Italian architect and designer Massimiliano Malagò presents Copia New Yorkea, a chair that translates the structural logic of coreless exoskeleton skyscrapers into furniture form. The piece combines brass, velvet, 3D printed PLA joints, and gold thread, situating itself between functional object and critical inquiry.

The design employs an isomorphic process, mapping the spatial and structural qualities of high-rise architecture onto a domestic seat. A brass grid frame recalls the column-free curtain wall of corporate towers, within which a suspended fabric cocoon creates the seating surface. Modular 3D printed nodes join the frame, reflecting the parametric connectors typical of high-rise engineering systems. Unlike biomimicry, where natural forms inspire architecture, Copia New Yorkea reverses the process by drawing directly from architectural typologies. By adapting the monumentality and logic of the skyscraper to the intimate scale of the body, the work raises questions about the transfer of design languages across scales and contexts.

all images by Helene Helleu

Massimiliano Malagò Explores Power & Privilege Through Design

The chair’s enclosed form resonates with historical precedents such as the sedan chair, once used to transport elite individuals. Massimiliano Malagò draws a parallel between these vessels of privilege and modern skyscrapers, both of which serve to elevate, conceal, and project authority. ‘Their reflectivity and transparency are curated, not democratic. Nor is any of the scale of them proportional to the merits of those who inhabit them,’ notes the designer. ‘Copia New Yorkea reframes the curtain wall not just as an aesthetic, but as a social and political skin.’ The brass grid and textile cocoon become both structural and symbolic, framing the chair as a reflection on architectural skins and their social dimensions.

The project traces its origins to Malagò’s experience at OMA in New York, where questions regarding the narrative strategies used to justify skyscraper design sparked a broader reflection on isomorphic design methodologies. Later, during his time at Bond NY, he experimented with translating texts into architectural forms, a method that informs his current practice. Copia New Yorkea continues this trajectory, positioning isomorphic design not as a stylistic exercise but as a critique of how architectural references are deployed. Through this translation of high-rise engineering into a furniture object, Malagò opens a dialogue on the role of analogy in design, the politics of architectural form, and the legitimacy of transscalar methodologies in contemporary practice.

Copia New Yorkea chair by Massimiliano Malagò translates skyscraper logic into furniture design

brass, velvet, PLA joints, and gold thread define the chair’s material palette

3D printed nodes connect the brass structural exposed skin

the joints reference parametric connectors in high-rise engineering

a suspended fabric cocoon creates the seating surface

the enclosed seat recalls the sedan chair of elite transport

dense velvet clouds mirror the views of a skyscraper’s translucent curtain walls

the clouds operate like a bitmap on a planar surface

project info:

name: Copia New Yorkea
designer: Massimiliano Malagò | @massimilianomariamalago

photographer: Helene Helleu | @helenehelleu

photography coloring: Tom Keelan | @tom_keelan

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Ai Weiwei reveals his recent installation, Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White, for the Pavilion 13 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Commissioned by RIBBON International, the major and large-scale artwork remains on-site between September 14th and November 30th, 2025. The building, renovated in 2025 by ФОРМА and RIBBON International and home to the Pavilion of Culture, becomes the temporary platform for the artist’s response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. It consists of three mathematically precise spheres wrapped in camouflage uniforms, which he handpainted in white with his team.

The artwork is both a sculpture and a political statement, constructed within Kyiv’s Pavilion 13 during the active conflict period. Ai Weiwei’s installation in Ukraine references Leonardo da Vinci’s De Divina Proportione. The mathematical precision of the spheres represents rational order and Renaissance humanism, while the camouflage clothing interprets the ongoing conflict outside of the pavilion. The artist suggests cognitive dissonance: while the spheres stand for harmony, precision, and logical systems of humans, the painted uniforms bring forth the symbols of war and actual conflict taking place in the country.

all images courtesy of RIBBON International | photo by Dmytro Prutkin

Evolution from the artist’s work, Five Raincoats Holding a Star

Ai Weiwei took research trips throughout Ukraine for his installation inside Pavilion 13 with the organization RIBBON International. The process allowed him to gather firsthand accounts and experiences from frontline soldiers, civilians, and even medical professionals on-site that ultimately shaped his textile-based, large-scale artwork. In his sculptural work, the artist grounds the work within Western art historical traditions all the while commenting on their relevance to contemporary crises. The decision to exhibit in Kyiv during active conflict is an undertaking that shows logistical and security challenges that the artist has overcome to make powerful statements about art’s role during wartime. The installation in Ukraine named Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White is Ai Weiwei’s evolution from his earlier work Five Raincoats Holding a Star. 

