A forest is more than an outdoor space filled with trees: it is a model for how we can live our lives and create architecture for the future. Growing up in northern Japan, I spent my childhood days playing in the forest. It was a place of intimacy, with many diverse areas yet nothing divided, everything softly interconnected. As we move into 2025, I see the forest as a model for architecture and society. It shows us how distinct identities can thrive in diversity while still being connected – and how harmony between humans and nature can be rediscovered.

Today feels like the dawn of a new modern age. It is a time of profound change – and change always sparks new ideas, concepts, designs. Our values are shifting, societies are evolving and this moment in history feels similar to the start of the 20th-century modern age, when new ideas deeply shaped how we went on to live and think.

Sou Fujimoto on 2024 and what's coming in 2025

Now, after more than 100 years, many “modern” mindsets and “modern” concepts are irrelevant. The COVID pandemic made us realise how outdated much of it is. We now have new situations, points of view and questions to answer: about sustainability, diversity, biotechnology, AI, over-connection and nature. The year ahead is likely to be an exciting time, particularly for younger generations thinking about the world around them. I see creative revolutions across every category – architecture, art, music. My hope is that the young designers of tomorrow will be brave and honest enough to continue driving this change forward.

For me, 2025 is all about the Osaka Expo, which opens in April. I have been working intensively on this for the past five years, creating a large timber ring structure. It’s a truly global event, a wonderful integration of different pavilion designs and international activities. Many countries – including Japan – are trying to explore future architecture based on sustainability. There are many wooden structures and I sense a real push across the world to create more sustainable architecture. I’ve noticed, from monthly visits to my Paris office, that in the last 10 years, there has been a strong global shift towards wooden construction, natural materials or reusing and recycling. This has become even more active since the pandemic.

Now, the Osaka Expo sets the stage for realising the newest and most innovative trials into wooden construction. One can wonder: ‘What does sustainability look like in the current climate?’ As a Japanese architect, it’s interesting for me to think about this, because Japan is quite far behind globally in terms of sustainability. The Expo is a great opportunity for Japanese society to think more deeply about sustainability in a global context. When we revealed our proposal, many Japanese didn’t understand the wooden ring we designed for the Expo.

For many, wooden construction is for private homes, temples or shrines – it’s not thought of as a showcase for the latest building technology. But recently, the ring has been widely published at the same time as other large-scale wooden constructions are also being noticed – and I feel that Japanese people are starting to understand our vision. It's all about opening people’s minds to the different possibilities of wooden construction – and hopefully, this will be emphasised through other structures such as the Italian Pavilion and Czech Pavilion.

In many ways, Japan is behind global standards. But we have good quality of design and architecture; plus, society is very well organised. We also have a tradition of living together with nature, an important aspect of Japanese life. We need to push this to the world, as for more than 1,000 years, we have been living with nature in Japan. Daily life and philosophies have evolved in harmony with nature. We see this in the traditional Japanese house, with its sliding paper walls and blurred boundaries. The architecture itself is very light: the garden and surrounding nature are the main focal points of a home. The built structure is part of a wider living environment and nature. So how can we integrate nature further into design? It’s not just about bringing greenery onto buildings – this is always nice, but it goes beyond that.

The important point about nature is that we cannot control it. In the 20th century, humanity set out to control everything – we learned this wasn’t possible. Earth is bigger than us. It has dynamism, power, diversity of animals and plants, and beautiful ecosystems. This moment in human history is an opportunity to open our minds – and sometimes be exposed to the uncontrollable. This is not a negative state because the uncontrollable is unpredictable, bringing inspirational surprises. Of course, sometimes we need to control nature, but we have to find a better balance between enjoying it, embracing its surprising aspects and living in harmony with it.

The pandemic is the perfect example. Until the last century, we developed and built a very efficient system for society – this was important but maybe too controlling. It had a hugely negative impact on nature, Earth – and humankind. We can see this in our buildings. We have tried to make buildings as functional as possible – but if you make them too functional, it limits people’s minds and ultimately their lives. Human life is like nature: it is flexible and ambiguous. If humans try too hard to control everything, they create negative pressure – we need space for freedom.

Having spent a lot of time in Paris, I admire European countries – there, society is based on the idea of individual freedom. In Japan of course we have this – but the idea of harmony in society is also very important, so people often repress their personal freedom and follow societal consensus. This can be both positive and negative.

Japan is becoming more diverse – but the economy is not in a good state and Japanese society unfortunately tends to become more conservative when this happens. Having said that, there are still many visionary individuals – many of my clients, for example, are founders of companies trying to do something different and more suitable for the future and the Earth. I am interested in how we can combine the ideas of “diversity” and “unity”. We need to enhance diversity – but avoid people being divided and clustered against one another. We should help create a sense of unity, with interactive relationships between different points of view and attitudes.

This is discussed in the masterplan at the Osaka Expo. This is extremely important in light of a very divided and complex global situation. As humans, we need to be generous – and accept different values and viewpoints and the fact that people are uncontrollable, just like nature. Otherwise, we will never finish fighting one another. The first quarter of this century has witnessed huge revolutionary changes – not just physical, in the form of wonderful design products, but also conceptual. Now, people understand the importance of public spaces – places for gathering. We need to slow down.

One way to explore this dynamic is through materials. Over the next 50 years, biotechnology – which hovers somewhere between nature and artefacts – will become increasingly important in architecture. Architectural revolutions have always gone hand-in-hand with materials. Modern architecture was established on steel, concrete and large-sized glass. Now, wooden construction is coming back. This marks the start of a new phase. And biotechnology will be next. Can we use materials that have healing qualities, and that can self-renew?

The idea of localised design is also becoming more important. Since last year, I’ve been on the advisory board for the Serpentine Pavilion’s selection of architects. Their global research into what is happening around the world is fascinating. It is exciting to see so many architectural trials underway, based on different cultures, traditional materials and climate situations. Younger generations seem proud of their countries and cultures and are increasingly trying to develop unique answers for the future. It's localised but universal.

One region that many will be watching in 2025 – not only for its political developments but in terms of creative growth – is the Middle East. We have several projects underway in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The region seems to be passionately active in developing architecture and design, with many global architects involved. No one knows how this will unfold, but it’s an exciting time, it feels like a place where the boundaries are being pushed in unexpected directions.

I’m curious and optimistic about changes brought by AI technology in the creative industries. In our studio, AI makes us look at what we are doing – it’s like a reflective mirror, generating drawings and images which pose the question to ourselves: ‘Is this Fujimoto?’ We understand this may or may not be part of our creations – what is most important is the discussion it activates. It’s through conversations that I find new ideas or new meanings to existing ideas. I feel this technology can stimulate creativity. However, many ideas originate from the human form. This physical body experience reflects our thinking and philosophies. For now, AI doesn’t have a body – so I am curious, if they obtain knowledge and data about the body, can they think about it like humans? Either way, I am optimistic – because if different ideas and perspectives emerge, this can be inspiring and interesting for us.

