through adaptive reuse across Chicago. In each case, the emphasis falls on adjusting what already exists and on embracing change over time. So when we ask how Jane Jacobs frames utopia, the answer is at street level. She replaces the image of a perfect, masterplanned city with the practice of one that’s constantly accumulating and evolving. The post searching for utopia, jane jacobs looked no further than the city sidewalk appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
five material-driven kinetic sculptures don’t just move, they respond
material interactions a series of kinetic objects that explore the role of materials as active components within design systems. The post five material-driven kinetic sculptures don’t just move, they respond appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
how can materials generate movement, behavior, interaction? Material Interactions is a collaborative project by Nadya Suvorova and Heidi Jalkh, presenting a series of five kinetic sculptures that explore the role of materials as active components within design systems. Rather than treating matter as passive, the project investigates how materials can exhibit responsive behaviors, contributing to form, movement, and interaction. The sculptures integrate experimental materials developed in Swiss and Argentine laboratories, combining approaches from materials science, biology, engineering, and design. Each object is conceived as a system in which material properties and embedded technologies generate specific reactions. Interaction is triggered through proximity, enabling the works to respond to the presence of visitors through movement and spatial shifts. This framework positions materials as agents within a dynamic environment, extending beyond conventional mechanical systems. The project proposes an expanded understanding of design, where behavior emerges from the intrinsic qualities of materials and their configuration. By embedding responsiveness directly into material systems, the work reconsiders the relationship between users, objects, and environments. <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-1182552 size-full" src="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/material-interactions-nadya-suvorova-heidi-jalkh-five-kinetic-sculptures-responsive-designboom-818-1.jpg" alt="" width="818" height="409" srcset="https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/material-interactions-nadya-suvorova-heidi-jalkh-five-kinetic-sculptures-responsive-designboom-818-1.jpg 818w, https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/material-interactions-nadya-suvorova-heidi-jalkh-five-kinetic-sculptures-responsive-designboom-818-1-768x384.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 818px) 100vw, 818px" /> all images courtesy of Material Interactions – Nadya Suvorova and Heidi Jalkh the Five kinetic sculptures that compose Material Interactions Material Interactions series by designers Nadya Suvorova and Heidi Jalkh presents five kinetic objects. Sculpture BM.01 / Bind (2026) is composed of a bioceramic material derived from ground seashells, including magellan mussels, oysters, and razor clams, combined with an algae-based binder. The material is shaped at room temperature into interlocking components that assemble into a spherical form. The resulting structure is capable of controlled movement, including rolling and self-stabilizing, demonstrating how recycled biological matter can be reconfigured into a functional kinetic system. MG.02 / Grow (2026) piece incorporates a mycelium-based material formed from fungal species, including Pycnoporus sanguineus and Ganoderma lucidum. The living material develops within a contained structure supported by a kinetic framework of aluminum and synthetic components. Movement is gradual and continuous, supporting the growth process and emphasizing the integration of biological systems within designed objects. In MC.03 / Magnetize (2026), a silicone compound embedded with neodymium iron boron particles forms a field of flexible, hair-like elements. Under the influence of magnetic forces, these elements align and move collectively, enabling the transfer of small objects across the surface. The system operates as a soft, distributed mechanism for transport, driven by coordinated magnetic interaction. Work AS.04 / Strain (2026) utilizes auxetic structures fabricated from thin-sheet EVA foam. When subjected to tension, the material expands and transforms, allowing it to bend, curl, and enclose objects. The deformation is used as a functional mechanism for lifting and releasing elements without rigid gripping, demonstrating how geometry and elasticity can replace conventional mechanical systems. Composed of steel powder elements activated by magnetic fields, MF.05 / Attract (2026) sculpture generates continuous motion across horizontal and vertical surfaces. The material responds to controlled magnetic forces, enabling adhesion, release, and directional movement. The system illustrates how magnetic interaction can be used to choreograph material behavior in space. Across the kinetic sculptures series, Material Interactions presents a design approach in which material systems, responsive technologies, and environmental interaction are integrated into cohesive frameworks. The project highlights the potential of materials to contribute actively to performance, supporting new forms of interaction and expanding the scope of design beyond static objects. AS.04 / Strain Material: Thin-sheet EVA foam auxetic structures Collaborators: Dr Lorenzo Guiducci, Matters of Activity (DE) AS.04 / Strain Material: Thin-sheet EVA foam auxetic structures Collaborators: Dr Lorenzo Guiducci, Matters of Activity (DE) BM.01 / Bind Materials: Ground seashells(magellan mussels, oysters, razors) and algae biopolymer Raw material source: Ultramarinos (AR) MC.03 / Magnetize Material: Silicone rubber compound with neodymium iron boron particles Material source: Dr Ahmet Demirörs (CH), Complex Materials Group, ETH Zurich MC.03 / Magnetize Material: Silicone rubber compound with neodymium iron boron particles Material source: Dr Ahmet Demirörs (CH), Complex Materials Group, ETH Zurich MF.05 / Attract Material: Steel powder Material source: Apheros AG (CH), Complex Materials Group, ETH Zurich MG.02 / Grow Material: Mycelium agglomerate of Pycnoporus sanguineus and Ganoderma lucidum Fungi inoculation: Dr. Leonardo M. Majul, Lab. de Micología Experimental y Liquenología (INMIBO-UBA) MG.02 / Grow Material: Mycelium agglomerate of Pycnoporus sanguineus and Ganoderma lucidum Fungi inoculation: Dr. Leonardo M. Majul, Lab. de Micología Experimental y Liquenología (INMIBO-UBA) project info: name: Material Interactions designers: Material Interactions – Nadya Suvorova and Heidi Jalkh | @material_interactions design development: Lorenzo Rossi programming: Mario von Rickenbach electronics: Santiago Clancy score and soundscapes: Ailin Grad video editing: Andres Aguiló photographers: Laura Macias and Vicky Rey science communication: Dr. Exequiel Rodriguez identity typography: Synt by Dinamo Typefaces curatorial text: Caroline Hirt inaugural exhibition: Material Interactions 一 A New Species of Design, on show at Artlab in Buenos Aires, Argentina BM.01 / Bind (2026): materials: Ground seashells (magellan mussels, oysters, razors), algae biopolymer raw material source: Ultramarinos (AR) MG.02 / Grow (2026): materials: Mycelium agglomerate of Pycnoporus sanguineus, Ganoderma lucidum, anodised aluminium, PLA, plexiglas, motor, electronic components, proximity sensor fungi inoculation: Dr. Leonardo M. Majul, Lab. de Micología Experimental y Liquenología (INMIBO-UBA) MC.03 / Magnetize (2026): materials: Silicone rubber compound with neodymium iron boron particles, anodised aluminium, magnets, PLA, motors, electronic components, proximity sensors material source: Dr Ahmet Demirörs (CH), Material Science Department, Complex Materials Group, ETH Zurich AS.04 / Strain (2026): materials: Thin-sheet EVA foam auxetic structures, anodised aluminium, PLA, motors, electronic components, proximity sensor collaborators: Dr Lorenzo Guiducci, Matters of Activity (DE) MF.05 / Attract (2026): materials: Steel powder, anodised aluminium, magnets, PLA, plexiglas, motor, electronic components, proximity sensor material source: Apheros AG (CH), Material Science Department, Complex Materials Group, ETH Zurich designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here. edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom The post five material-driven kinetic sculptures don’t just move, they respond appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.