It reaffirms his sustained engagement with themes of protection, visibility, and political symbolism. In the earlier work, the raincoat acted as protection from natural elements, while the current camouflage fabric addresses human-created dangers. The showcasing fits inside Pavilion 13 where the building’s glass walls – originally constructed in 1967 to showcase Soviet Ukrainian industrial achievements – now frame the sculpture’s responses to current conflict, and passersby immediately see it from the outside, claiming a visible reminder of the country’s present situation. Ai Weiwei’s installation Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White is on view in Kyiv, Ukraine, between September 14th and November 30th, 2025.

Ai Weiwei reveals installation, Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White

the artwork in on view at Pavilion 13 in Kyiv, Ukraine, commissioned by RIBBON International

the artwork is both a sculpture and a political statement

Ai Weiwei’s installation in Ukraine references Leonardo da Vinci’s De Divina Proportione

the mathematical precision of the spheres represents rational order and Renaissance humanism

detailed view of the installation

the camouflage clothing interprets the ongoing conflict outside of the pavilion

the spheres stand for harmony, precision, and logical systems of humans

the major artwork remains on-site between September 14th and November 30th, 2025

project info:

name: Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White

artist: Ai Weiwei | @aiww

commission: RIBBON International | @ribbon.international

firm: FORMA Architects | @forma_ua

space: Pavilion 13 by Pavilion of Culture | @pavilionofculture

location: Akademika Glushkova Ave., 1, Pavilion 13, VDNG, Kyiv, Ukraine

dates: September 14th to November 30th, 2025

photography by: Dmytro Prutkin | @poplava_ua

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Atelier VRAC’s Temporary Installation at a Mountain River is presented during Făgăraș Fest on the Moașa Sebeșului River, a tributary of the Sebeș River in Romania’s Făgăraș Mountains. The installation consists of a precise circular structure set directly within the riverbed, framing the natural setting through architectural intervention while allowing the water to flow freely beneath. The circle establishes a geometric boundary, forming an outdoor ‘room’ that temporarily redefines the linear landscape of the river. This boundary is composed of slender vertical elements topped with solar light globes, accompanied by a suspended textile canopy that creates a light, permeable enclosure. The canopy lightly brushes against the vegetation on both banks, subtly incorporating the surrounding environment into the installation.

Access to the interior varies according to scale and movement: children pass beneath the fabric with ease, while adults must bend slightly to enter. Within, an angled pontoon is positioned off-center and is only reachable by stepping into the river. This element creates a pause in the flowing environment, offering a distinct moment of stillness and reflection within the temporary structure. The installation also integrates a narrow river crossing adjacent to the circular perimeter. A series of stepping stones is placed at stride-length intervals, encouraging deliberate movement between the festival’s camping area and the riverbank site. At night, the solar light globes provide minimal illumination, ensuring visibility while maintaining a subdued atmosphere.

the installation emerges among the riverbanks | all images by Cristian Bădescu, Zenaida Florea

Water flows freely beneath the Temporary textile Installation

Designed for Făgăraș Fest, organized by the Conservation Carpathia Association, the project by creative studio atelier VRAC reflects the festival’s dual purpose: to advocate for national park protection of the Făgăraș Mountains and to highlight the cultural potential of the local community. In a context where mountain streams face increasing pressures from micro-hydropower development, invasive construction, and unmanaged waste, the installation underscores the importance of maintaining the river landscape in an unaltered state.