Finally, how does one connect all these ideas, thoughts and places together? For me, it comes back to the forest. This idea of a conceptual forest can be an architectural model for the future. It is timely and timeless – and as the world continues to change and surprise us, I hope that younger generations can understand the beauty of trying to create a world where there is harmony between diversity and unity, humans and nature – just like a forest.

sou-fujimoto.net

Welcome to Wallpaper’s annual Design Awards issue, a fixture of our editorial calendar (this is its 21st year), but also a hugely valuable, time-stamped appraisal of the very best the world has to offer in terms of fashion, technology, architecture, interiors, travel and art.

As ever, the Wallpaper* team has been both avid in their appreciation and acute in their adjudication of each of our winners; mindful, too, that applying a ‘time stamp’ to achievement is necessarily limiting.

After all, truly great design isn’t for a month or a year, but has the potential to permanently alter our direction of travel, affecting lives in ways that might take a little time to comprehend. It’s with this in mind that we decided to shake up the awards process itself (and I would personally like to express gratitude to the 100-plus creatives who have, over two decades, lent their shoulder to the judging wheel) in order to bring a fresh perspective to our selections.

Choosing the Wallpaper* 2025 Design Award winners

Our editors have thus taken full ownership of this year’s winners’ enclosure, stipulating not only who won, but why and how they achieved their award.

To add further context, we asked five leading figures from across the creative industries to pen their own appraisal of what counts – and what doesn’t – in a world both buffeted by, and borne aloft on, seismic societal, technological and cultural change. I’d like to thank Es Devlin, Ilse Crawford, Lesley Lokko, Sou Fujimoto and Yves Behar for taking the time to share their thoughts, the Wallpaper* team for their diligence and insights, and all the winners for satisfying our insatiable appetite for the new, the novel and the next.

Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief

The February 2025 issue of Wallpaper* is available in print on newsstands from 9 January 2025, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The new art gallery Pace Tokyo brings together simplicity and cleanness; harmony and flow; humans and nature. These are words that crop up regularly in conversations with Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, who is behind the project.

Surrounded by layers of white and quietly soft curves, an Alexander Calder mobile hovering above his head, he says: 'I like to create real simplicity and cleanness. But this isn’t just a white box. There are subtle interventions that entirely change people’s experience in the space.'

Pace Tokyo: a minimalist gallery experience

Pace Tokyo is the influential US gallery’s first Japan outpost, joining spaces in art hot spots around the world, including New York, Seoul and London. The Tokyo gallery spans around 5,500 sq ft across three levels inside the landmark Azabudai Hills development, contained in an undulating low-rise flow of nature-wrapped structures by London-based Thomas Heatherwick.

For Fujimoto, the design hinges on respect for the art itself, he explains: 'The art pieces are the starting point. But the space is also very, very important.' Key to this is a quietly effective detail: all corners are softly curved, eliminating all angled lines. 'The idea was to create a sense of the experience continuing. There are no corners, it’s more like a flow, guiding visitors through the space,’ he says.

'This is an example of a subtle intervention that changes entirely the experience of people. The art gallery elements are quite minimal – but the moment you have a curved, rounded corner, it changes everything.'

Pace Tokyo’s journey begins at ground level. A glass-fronted space is accessed directly from Sakurada Dori, a new street running through Azabudai Hills – and stepping inside, Tokyo’s dynamic tempo immediately slows to a more contemplative rhythm.

While Pace Tokyo will officially open in September 2024 with a show by Californian artist Maysha Mohamedi, for its pre-opening, a curation of works by mainly overseas artists was presented – from a circular form by Torkwase Dyson to the light-reflecting greens of a CD sculpture by Tara Donovan.

Amid the art, Fujimoto’s layered minimism slowly shifts into focus – the blend of white-on-white and softly-rounded corners, plus one expanse of wall curved into the ceiling, evoking a temple-like atmosphere.

'This is Pace’s first time in Japan, so cleanness and simplicity are very important elements,' says Fujimoto. 'In Japanese culture, nothing is fixed. Everything is slowly moving and circulating – energy, wind, pictures, people’s lives are all harmonising and flowing.'

The atmosphere continues in the gallery’s upper two levels, self-contained and accessed via an internal Azabudai Hills escalator. The first floor is a key hub, with further layers of curved corners harmonised with white-stained wood floors alongside works by artists including Richard Pousette-Dart and Jules de Balincourt.

The centre stage is a highlight: the apparently floating form of a light-hanging staircase made up of geometric lines of thin white steel, creating a transparent connective flow to the top level. 'We didn’t want to block the view of the gallery,' says Fujimoto. 'So to make it transparent, we thought a hanging staircase would work best. It’s very thin and light and touches the floor at only two points underneath, so it is almost floating.'

'As everything is quite flat on the gallery surfaces, we thought the lines of the staircase would make a nice contrast and harmony. We wanted the experience of walking up to the top floor to be very special.' The top level has a more intimate atmosphere for meetings and events, with double-height ceilings and windows with minimalist white blinds, and a small kitchen area, flowing into an outdoor terrace.

Seated here, Fujimoto reflects on the cosmos of whites in his work: 'I don’t always stick to white. But it does have a beautiful meaning to me. I grew up in Hokkaido in northern Japan and in wintertime, there is snow and everything is completely white. At the same time, I learned throughout my childhood days that white is not just white – there are many different whites. That gives white an extra meaning to me. Also, in Japan, white has a special meaning – it’s pureness and paper and emptiness in a sense.'

Nature, another key ingredient in his creations, also manifests itself through the subtly of details. 'Japanese traditional culture always tries to reinterpret nature in its design. And every time subtleness has been key. It isn’t about a direct expression of nature in architecture – it’s more about designing the air itself. It’s not aggressive – everything is soft and simple and flowing.'

Highlighting the delicate balance that underpins a gallery space, he adds: 'Because this is a place for art and people, I didn’t want to make the architecture too expressive, too selfish – but at the same time, it should not step back too much. It should have a beautiful harmony and sense of co-existence – between architect, art and of course people. That’s why the subtle design details are really special and important.'

For Marc Glimcher, CEO of Pace Gallery – which is also currently staging an exhibition of Alexander Calder’s work in neighbouring Azabudai Hills Gallery – Fujimoto was a clear fit for understanding the sensitivities of designing a gallery: 'With Sou, it’s not about making a statement. He came up with simple idea to unspool the wall like a continuous scroll. It’s so simple but something I had never seen before.'

While Pace represents a cornucopia of Japanese artists, from Yoshitomo Nara and Kohei Nawa to teamLab, the new Tokyo gallery aims primarily to introduce overseas artists to Japanese audiences.

Highlighting the appeal of opening in Tokyo, Glimcher adds: 'Japanese aesthetic culture is one of few essential ingredients in the history of modernism. And then on the business side, by some measures, Tokyo is the biggest city in the world, it’s an incredibly rich city.