Through its geometric clarity, lightweight materiality, and integration with natural flows, Temporary Installation at a Mountain River activates its site without altering it. The structure operates as both a spatial intervention and a reminder of the value of ecological preservation, positioning design as a tool for awareness and engagement within a fragile landscape.

the water flows freely beneath the structure

the installation frames a serene river view

a textile canopy forms a light, permeable enclosure

stepping stones encourage a deliberate, mindful passage

children can easily slip under the floating canopy

the circle creates a temporary outdoor ‘room’

the pontoon is accessible only by stepping into the river

a moment of stillness and reflection

vegetation gently brushes the fabric

feet meet the surface, stepping into the installation through the water

river’s stones keep the structure grounded

sunlight glimmers beneath the suspended canopy

the installation glows as night falls

solar globes provide minimal illumination

project info:

name: Temporary Installation at a Mountain River
architect: Atelier VRAC | @atelier.vrac

location: Sebeșu de Sus, Romania

design team: Cristian Bădescu, Zenaida Florea

commission: Conservation Carpathia

production & implementation: Hans Scherer, Sebastian Big, Oana Big

photographers: Cristian Bădescu, Zenaida Florea

video: Diana Ioana Bobeș

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Inside the 600-year-old Grote Kerk Veere in Zeeland, Netherlands, artists Ludmila Rodrigues and Mike Rijnierse present Buoyants, a site-specific installation that transforms the church nave into a fluid, underwater-like environment. The work combines a kinetic sculpture in lightweight fabric with a multichannel soundscape, reinterpreting the lost Gothic ceiling while emphasizing the region’s deep connection with water.

Buoyants by Ludmila Rodrigues and Mike Rijnierse for the Grote Kerk Veere, in Zeeland, Netherlands, 2025 | all images by Benjamin van der Spek

a spatial choreography of fabric, sound, and light

The installation by creative Ludmila Rodrigues and artist Mike Rijnierse integrates three key elements: a suspended sculpture made of green voile, a spatial sound environment, and landing platforms where visitors can recline to experience both sound and vibration. The sculpture, positioned seven meters above ground, is animated by a custom mechanical system developed by Rob Bothof. Its slow movements resemble wave patterns and sea life while echoing the verticality and geometry of Gothic vaults.

Sound plays a central role in the project. Composed by Ji-Youn Kang, the two-hour soundscape is designed as a vertical layering of tones, guiding attention upward and into the space. Low frequencies are transmitted into the landing platforms, allowing visitors to feel the vibrations physically.

Buoyants transforms the nave of Grote Kerk Veere into a fluid, underwater-like landscape

Gothic Dutch Church turns into Underwater-Like Space

Buoyants reflects on the cultural and environmental history of Zeeland, a region long shaped by tides, floods, and rising sea levels. The artists approached water as both a material and temporal continuum, connecting the distant past of oceanic origins with the uncertain future shaped by climate change. At the same time, the work re-imagines the architectural grandeur of the church’s medieval ceiling, lost centuries ago, by creating a contemporary spatial choreography of fabric, sound, and light.

a suspended green voile sculpture reinterprets the lost Gothic ceiling

the fabric element hovers seven meters above the nave, animated by custom mechanics

a multichannel soundscape fills the nave with layered, spatial tones

visitors recline on platforms to experience both sound and movement

the work creates a dialogue between architecture, water, and environment

the sculptures’ slow movements resemble waves, sea life, and water currents

the kinetic sculpture shifts slowly, producing ever-changing visual rhythms

the suspended lightweight green voile achieves fluidity and motion

‘furry islands’ within the space enhance visitors’ tactile experience

project info:

name: ‘Buoyants’ art installation at Grote Kerk Veere
designers: Ludmila Rodrigues | @thebodyoftheaudience + Mike Rijnierse | @mikerijnierse

materials: voile, nylon rope, electronics, 8:4:3 multichannel sound installation

soundscape: Ji Youn Kang

motion engineering: Rob Bothof

3D rendering assistance: Sofia Chionidou

sound engineering: Dario Giustarini

seamstress: Tessa Bekker

wood work: Bas de Boer

intern: Norah van Lith

photographer: Benjamin van der Spek

drone footage: Wilbert Calhouw

commissioned by: Grote Kerk Veere in cooperation with CBK Zeeland

supported by: Municipality of Veere, Zeeland’s Province, the Mondriaan Fund, the Familiefonds Hurgronje, Hoogwerkt, AutoHopper, Quartair, and the Embassy of Brazil

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Installed on the rooftop of Casa Wabi Sabino in Mexico City’s Atlampa neighborhood, Tendedero (Clothesline) by Brenda Isabel Pérez and Israel Espin reinterprets the domestic act of hanging clothes as an architectural and artistic intervention. The work connects urban space, materiality, and social critique through a minimal yet deliberate design strategy.