'A lot of people are drawn to the stability and beauty and amazing qualities and best food in the world in Tokyo. And in the last three years, everybody is coming to Tokyo.'

pacegallery.com

sou-fujimoto.net

This Sou Fujimoto temporary hall has all the ingredients of a Japanese fairy-tale: a floating forest on an oval roof, a flying plum tree and sacred textiles seen only by a deity. And after three years? It will disappear. This weekend, Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, a historic site in lush green Fukuoka in southern Japan, starts a new chapter in its 1,100-year history, with the opening of its project by architect Fujimoto. 

The new hall is a minimalist black structure with hints of a modern take on traditional shrine architecture, capped with an elliptical 'floating forest' roof. It features camphor, cherry and maple trees, plus flowering rhododendrons. Inside, sacred textiles are centre stage, designed by Japanese fashion brand Mame Kurogouchi and crafted by generations-old Kyoto artisans – the inner sides not viewable by human eyes, only the shrine’s deity.

Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine's Sou Fujimoto temporary hall

The new structure will stand in the inner sanctum of Dazaifu Tenmangu for three years before being dismantled. It will be operational while the main shrine building is renovated for the first time in 124 years.

'With this project, we were faced with the important question of how modern architecture can respond to a history of 1,100 years,' says Fujimoto. 'We thought about the rich nature that surrounds Dazaifu Tenmangu and the traditions of the shrine – and approached the design with a conscious desire to pass these onto the future.'

'We started this over two years ago. It was a challenge creating a temporary building which is both traditional and modern, while also continuing into the future. It’s very simple but it carries a long, important history.'

The history of Dazaifu Tenmangu

The shrine was built 1,121 years ago upon the grave of Sugawara Michizane, a legendary ninth century poet, scholar and politician who was exiled to Dazaifu from Kyoto. After his death he was recognised as Tenjin, the Shinto deity of learning, culture and the arts.

Fujimoto’s temporary hall is the latest in more than a millennium of creative activities for Dazaifu Tenmangu. The shrine is historically renowned as a cultural sanctuary for learning, with 10 million visitors a year. It is celebrated for its contemporary arts projects, with installations by Ryan Gander and Simon Fujiwara scattered among its ancient grounds.

The shrine’s nature-rich setting is also famously home to a special plum tree, just next to the main hall, which, according to legend, flew there from Sugawara’s Kyoto garden, having missed its exiled owner.

Explaining the floating forest, Fujimoto adds: 'Its concept derives from the legend of the flying plum tree. Plum trees and other plants seem to fly here and dance, creating the roof of the deity’s dwelling. They will change colour as the climate and seasons shift.'

Simplicity underpins the clean-lined form of the matte black steel structure, open on three sides. Elements of traditional shrine architecture are filtered through a contemporary prism – from thin black poles echoing ancient wooden columns to the gentle curvature of its louvered black wood ceiling, inspired by the shrine’s taruki rafters, creating a sense of 'spatial solemnity,' as Fujimoto puts it.

Cut into the roof is a deep circular skylight, resulting in a shaft of light hitting the floor in front of visitors praying at its threshold, the shadows of rooftop trees flickering across the hole’s inner light grey walls. 

Spanning 13m across the hall is Mame Kurogouchi’s sacred curtain, called a mitobari, made by 19th century Kyoto-based Kawashima Selkon. Delicately-etched plum tree branches flow across five panels of subtly shifting shades, from airy pale pink to light green. The inner side, out of sight of visitors, was designed for the deity Tenjin.

At either end are two textile screens known as kicho, with vividly abstract natural scenes inspired by iris flowers, plum blossoms and an ancient camphor tree at the shrine’s entrance, inside which Maiko Kurogouchi, the brand’s designer, sheltered during a rain shower. 

Organic shades of purples and greens wash across the intricate silk textiles, crafted by Kyoto’s kimono textile makers Hosoo, who used natural dyeing ingredients made from the shrine’s camphor and plum trees plus rare gromwell root.

Surfaces are textured with vertical threads typically seen on the reverse side of textiles – an organic blurring of inside and out also found in her fashion collections – evoking a visual sense of rain falling and time flowing.

'When I create my collections, fabric design comes after designing clothes,' Kurogouchi says. 'But this time, everything was about the fabric. It allowed me to work on a larger form of expression. I asked Hosoo to combine modern weaving looms with their own ancient dyeing technique, to create a work that represents the times we live in now. The designs and materials incorporate a plum motif that symbolises the shrine, as well as memories of the chief priest’s family.'

She adds: 'All these elements are merged in the landscape of my memory. I hope visitors will feel the energy and calmness of life in the shrine – and find their own landscape to create unique memories.'

The main shrine hall will undergo extensive renovations, including a new hiwada bark roof and lacquering, before reopening in 2026.

Nobuhiro Nishitakatsuji, the chief priest, adds: 'The temporary hall design, conceived with a deep respect for tradition and the rich nature of the shrine grounds, is very much in harmony with the architectural appearance of the shrine.'

sou-fujimoto.net 

dazaifutenmangu.or.jp 

The highly anticipated House of Music in Hungary has opened its doors. The new, leading European cultural venue, designed by the renowned Japanese architecture studio of 2022 Wallpaper* Design Awards judge Sou Fujimoto, not only represents a striking new landmark for the country, but it also is the architect’s very first completed, permanent, new-build in the continent. Dedicated to music in Budapest and built as part of the Liget Budapest Project, the House of Music is now ‘Europe’s largest and most ambitious, multiple award-winning urban cultural development’, say its creators; and it’s opening its doors to the public today (23 January 2022). 

The structure is clearly defined by its distinctive, undulating roof. Far from being just an aesthetic decision or an architectural whim, this element is carefully designed to host a range of interactive musical experiences. Located within Budapest’s green City Park, the venue’s volume formation references trees and the natural canopy of foliage and forests. A glass façade – reaching a soaring 12m high in places – mirrors the verdant surroundings and makes for a light presence that directs the eye upwards, towards the ceiling. There, ‘30,000 decorative tree leaves [are] set in the suspended ceiling and secured in place by a steel structure made out of 1,000 honeycomb-shaped elements’.

Inside, concert halls (featuring cutting-edge aural design by Nagata Acoustics, the studio behind similar centres such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, and Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg) and music venues of different scales and types are complemented by exhibition space that is planned to tell stories around the history of European music (the first foray into the field will showcase the history of Hungarian pop music from 1957 to 1993). Three interior levels provide ample opportunity to celebrate music in various forms – from the lower ground display areas, to the ground floor performance spaces and finally, that roof, inside which music playing meets education in state-of-the-art learning facilities. 

A range of renewable energy strategies, such as geothermal sources, create strong eco credentials for the new House of Music, which was designed around respectful, sustainable architecture principles. Some 100 holes of various sizes perforate the roof, connecting this building to its natural surroundings in more ways than one, allowing air and light to enter the building and filter through to the ground floor in a pleasant, semi-open architectural arrangement.

‘We were enchanted by the multitude of trees in the City Park and inspired by the space created by them. Whilst the thick and rich canopy covers and protects its surroundings, it also allows the sun’s rays to reach the ground. I envisaged the open floor plan, where boundaries between inside and outside blur, as a continuation of the natural environment,’ says Sou Fujimoto.

INFORMATION

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With several large projects underway, both in his native Japan and abroad, Sou Fujimoto has been busy; which made his input all the more valuable for this year’s Judges’ Awards, the highest honours of the Wallpaper* Design Awards.

His wide-ranging experience and thinking is reflected in the breadth and depth of his architectural work. His recently completed House of Hungarian Music, in Budapest, will not only provide a long overdue place to learn and enjoy everything about the country’s musical scene and traditions, but will also serve as a hub for the local community to meet and enjoy music among the lush greenery of the surrounding park. In Japan, his design for a new university in Hida-Takayama (to be completed in 2024) is already drawing both local and international acclaim, and will help to propel this small, rural part of the mountainous Gifu Prefecture on to the world stage. He is also designing a learning centre for the University of St Gallen in Switzerland and has been appointed as the master planner of the 2025 Osaka Expo.

Having received his own fair share of accolades since he started the Japanese architecture studio Sou Fujimoto Architects in 2000 (including several Wallpaper* Design Awards), Fujimoto believes these recognitions are vital to an architect’s career: ‘Receiving an award motivates me and makes me want to work even harder. Awards usually mean that someone appreciates your work.’

Softly spoken and often smiling, Fujimoto is modest about his own role as a professional in the architecture field. ‘As an architect, you need to collaborate not just with many stakeholders but also with existing surroundings. You need to understand the context, the cultural background and the history of the place. So we need to be very modest and listen to all these different voices,’ he explains.

In his eyes, the main job of an architect is to take a rather complex situation and create a clear strategy forward. Basic research is always crucial in any project, but even more so is the inspiration he gets for conversations with key stakeholders on all the projects he is involved in. 

So what was he looking for as one of our judges? ‘I look at how the architecture is reacting to its context and how it brings value and makes the surroundings better. I also like to see something inventive, something new. Of course we should keep aesthetics in mind, too. Not just beautiful in the traditional sense of the word, but I like it when something might help to define a new kind of beauty or bring joy to people using the building or product.’

From this year’s nominees, he picked out the ‘Forite’ tiles, by Studio Plastique, Snøhetta and Fornace Brioni, as an example of something he considers to be good design. ‘Reinterpreting something as basic as a material is very important I think. And these tiles are very beautiful too,’ he says. The tiles, which are made from recycled glass from ovens and microwaves, come in two different sizes, and each features a unique pattern resulting from its individual recycling process. Fujimoto himself does not have a lot of experience with developing new materials yet, but it is an area he hopes to explore in the near future. The environmental impact of architecture is also an aspect of the profession he hopes to be able to push forward in Japan in the coming years.

While he believes in calculating the environmental impact of architecture, he is perhaps more interested in creating spaces and environments that invite people to interact and experience nature and, as such, become more aware of their surroundings. He explains: ‘For me, changing mindsets through environmental or architectural design is something I consider very important.’ 

As for his dream project? ‘I am increasingly interested in how to integrate communities by thinking about architecture, the urban landscape and transportation as a whole. Not on a huge urban planning scale, but more on a small village or neighbourhood level.’ If anyone is looking for someone to design a small village, Fujimoto is sure to be able to deliver a reinvented version of a small community. Maybe a contestant for next year's awards?

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sou-fujimoto.net

The Wallpaper* Design Awards 2022 are revealed in full in the Feburary issue, on newsstands. Subscribe today!

Dr Yael Reisner describes beauty as a ‘taboo’ word in architecture and design, even though people use it frequently in daily life. She traces its unfashionable nature back to the 20th century where – amidst modernism, manufacturing and standardisation – function overtook form.

‘Beauty is a word that many associate with shallowness, old world and non-progressive values. This has created a cultural bias against beauty that has lasted nearly 80 years,’ she says.

At the Estonian Architecture Museum, the main location of the biennial, Reisner decided to take the opportunity to rebrand beauty, and discuss how it could be used productively and critically to strengthen architecture. She selected eight ‘socially engaged’ architects to help her, looking at the topic through the lens of habitation.

Addressing why ‘Beauty Matters’ (the title of the biennial), pavilion-like contributions from each architecture studio also unpack themes of domesticity, nature and evolution along the way. Master of experimental space and unique responses to housing, Sou Fuijimoto constructs the ‘Open Cave’ an abstract collection of timber cubes inspired by ‘primitive house units’ that pile up organically forging flexible interiors to fit any urban context.

Also working with timber, Melbourne-based March Studio built a vertical village of sliding cuboids that each represents a type of living space, from an apartment to a vegetable garden and swimming pool. Barnaby Gunning in collaboration with Reisner creates a softer space out of laser cut felt that incorporates a growing wall, exploring how a manmade habitat could itself grow. Modular and evolutionary, these works are all evocative of how architecture could mimic the patterns of nature flourishing.

The exhibition concept is based on a ‘street of tomorrow’ – but instead of concrete towers or brick walls, efficient urban plans or smooth roads, this street is defined by 40 birch trees that have been transported into the gallery, and a vast backdrop of a forest, photographed by Andre Masik. Listen up and you’ll hear a soundscape by musicians Nathan and Jacob Tulve that imagines a future where technology – electric cars, scooters and delivery robots – is silent, and natural sounds are magnified. ‘It is a vision so different from the Metropolis of the 80s,’ says Reisner.

Is beauty evolutionary? Can it be defined neurologically?

As well as nature, is beauty evolutionary? Or can it be defined mathematically or neurologically? Taylor Enoch, PhD candidate at University College London researching aesthetics, neuroaesthetics and philosophy of art, drove a convincing discussion on just that for the opening symposium of the biennial. He carefully distilled how the feeling of beauty is received by the brain, concluding: ‘Beauty is finding order in an otherwise disorderly world.’

Biennial participants, Kadri Kerge, Elena Manferdini and Kadarik Tüür, each took an element of urban disorder and solved it through their contributions. Kerge designed a smoothly curving apartment with a light-filled central atrium for new types of families born from divorced parents – a growing statistic in Estonia. Meanwhile LA-based Manferdini beautified a tram stop with augmented reality flowerbed wallpaper.

Estonian architects Ott Kadarik and Mihkel Tüür bring to life a dystopian, but very real, prefab high-rise housing district outside Tallinn with the idea of a ‘Utopian tick’  – a wooden vending kiosk covered in spray foam insulation and painted blue. The object socially animates the neighbourhood, and is played out in a brilliantly intriguing and layered narrative set in a future where people farm insects, there is an anxiety epidemic, robots overtake humans and technical glitches destroy agricultural economies.

While the prefab housing districts were a product of 20th century technology and design, what of the 21st century? As architects and engineers continue to experiment with new materials and robotics, we are yet to truly discover what effect 21st century construction technology will have on the aesthetics of architecture on an urban scale.