The installation consists of four parallel metal cables stretched across the rooftop, anchored with steel counterweights. Suspended from these lines are twelve linen canvases measuring 2.5 × 1.5 meters each. The system establishes a balance between the rigidity of the steel structure and the lightness of the semi-transparent fabric. As the canvases respond to wind and movement, the installation becomes dynamic, creating shifting spatial thresholds for visitors to move through. By occupying the rooftop, the project reclaims a transitional zone historically associated with domestic labor and care work, often carried out by women and largely overlooked within urban and economic frameworks. Through its spatial configuration, Tendedero makes this labor visible, situating it within both architectural discourse and collective experience.

all images by Andrés Cedillo unless stated otherwise

quotidian clothesline transforms into large-scale installation

The intervention interacts with Alberto Kalach’s architectural design for Casa Wabi Sabino, complementing its structural clarity while introducing a new layer of permeability and rhythm. The linen surfaces generate ephemeral enclosures, producing moments of transparency and opacity that alter perspective and scale. The act of walking among the fabrics recalls both the repetitiveness of daily domestic work and its metaphorical dimensions, relating to cycles of care, repair, and renewal that sustain the social fabric.

The enlarged scale of the clothesline transforms an everyday household object into an inhabitable structure. This shift repositions the domestic as a critical spatial territory, one through which the city is shaped and social relationships are negotiated. Through Tendedero installation, artists Espin and Pérez explore the intersection of art, architecture, and urbanism, proposing a reconsideration of dwelling and domestic labor as integral to the cultural and material fabric of the city.

Tendedero by Brenda Isabel Pérez and Israel Espin in Mexico City

an installation exploring domestic labor and urban space

rooftop intervention at Casa Wabi Sabino in the Atlampa neighborhood

four parallel metal cables span the rooftop, holding linen canvases

twelve natural linen sheets define the installation’s structure

steel counterweights anchor the tensile system at each end | image by Alum Gálvez

the work transforms a quotidian clothesline into large-scale architecture | image by Alum Gálvez

semi-transparent fabrics shift with the wind, creating a moving threshold | image by Alum Gálvez

the installation connects private domestic work with public urban space | image by Alum Gálvez

Architects and artists Brenda Isabel Pérez and Israel Espin stand along Tendedero installation | image by Alum Gálvez

project info:

name: Tendedero (Clothesline)
designers: Brenda Isabel Pérez | @unabrenda, Israel Espin | @israelespin

design team: Cristian Camacho, Gersain Aquino, Liliana Coronado, Marbet Salazar-Bernal

textiles: Sistema Soñar, Itzel Sánchez Hernández

curator: Dakin Hart

dates: July 12th to September 27, 2025

photographer: Alum Gálvez | @alum_galvez, ESPACIOS – Andres Cedillo | @_andrescedillo

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The Odyssey of the Cabin is a triangular, lightweight shelter designed by Chile-based Celva Arquitectura in collaboration with Belgium-based Saga Architects. Conceived as a nomadic structure, the compact cabin explores the relationship between space, time, and human presence within the landscape.

The cabin’s triangular geometry is both a structural and symbolic gesture, referencing ancestral monoliths and primitive forms. Elevated slightly above the ground on minimal supports, the shelter creates a porous volume that frames its natural surroundings without imposing on them. Its white textile skin, tensioned over a timber frame, allows light and wind to filter through, producing an open and adaptable atmosphere. The spatial experience is organized into two complementary conditions. At the front, an integrated seat provides a place of rest and intimacy, recalling the protective qualities of a cave. At the back, a minimal stair leads to the roof, transforming the structure into an elevated observation platform that opens toward the horizon. This dual arrangement supports both retreat and projection, encouraging moments of pause as well as outward reflection.

the central stair leads to the circular opening, turning the path into a ritual of ascent and discovery | all images courtesy of Celva and Saga

Exploring relationships between space, time, and human presence

The cabin is constructed using a simple, reversible system of timber frames and stretched textile membranes. Assembled with dry joints, it can be disassembled and relocated, emphasizing minimal ground impact and a commitment to temporary, low-impact architecture. Inside, the fabric envelope softens daylight, diffuses air, and enhances awareness of the surrounding environment.