How is digital design affecting beauty? 

Another one of Reisner’s questions to be answered. Enter Space Popular (Fredrik Hellberg and Lara Lesmes) architect and VR hybrids exploring the limits between the physical and virtual through architecture and design. For their ‘pavilion’ they researched the history of media and communication in the home, pondering what might happen to domestic architecture and interiors as a result.

Space Popular’s ‘Venn Room’ explores these overlapping meeting points – a typical Tallinn apartment meets a virtual millennial pad – while proposing a near-future timeline of technological advancement. ‘When we step into virtual world, we don’t leave behind our physical bodies,’ they say.

As humans, we have our own perceptions of beauty – one person’s beloved clutter is not to the taste of a minimalist who finds beauty in simplicity. Philosopher Graham Harman, author of Object-oriented Ontology: a new theory of everything, balanced the ‘objective’ neuro-scientific analysis of beauty with ideas of phenomenology. ‘The opposite of beauty is literalism,’ he said. ‘Ambiguity is a powerful tool in our cognitive tool box.

Personal definitions of beauty

Instead of exploring what beauty is, Vienna-based SOMA (Stefan Rutzinger and Kristina Schinegger) explore what it means to them – ‘when things fall into place’, and the cycle of renewal and decay. Inspired by the steadily decomposing brutal form of the Linnahall – a Soviet theatre in Tallinn designed as a gateway between the city and the sea – they inserted a free-form digitally-designed habitat into a formal geometric structure. The design seeks to unite the processes of renewal in decay in one form.

The digital and the physical meet in Paula Strunden’s ‘Mixed reality’ work that combines VR with material fragments from each pavilion, combining tactility with a virtual space. Wandering around the 5 by 5 m space wearing a VR headset, you hold your hand out to touch a fragment, from which a virtual space ‘flourishes’.

In this digitally built world, beauty has new definitions. And we are slowly adapting to them – you may have caught yourself admiring a digital colour gradient recently, perhaps developing an interest in post-internet art, appreciating the texture of a sprayed-on insulation. Perhaps the biennial doesn’t find the definition of beauty, but it definitely puts a good case forward for why beauty matters.

INFORMATION

tab.ee

Sailing into Montpellier from the Mediterranean means meandering along the River Lez. Along the way you’ll pass a number of eye-catching white buildings, such as the giant laser gun-shaped Place de la Méditerranée; the Arènes de Palavas-les-Flots stadium; the sweeping crescent of the Esplanade d'Europe and maybe the pyramids of La Grande-Motte, if you came in from the East.

And now a new structure is set to compete for your gaze: L’Arbre Blanc, or, ‘The White Tree’, in English. The 17-storey ‘tree' of apartments rises up from a row of real riverside trees, boasting an array of balconies, which sprout out from its portly core.

L’Arbre Blanc is the work of four architects: Sou Fujimoto, Manal Rachdi, Nicolas Laisné and Dimitri Roussel. The foursome came together after Montpellier city council launched a design competition in 2013, which eyed a ‘beacon tower’ coming from a team comprising a young architect working with an experienced practitioner. Seeing their chance, Rachdi, Laisné and Roussel — who run OXO Architectes, Nicolas Laisné Architects and DREAM Architecte in Paris respectively — reached out to Fujimoto in Tokyo. The Japanese architect says it was the ‘honest, respectful and truly enthusiastic’ approach of the French team that convinced him to join them.

From there, a series of workshops took place in Tokyo. ‘Feelings and understanding of the site' were shared, continues Fujimoto. Montpellier is bathed in sunshine 300 days of the year. The solution? Balconies and mini pergolas — and lots of them. Arranged in almost chaotic fashion, they service the building’s 113 apartments, ground floor art gallery and bar and resident common area at the top. As a result, each apartment has a minimum of 7 sq m outdoor space, which can be furnished. The biggest (duplex) apartments boast 35 sq m, the façade’s dazzling visual complexity being furthered with these apartment’s balconies being divided onto numerous levels and being connected via external stairs.
 
Fujimoto, meanwhile, was keen to stress that the tree metaphor was not the project’s starting point. ‘The tree is more of an associated image that came after the project was conceived' he said, adding that the natural form came about through catering to users’ needs, something which produced a building ‘close to a sort of plant, or a tree, spreading in the air, reaching to the sun.'

INFORMATION

sou-fujimoto.net; nicolaslaisne.com; dream.archi; oxoarch.com

Tracing the development of residential architecture in Japan since 1945, a new exhibition opening today at MAXXI in Rome brings together the projects by over 30 Japanese architects. Alongside works by filmmakers and artists, ‘The Japanese House: Architecture & Life after 1945’ explores the relevance of the home to the cultural landscape of the nation and beyond.

Unable to masterplan larger housing schemes due to the country's dire postwar economy, local architects defined the decades following 1945 in Japan by creating smaller, single dwellings that were built and demolished at equal rates. Life-sized representations of fragments from milestone pieces of architecture, such as the now demolished House U by Toyo Ito and Shigeru Ban’s temporary emergency shelter structures, provide insight into the range of projects from that time.

Soon, family homes became the building blocks of Japan’s iconic urban landscape; hybrid vehicles of the developing relationship between tradition and modernity. Kenzo Tange’s 1951 modularly structured Wooden Houses were based around the tatami room and its central position in the traditional Japanese home. The timber structures, built with indigenous wood, remain loyal to the country's traditions, while experimenting with modernity. Similarly, Kiyonori Kikutake’s stilted concrete Sky House from 1958, combined shapes from nature with contemporary architectural engineering. Homes such as these pioneered the domestic space as a progressive philosophical zone.

Curated by Pippo Ciorra, MAXXI's senior curator of architecture, the exhibition was born from an idea of Kenjiro Hosaka, curator of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, co-founder of Atelier Bow-Wow. It also includes alternative representations of residences from the period, such as videos and manga, switching up the perspective from architect, to dweller, to dreamer, and finding a way to exhibit the complex creative relationship between the Japanese house and popular culture.

INFORMATION
’The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945’ is on view until 26 February 2017. For more information, visit the MAXXI Rome website

ADDRESS

Via Guido Reni 4A
00196 Rome

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For his newest project in Hong Kong, Ronald Akili, co-owner of Jakarta-based hospitality outfit PTT Family, briefed Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto to design the 750 sq m space as if it were a home.

The result brings a rare dose of authenticity to the venue, where comfort and style trumps transaction with a creative medley of spaces that includes a minimalist coffee counter that serves up tasty brews and freshly baked croissants from local brand I Love You So; a small retail space with a carefully curated range of artisanal homewares; and a casual beach-vibe bar facing a relaxed lounge café with communal tables. Further within, the more formal Kaum restaurant focuses on traditional Indonesian fare and a ‘hidden’ state-of-the-art music room and listening space for the hip audiophile notches up the cool factor even more.

Although Fujimoto’s intriguing façade – semi-transparent windows with geometric white patterns – are a nod to Hong Kong’s traditional metal gates, Potato Head’s interiors are unmistakably Indonesian, sporting an earthy palette of natural materials, hanging plant boxes, and walls and ceilings sheathed in hundreds of traditional handmade carved and painted timber panels. Furnishings meanwhile are an eclectic mix of mid-century antiques and custom-designed Indonesian pieces.

The unpretentious menu served both in Kaum and in the bar  is created by chef Antoine Audran and gastronomy activist Lisa Virgiano and focuses on tapas-style gourmet bites inspired by tribal cuisines across the Indonesian archipelago. We particularly liked the Kookaburra cocktail, an exotic blend of lemongrass gin and homemade vanilla sugar, fresh mint and lime, topped with passion fruit with vanilla foam.

INFORMATION
Website

ADDRESS

100 Third Street

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For its latest architecture exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has set its focus on a group of contemporary Japanese architects. The museum’s first-ever presentation dedicated entirely to practitioners from the country, the show – ‘A Japanese Constellation’, which opens this weekend – includes work from Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima, SANAA, Ryue Nishizawa, Sou Fujimoto, Akihisa Hirata and Junya Ishigami.

The ‘constellation’ in the title is not there by any accident. For a profession that has become so preoccupied with ‘starchitects’, the exhibition aims to undo that narrow focus on individual genius. Instead, it casts a group of contemporaries not just as luminaries unto themselves, but also as peers who share in the same gravitational pull. So even though they all head offices that bear their names, they also engage in a unique way of co-operating. Take SANAA, for example. The show includes independent work from its two principals – Sejima and Nishizawa – but also those projects on which they worked as a partnership.

The exhibition begins with an unfolding of Ito’s work, and as the show demonstrates, all of the included architects have shared in his orbit. ‘When we started to conceptualise the show several years ago, we thought it would be a monographic show about Toyo Ito,’ explains MoMA director Glenn D Lowry. ‘But, as it turned out, Ito was more interested in this network of relationships he had with other architects.’ So, as Lowry put it during a walk-through, ‘the exhibition endeavors to trace this network’.

The show’s curator, Pedro Gadanho (now the director of Lisbon’s Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology), finds in the work another through-line in addition to the collegiality catalysed by Ito. ‘All of them are pursuing an artistic endeavor,’ he explains. Even as he points out the complex engineering that each of the projects demanded, he reads the final outcome as something other than utilitarian buildings. ‘These architects work beyond the functionalist dogma that characterizes modernist architecture.’

‘A Japanese Constellation’ includes 44 projects, represented through models, photographs and drawings. An accompanying catalogue provides a robust treatment of those projects along with a series of essays. 

INFORMATION

’A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA and Beyond’ opens on 13 March and is on view until 4 July. For more details, please visit MoMA’s website

All images courtesy of the architects and MoMA

ADDRESS

MoMA
11 W 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019

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2

Models at Hussein Chalayan’s Paris show who took a shower on the catwalk, allowing their soluble clothes to melt away

12

BMX bikers and professional skateboarders catching some air on the ramps at Jimmy Choo’s menswear show, held inside a London leisure centre

19

Giant Roman arches on the Kenzo catwalk with models sweeping through on a conveyor belt

80

Crushed cars, 12 motorcycles popping wheelies, one monster truck, two spinning cop cars and two BMWs exploding into flames at Philipp Plein’s men’s show

20

A-listers playing blackjack and roulette at Chanel’s casino set in Paris’ Grand Palais shows

3

Lifesized fake carwashes, featuring fluffy rotating brushes and bubble machines, on Jeremy Scott’s runway at Moschino

700

Plexiglas panelshanging from the ceiling at the Prada men’s show      

200

Metres of carpet printed with snakes and roses and 14 bespoke upholstered screens on the catwalk at Gucci

30

Buddhist monks, in matching red robes, chanting before the start of Prabal Gurung’s women’s show

100,000

People who attended New York fashion week versus 2.4 million people who live-streamed the shows at home

1

Designer down during a post-show runway lap: Tommaso Aquilano, of Aquilano Rimondi, tripped and face-planted in Milan

820

Free tickets that Givenchy gave to the public on a first-come, first-served basis to its women’s show in New York

12

Strong, female, professional dancers carrying other women like backpacks and papooses at the Rick Owens’ show

7

Earth mountains created by artist Maya Lin for Phillip Lim’s New York show

50

Oriental rugs hanging from the ceiling of the harem-like show space at Antonio Marras

136

Digital ‘windows’ flashing videos of clouds, rain storms, blue skies, lights and models walking at the Canali men’s show

17

Miniature outfits hanging on a lifesized fake tree installed inside Milan’s 18th century Palazzo Clerici for Agnona

10

Colour-blocked tents created by Danish artist FOS for Phoebe Philo’s Céline show

17

Miniature outfits hanging on a lifesized fake tree installed inside Milan’s 18th century Palazzo Clerici for Agnona

3

Giant robots who dressed models on a conveyor belt after Courtney Love had performed Celebrity Skin at Philipp Plein’s women’s show

120

Lucky guests treated to a private dance performance by six Michael Clark Company dancers wearing Pringle menswear at Galleria Sozzani in Milan

6

Hours for carpenters to build a lifesized section of Sou Fujimoto’s House N inside Paris’ Grand Palais for Akris

 16

Oars on each of the two boats at the rowing-inspired Moncler Gamme Bleu men’s show

4

Mariachi singers belting out songs during Brian Atwood’s presentation at Milan’s Museo Bagatti Valsecchi

40

Bare-chested men, in knee-high socks and shiny shoes, reading newspapers in deckchairs in the courtyard before the Berluti show

20,000

Gallons of water to fill the mini lagoon in which the models frolicked at Tommy Hilfiger’s New York show

300

LED water lilies on the runway at Giorgio Armani  

8.5

Height in feet of the giant Balthus cat on the runway at Arthur Arbesser’s show in Milan. It was later cut into three pieces and taken home by the Austrian designer

1

Cheeky selfie taken by Alexander Wang in front of a pool of water during his final show for Balenciaga

3,000

Electric blue delphiniums planted on a temporary hill (that took 30 days to build) in the middle of the Louvre’s Cour Carrée for the Dior show

40

Models at Dolce & Gabbana who took to the runway with cellphones in hand, snapping selfies

Reinventing.Paris, an ambitious architectural competition aiming to carry out what the French capital's Mayor Anne Hidalgo calls 'an urban experiment on an unparalleled scale', just had its winners announced. Making innovation its key requirement, the contest challenged participants to push the boat on every level, be it building program, shapes or management strategies. 

The historical city has reinvented itself time and again over the centuries and now is seeking solutions that would respond to our evolving urban lifestyles; buildings that allow for flexible 'hybrid' use; new work practices, cutting-edge services and retail concepts; sharing and intelligent energy production.  

The scheme spans 23 sites owned by the city or by social housing agencies, which would help facilitating future implementation of the winning schemes. Scattered across Paris, the sites include abandoned or underused facilities, a 15th-century mansion, a former public bath and a number of vacant spots. Just like in nose-to-tail cooking, Paris wants to consider using every available urban bit, be it roof, basement, or a waste lot by the ring road. 