Rather than a permanent dwelling, the structure operates as a cultural device that recalls nomadic traditions of adaptation, movement, and exposure to the elements. It highlights the tension between temporary habitation and enduring presence in the landscape. The Odyssey of the Cabin, created by practice Celva Arquitectura and studio Saga Architects, was selected as a finalist at the Festival des Cabanes de Villa Médicis 2026, organized by the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici.

the cabin rises as a light monolith in the forest, a nomadic artifact inviting ascent and contemplation of the horizon

a carved seat at the base offers intimate rest, evoking the cave as humanity’s first shelter within the landscape

the oculus frames the volcano as a timeless horizon, where the nomadic journey meets the contemplation of the landscape

the modular skin of wood and white veils filters light, creating a play of shadows that converses with the forest

in the forest’s dim light, the cabin rises as a luminous monolith marking human presence in the landscape

the model reveals the constructive essence of the artifact: a light framework that turns geometry into inhabitable poetry

the scale model reveals the artifact’s dual condition: an intimate shelter and a vertical lookout toward the horizon

the triangular framework combines wood and stretched membranes, revealing the modular logic behind the pure form

the circular void frames the landscape, turning the structure into a device for contemplation and memory

light pierces through the model’s skin, casting shifting shadows that evoke the passage of time on matter

project info:

name: The Odyssey of the Cabin

architect: Celva Arquitectura | @celva.arquitectura, Saga Architects | @saga_architectes
design team: Camilo Silva Badilla (Celva), Alice Gier (Saga), Alexis Soriano (Saga)

area: 4 sqm

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The Seoul Museum of Art presents ‘Ernesto Neto: Ba Ka Ba, a Dance of the Eternal Polarities,’ a new site-specific installation by the Brazilian artist that transforms the Korean museum’s Seosomun Main Branch lobby into a sensory environment. Commissioned as part of the 2025 SeMA Public Space Project, the woven artwork expands Ernesto Neto‘s longstanding interest in the relationships between body, space, and collective experience.

Ernesto Neto portrait | images courtesy SeMA, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

sema suspends colossal crocheted artworks

Ernesto Neto’s installation at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) is composed of expansive crochet structures woven from industrial cotton fabrics in shades of brown and pink. These colors, chosen to evoke tree trunks and night alongside flowers and day, establish a dialogue between natural rhythms and architectural structure. Suspended and filled with dried guava leaves and locally sourced tea leaves, the artist‘s forms invite a multi-sensory encounter that engages smell both texture together.

By occupying the museum’s lobby and adjacent open spaces, the work introduces an organic intervention into the building’s otherwise linear architecture. The flowing crochet forms generate a cyclical sense of space, suggesting continuity and transformation rather than fixed boundaries. Visitors move through and around the installation, encountering shifting relations between center and periphery, interior and exterior.

Ernesto Neto presents ‘Ba Ka Ba, a Dance of the Eternal Polarities’ at the Seoul Museum of Art

the installation’s onomatopoeic title

The title ‘Ba Ka Ba’ functions as an onomatopoeic expression, its mirrored syllables referencing cycles and flows. This rhythm extends into the work’s conceptual framework: polarities such as body and space, sensation and thought, or self and other are not held apart but brought into dialogue. For Neto, these intersections remain central to his practice, recalling his ties to the Brazilian Neo-Concrete movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, which emphasized participation, sensation, and subjective experience.

These ideas are reimagined within Seoul’s contemporary urban context. The installation offers an open environment where visitors become part of the work itself and embody a condition of exchange and interrelation. The sensory components extend beyond the visual to affirm art’s role in daily life.

the installation fills the Seosomun Main Branch lobby with crochet structures

the work is filled with dried guava leaves and locally sourced tea leaves

brown and pink industrial cotton fabrics evoke tree trunks night flowers and day

the crocheted forms bring an organic intervention to the museum’s linear architecture

project info:

name: Ernesto Neto: Ba Ka Ba, a Dance of the Eternal Polarities (Ba Ka Ba, uma dança das eternas polaridades)

artist: Ernesto Neto | @ernestonetoarte

museum: Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA)

location: 61, Deoksugung-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul, Korea

photography: © SeMA

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WINT Design Lab and the Fraunhofer IZM team up to produce a lamp that can change its brightness as the user presses onto the surface’s stretchable textile. Forming part of the research Soft Interfaces, the touch-sensitive light accessory contains a liquid metal called Galinstan embedded into the fabric. Here, the metal flows through pathways inside the textile, so when users stretch the fabric, these paths change shape, and the system reads the movement and adjusts the temperature and brightness of the lamp with stretchable textile.

The research team used Liquid Metal Dispensing technology to place the metal inside fabric. They note that this kind of process has not been used in a product before. The team – which includes Lukas Werft and Christian Dils from Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, as well as Robin Hoske and Felix Rasehorn from WINT Design Lab – spent one year developing the manufacturing method before they were able to produce a touch-sensitive lamp that uses liquid metal and stretchable textile to operate.

all images courtesy of WINT Design Lab | photos by Michelle Mantel

liquid metal inside knitted fabric for the lighting design

For the lamp, it is Case Studies, a Berlin knit design studio, that created the stretchable textile and other materials that WINT Design Lab and the Fraunhofer IZM used. The design studio made custom yarns for the project, making the fabric with alternating knit patterns to mark touch areas. In this way, the different surface textures help users feel the interactive zones. The textile disc is measured as a round screen, while the fabric sits inside a frame that keeps it stretched tight. The frame holds the fabric at the correct tension for touch sensing. There are four touch areas that control different light settings. 

Warm light makes the fabric look like sunset colors, and the cool light makes the fabric look like morning light colors. Even the fabric color changes with the light temperature. The Fraunhofer team experimented with different fabric patterns by testing various textile structures to find the best sensing ability. The final prototype uses new manufacturing methods for liquid metal placement. The base of the lamp with stretchable textile contains all the electronic parts, from the cooling systems that keep the liquid metal at the correct temperature to the driver circuits that control the light output. The textile screen blocks direct light from the user’s eyes, allowing the reflected light to fill the room space. Then, the round disc position spreads the light evenly.

the lamp forms part of the research Soft Interfaces

Applications from car interior controls to Home textile

The teams say that the liquid metal tracks work better than conductive yarn sensors because the metal maintains electrical connection when fabric stretches. It is because of this that the system responds to gentle touch pressure. The fabric can still be washed without damaging the metal pathways. The teams see the technology being applied to different uses, including car interior controls. Home textiles could also become interactive surfaces, medical products could use the touch sensing, and HiFi systems could control volume and settings through fabric touch.

The screenless control method uses body movement instead of visual interfaces, so users feel the fabric response through their fingers. This creates a direct connection between user action and device response. The one-year collaboration between WINT Design Lab and the Fraunhofer IZM produced one working prototype lamp with stretchable textile and liquid metal. During this time, the teams also created new methods for putting liquid metal into knitted fabric. The project shows how textile materials can replace electronic touch screens, with the fabric interface using less energy than digital displays. So far, more tests are underway for the research teams’ series.

the surface has knitted fabric with liquid metal

the brightness changes as the user presses onto the stretchable textile

the metal flows through pathways inside the textile, so when users stretch the fabric, these paths change shape

detailed view of the embedded technology

detailed view of the smart home fixture

the base contains all the electronic parts

the textile screen blocks direct light from the user’s eyes

detailed view of the Liquid Metal Dispensing technology

project info:

name: Soft Interfaces

studio: WINT Design Lab | @wintdesignlab

organization: Fraunhofer IZM | @fraunhofer_izm

teams: Robin Hoske, Felix Rasehorn, Lukas Werft, Christian Dils

photography: Michelle Mantel | @michelle.mantel

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Lucy Sparrow’s latest installation, Bourdon Street Chippy, transforms the Lyndsey Ingram Gallery in London into a fully immersive fish and chip shop rendered entirely in felt. Open through September 14th, 2025, the project continues Sparrow’s exploration of everyday environments through soft sculpture, creating a spatial experience and material presence.