Constructive dialogue is vital for this ambitious project to happen. The competition brief made this clear right from the start. Submissions had to be made by teams in which different professionals got together at the concept development stage. This gave rise to collaborations between architects, investors, developers, contractors, but also researchers, chefs, nightclub managers, NGOs, local residents and urban farmers. The equally diverse competition jury comprised architects, politicians, innovative entrepreneurs, and scientists from various domains.

Biodiversity and the 'productive city' were among the central concepts investigated by the winners. The most striking examples include X-TU architects' project that features facades acting as a micro-algae-based bioreactor; a design by Sou Fujimoto and Manal Rachdi that places a whole green village above the ring road; and DGT architects' scheme in which everything about healthy food, from production to consumption, is gathered in a tower 'grown' out of an abandoned train station.

We may have to wait a few years to see these buildings complete, but the winning designs, along with the other proposals that made it to the first stage of the Reinventing.Paris competition – some 358 from over 800 entries – can now be seen in a multimedia exhibition at the Pavillon de l'Arsenal until 8 May.

INFORMATION

For more information on Reinventing.Paris visit the website

Reinventing.Paris will be on show at the Pavillion de l'Arsenal until 8th May 2016

ADDRESS

Pavilion de l'Arsenal
21, Bld Morland
75004 Paris
France

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This project will occupy the last oceanfront site in Miami's Bal Harbour area. The all-star design team working on the development includes architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Arquitectonica, Italian designer Piero Lissoni and landscape designer Enzo Enea.

In our last Miami survey we unveiled a booming city, effortlessly combining brand new world-class architecture with art and culture, attracting starchitects from all over the world, as well as many prominent local architects. Since then, Miami has only been going from strength to strength with key projects reaching completion but several more taking their place in the Florida city's construction roaster.

The Perez Art Museum by Herzog and de Meuron was not the only prestigious new addition in town. Rene Gonzalez's shimmering Glass residences received their finishing touches this month, while Sou Fujimoto's Palm Court retail complex opened earlier this year at the Miami Design District. MDD has now entered its Phase III and the construction of twenty new buildings, slated for completion by August 2016. Meanwhile, the Faena District has been fast progressing with the Faena Hotel Miami Beach gearing up for inauguration later this year and Faena Forum by OMA swiftly following suite in early 2016.

Even more architecture schemes are still underway, including not only seaside condos - a Miami staple - but also many cultural and commercial ventures. Grimshaw Architects' Museum of Science is currently in construction, with the estimated completion date set for the summer of 2016. Similarly, Fernando Romero's Latin American Art Museum design is being built in Downtown Miami, on track for a 2017 completion. 

Renzo Piano, Herzog and de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, BIG and OMA are all involved in different residential projects around town - not to mention the new offerings by prominent local architects, such as Gonzalez and Arquitectonica. Take a tour of our pick of the city's most highly anticipated current projects, set to change the shape of Miami's skyline.   

What once was the city's famous Bal Harbour Club will now become the Oceana Bal Harbour luxury residential development, comprising 240 elegant units

The complex's penthouse designs have just been unveiled. The scheme is scheduled for completion in the autumn of 2016.

The Residences by Armani/Casa will be the Armani Group's first real estate project in the US. The 56-storey tower will sit right by the Miami oceanfront

Designed by Cesar Pelli, the scheme will include 308 luxury residences with interiors designed by Armani/Casa 

Zaha Hadid's first-ever skyscraper in the Western hemisphere, the One Thousand Museum, is currently underway in Miami

Come 2017, One Thousand Museum's iconic, sculptural form, will stand out within downtown Miami's skyline

Located in the city's cultural hub, with the new Perez art museum nearby, the project combines art, architecture and fine interior design, with prime location and luxury services

Designed by FR-EE/Fernando Romero Enterprise, the Latin American Art Museum (LAAM) was conceived to promote Latin American Art within the USA and aims to improve the relations between the two regions

Situated within a residential complex of 111 apartments which will be built later, the museum aims to act as meeting point for both residents and visitors

 It is currently under construction, looking at a 2017 completion

Currently the largest private-sector project under construction in Miami, the Brickell City Centre designed by Arquitectonica is a Downtown Miami mixed-used development that aims to be sustainable in both its choice of material and its construction and operation systems. It is set to complete by the end of 2015

Palazzo Del Sol is the first new construction on Fisher Island - the legendary private island resort community off Miami Beach - since 2007. The project, a 10-storey structure of 47 residential units, combines the traditional grandeur of an Italian palazzo, with a modern twist

Designed by architect Kobi Karp and Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea, the project will include outdoor living spaces and exclusive six-star, white glove services. Construction started in Spring 2014 and is set to complete in January 2016

Bringing the seaside to the city, Biscayne Beach is a 399-unit luxury condominium tower. It includes the first private, members-only beach club, consisting of an elevated manmade sandy beach with private cabanas, premium amenities and bay-side piers for swimming, kayaking, and paddle boarding

Designed by WHLC Architecture and BC architects, it is in the sought-after East Edgewater neighbourhood. It is set to complete in 2016

Providing much needed space for art, greenery, shade and pedestrians, the Related Group and Arquitectonica have designed a brand new public walkthrough for the city - the Biscayne Line

If built, it will run the entire length of Edgewater's Bayfront

The Biscayne Line, which is currently awaiting planning permission, intends to completely transform the entire waterfront experience

Split into four distinct parts, the Living Core Aquarium, the Innovation Centre, the Exploration Centre and the Frost Planetarium, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science will offer visitors a unique state-of-the-art facility designed by Grimshaw Architects

The project is at the moment about half way through construction

The museum is set to open to the public in summer 2016

Brickell Flatiron is one of the latest additions to Miami's skyline. Located in one of the city's most vibrant neighbourhoods and soaring at over 700 feet, it is one of the tallest residential buildings in the area

Architect Luis Revuelta's 64-story design provides residents with an inspiring 360 panoramic view of Biscayne Bay and downtown Miami's shining Cityscape and is set to be completed by 2018

The impressive boutique beachfront condo Eighty Seven Park is the result of collaboration between internationally acclaimed architect Renzo Piano, West 8's planners and landscape designers and interior designers RDA1. Set on white sand and surrounded by a 35-acre public park, it provides a moment of peace and quiet among the bustle of Miami Beach. Currently under construction, it will be open to the public in 2017

Rising over 305 metres high, upon its completion, Skyrise will be the tallest structure in Florida. This state-of-the-art entertainment and retail complex will include a theatre, a ten seat-245-metre-high sky drop and a 183-metre controlled bungee jump. It will also host amenities such as observation decks, fine dinning restaurants, a ballroom, board rooms and several clubs and lounges offering breathtaking views of Miami. The design was created by Arquitectonica and construction is underway, on track for a 2018 completion