The exhibition occupies the gallery’s rooms with a clear intent to emulate the structure and ambiance of a working chippy. From the banquette seating to the framed portraits on the walls, each element is conceived with a distinct attention to layout and proportion. The familiar counter lends a functional threshold between visitor and vendor, while the seating area encourages visitors to linger, treating the project as both a gallery and social space.

images © Lucy Emms (unless otherwise stated)

lucy sparrow exhibits her command of the material

At the heart of the Bourdon Street Chippy installation is artist Lucy Sparrow’s command of material translation. Over 65,000 hand-crafted felt pieces articulate every surface, container, and consumable object within the chippy. What emerges is a material language that captures the texture of linoleum flooring, the gloss of laminated menus, and the sheen of deep-fried food through stitch and shape. Even the chips, with fifteen distinct cuts in five different tones, are organized with the rigor of typological study.

The spatial layout reflects the hierarchical clarity of a traditional takeaway. Circulation paths are defined by counters, queues, and bench seating, while sightlines are organized around key objects: a felt fryer, hand-sewn condiment dispensers, and signage arranged with unified graphics.

Lucy Sparrow transforms Lyndsey Ingram Gallery into a fully immersive felt fish and chip shop

the interactive bourdon street chippy

Lucy Sparrow herself is present at Bourdon Street Chippy five days a week, reinforcing the installation’s interactivity. Her participation blurs the boundary between artist and vendor, and between object and performance. ‘The familiarity of these spaces disarms the viewer,’ Sparrow explains. ‘It’s a way of getting people to let their guard down.’

The choice of a chippy, as opposed to her previously explored subjects including a supermarket or pharmacy, adds a more intimate layer to the work. ‘My relationship with food has always influenced my art,’ she continues. ‘Over time, I came to understand that my practice had become a way to manage difficult emotions.’ In this sense, Bourdon Street Chippy operates as both a personal artifact and a public setting.

Bourdon Street Chippy recreates a familiar high street space

In bringing a High Street staple into the controlled conditions of a commercial gallery, the installation invites questions about access, nostalgia, and gentrification. The gallery’s polished context contrasts with the working-class origins of the fish and chip shop, yet the installation’s warmth and humor hold space for both critique and affection.

‘Lucy is one of the most important and meaningful artists of her generation,’ says gallerist Lyndsey Ingram. ‘Her work blurs the lines between performance and installation art, all in her distinctive felt language.’ The gallery’s transformation is comprehensive as every surface and volume supports the illusion.

visitors navigate a fabric-rendered takeaway complete with counters banquettes and signage

the installation blends sculpture and performance within a curated spatial framework

over 65,000 felt objects include fifteen chip shapes in five colors | image © Alun Callender

Bourdon Street Chippy explores themes of nostalgia, commerce, and craft

Lucy Sparrow is often present in the gallery, engaging directly with visitors

project info:

name: Bourdon Street Chippy

designer: Lucy Sparrow | @sewyoursoul

location: Lyndsey Ingram Gallery, London, UK

dates: August 1st — September 14th, 2025

photography: © Lucy Emms | @lucy.emms, © Alun Callender

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Mona Sugata’s intricate sculptures are made from cotton fabric, thread, glue, and pigment, materials that hold traces of fragility, heat, and breath. Shaped into botanical forms and infused with an otherworldly quality, her works feel alive in a surreal way. In her latest exhibition, What Resonates Through Us — Echoes in Overtones, on view at Galerie Ovo in Taipei from August 22nd to September 6th, 2025, Sugata presents a series of installations that extend her ongoing exploration of living systems, unseen presences, and the subtle conditions that allow life to take shape. ‘I imagine them as relics quietly resting in an ancient monastery, holding a sacred presence,’ she tells designboom.

‘My installations do not try to speak too much,’ she remarks during our discussion. ‘They are quietly placed with space, light, air, and subtle presence so that the viewer may encounter their own sense of life and the quiet sensations within.’ The works do not represent plants in a literal way, but they reflect Sugata’s close attention to the movements and structures of plants growing in her own garden, particularly the forms of stems and the gestures of growth that seem to carry vitality. Her observations are translated into symbolic organisms, gradually taking on a bodily quality and sometimes resembling intelligent life.

all images courtesy of Mona Sugata | Tree of Life — A Planet of Playing Beings

delicate forms rooted in sacred cycles

Japanese artist Mona Sugata works with untreated cotton, glue, and diluted pigments, allowing the fabric to absorb and bleed color. Once dry, the pieces are shaped and detailed using a heated iron tool to burn fine vein-like lines into the surface. ‘This is the moment when life begins to inhabit the work,’ she reveals. Sugata avoids coating or overworking the surface in order to preserve the softness of the materials and the natural shifts in tone, resulting in a surface that feels more like something in a slow state of becoming instead of a finished object.

Pillar of Prayer Kumade and Pillar of Prayer Purple Star, some of her latest works, are rooted in the Japanese jichinsai, a ceremony performed before construction, where offerings are made to the local land deity. The artist imagines these sculptures as vertical structures that remain after such a ceremony, linking the land and its inhabitants. The ceramic base represents the land god, while the plant forms growing from it reflect a relationship of coexistence, between what is built and what is already there. ‘It expresses the idea of sacred plants living on the god of the land and living in beautiful coexistence,’ Sugata notes.

Tree of Life — A Planet of Playing Beings, installed at the atrium of the Spiral art center in Tokyo, reflects Sugata’s idea of the Earth as an active field shaped by invisible beings, bacteria, insects, and other non-human lives. ‘Even after death, life becomes part of other beings, undergoing a perpetual cycle of rebirth and rebirth,’ she says. The work evokes these cycles through layered organic forms that spiral outward in motion, resembling a kind of visual system for life as play, disappearance, and return.

reflecting Sugata’s idea of the Earth

A Practice Shaped by Sensitivity and Direct Contact

Sugata’s approach is shaped by physical sensitivity rather than strict planning. She adjusts the process depending on the direction of each piece, working by feel rather than concept. ‘If I feel tension or resistance in my body, I take it as a sign that something is off,’ she explains. The final step, using the iron to create form, is done by hand and involves direct contact with heat, often leading to burns. Still, she treats these traces as part of the work itself, as reminders of material resistance, timing, and repetition.

Mona Sugata was born in Tokyo in 1983 and studied printmaking at Tama Art University. That background still informs her handling of surface and tone, but her installations move away from printed images into something more spatial and responsive. ‘My works are not for interpretation,’ she highlights. ‘They are for quiet encounters.’

Sugata hopes viewers will encounter something of their own in her work. ‘In such stillness,’ she reflects, ‘one might sense a deeper connection, with the world, with others. And in that resonance, I too receive something essential.’

an active field shaped by invisible beings, bacteria, insects, and other non-human lives

Mona Sugata works with untreated cotton, glue, and diluted pigments

a kind of visual system for life as play, disappearance, and return

layered organic forms spiral outward in motion

Midday Moon (left) sits closer to abstraction

inspired by the pale yellow moon sometimes visible during daylight

Pillar of Prayer Kumade and Pillar of Prayer Purple Star are rooted in the Japanese jichinsai

the artist imagines these sculptures as vertical structures that remain after a ceremony

the plant forms reflect a relationship of coexistence

the pieces are shaped and detailed using a heated iron tool

the artist burns fine, vein-like lines into the surface

Sugata avoids coating or overworking the surface in order to preserve the softness of the materials

a surface that feels like something in a state of becoming

project info:

artist: Mona Sugata | @monasugata

exhibition: What Resonates Through Us — Echoes in Overtones

location: Galerie Ovo, Taipei, Taiwan | @galerieovo
dates: August 22nd to September 6th, 2025

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