Covering over 5.2 acres, Park Grove is the brainchild of a first-time partnership between Terra group and the Related Group

The scheme's three distinctive residential towers are designed by Dutch architecture practice OMA

The project will include properties ranging from 2,500-3,500 square feet, a two-acre sculptural park and a smaller building with recreational amenities. Construction work has started and it is set to finish late 2017

Downtown Miami's last waterfront piece of land has been snapped up by the Melo Group. Designed by Arquitectonica, the 647-unit luxury condominium Aria by the Bay offers unobstructed views of iconic sites like Margaret Pace Park, Biscayne Bay and Miami Beach, and is expected to complete in 2017

In the heart of downtown Miami, the Miami World Centre currently stands as one of the largest urban real estate developments in the United States

The Miami World Centre includes world-class retail, hospitality and residential areas. Phase one of the project will be unveiled later in the year

In the heart of Miami's financial district, the SLS LUX tower by the Related Group will feature over 450 residences and 85 luxury suites designed by Arquitectonica with interiors by Yabu Pushelberg

With each guest given a private elevator leading straight to their apartment, and access to VIP amenities such as Limousine service and a private beach club, the project gives 'luxury' a new meaning. It will start welcoming guests in 2017

Celebrated Italian architect Piero Lissoni recently announced a new addition to his Ritz-Carlton Residences project at Miami Beach

The scheme now includes the world's first residential art studio, offering facilities for painting, sculpture work, ceramics, beadwork and more, and provides structured classes and an art focused library for residents. Construction work is underway and will be finished in 2016

Pritzker Prize winners Herzog & de Meuron recently launched Jade Signature, a new residential scheme for Miami's Sunny Isles Beach area. It is currently under construction with an expected completion date set at 2017

The cleverly designed high-rise features 360-degree ocean views and is conscious of its surrounding landscape

City Place Doral by Arquitectonica is an expansive new retail and residential development situated in the heart of the dynamic Miami-Dade County. Combining the vision of world-renowned architects, designers and artists, this project will feature over 600,000 square feet of up-scale retail space and over 1,000 exclusive residences. It is currently under construction and set to open in late 2016

The Gale Boutique Hotel and Residences will be situated steps away from Fort Lauderdale Beach between the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway. Garcia Stromberg has designed a hotel with 96 rooms and suites, and 128 exclusive condo units. Completion date is set for late 2016

The latest addition to the up-and-coming East Edge Water neighbourhood, GranParaiso is a scheme by The Related Group, designed by Arquitectonica

The 55-storey residential building is situated at the ten bay front acres that encompass the developer's Paraiso master planned community and will be unveiled in 2017

The 20-storey towers of Grove at Grand Bay emerge from the ground twisting at a 38-degree angle

The structure has wrap-around balconies that provide a prime panoramic view of the nearby marina and sailboat bays in Miami's Coconut Grove neighbourhood. Designed by BIG, the project will be completed in autumn 2015

Nestled within a part full of the city's famous art deco and mid-century architecture, the Louver House can be found at South of Fifth Street neighbourhood near Miami Beach. Rene Gonzale's design is enclosed by natural landscape of tropical vegetation and sandy beaches. The building is designed to reinterpret the surrounding vernacular designs in its layout and scale. It is expected to break ground by summer 2015

Part of the Miami Design District development, Museum Garage, curated by architect Terence Riley, will present art and design installations from Keenan/Riley, Work Architecture Company, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe and Jürgen Mayer-Hermann on five wildly different facades. Among them will be installations of real cars that jut out of the face of the building along with a front of interlocking puzzle pieces and Baroque motifs. Currently under construction, the completion date for this project has been set for August 2016

A separate building by LA architects Johnston Marklee, which will host luxury retail brands such as Jimmy Choo and Versace, is also underway as part of the Design District's Phase III

Meanwhile, more new designs by Aranda/Lasch...

...and Neri & Hu are currently in progress eslewhere in the Miami Design District

Studio Gang is working on a luxury residential building in the District. The project is under construction and set to open in 2017

Surf Club, a new Miami development by Fort Capital, will combine hospitality and residential in a building designed by Richard Meier and run by the Four Seasons

With a panoramic view of the Atlantic oceanfront on a 9-acre site, the project will incorporate two residential towers, a private membership club, and luxury amenities such as a spa and fitness centre, an expansive park and ocean-facing gardens

Construction has now topped out, and the Surf Club will gear up to welcome its first guests in spring 2016  

Miami's brand new Faena District has been progressing fast. The complex's Faena Hotel Miami Beach is scheduled to open in November this year, while OMA's Faena Forum is slated to swiftly follow, in early 2016. OMA is also behind the district's marina design

Danish-born, New York based architect Thomas Juul-Hansen's first luxury residential development in Miami, Three Hundred Collins, recently had its sales launch. The project, which includes 19 units across five storeys, is created for JMH Development and completion is slated for 2017

One of Miami's latest additions, the Elysee Residences is a 57-storey luxury boutique high-rise and the tallest condo in the city's Edgewater district. The architects are Arquitectonica, led by Bernardo Fort-Brescia, while French designer Jean-Louis Deniot looks after the lavish interiors. Groundbreaking is expected to start early next year, with completion to follow in 2018

One more project by Miami-based architecture firm Arquitectonica is set to rise fast in the last oceanfront parcel in Sunny Isles Beach. The Regalia tower is a 46-storey condo scheme that offers the luxury of just one residence per floor

Regalia's arrangement means that the project has just 39 high-spec, modern units available

Met Square, the final phase of this new development in downtown Miami, has just broken ground. The project is designed by Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates (NBWW). Its base will feature restaurants, shops and an 18-screen cinema - a 43-storey residential tower will sit above

Designed by Gustavo Spokoiny, LEED AP BD+C, Director of Design Development and Construction Administration for 13th Floor Investments, in collaboration with architectural and interior design firms Corwil Architects and The Design Agency, The Harbour is a 425-unit luxury development in North Miami Beach

The design was conceived to bring the outdoors in and uses natural materials and elements such as wood, water and flora

Albert Kriemler is fashion’s most architecture-obsessed designer. Nearly all of his shows for Swiss brand Akris glow with an architectural elan and many of his collections owe their inspiration to architects themselves.

Such was the case at Akris' recent S/S 2016 Paris show when Kriemler not just channelled, but actually collaborated with Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Fujimoto’s most famous works – from the Serpentine Pavilion to his House N and Naoshima Pavilion – were all plastered on Kriemler’s mood board backstage. Many of these ideas made their way onto actual fabric development and were even recreated in the life-sized show set modeled after House N.

Wallpaper*: Sou, how did you connect with Albert?
Sou Fujimoto: We met through a mutual friend, the photographer Iwan Baan. Then we just had a casual talk really about my architecture concept. He came to Japan to visit some of my projects. So then gradually he tried to reinterpret my architectural thinking into his fashion thinking.

Albert, how did you do that?
Albert Kriemler: What’s so great about Sou’s architecture is that you don’t only look at great, unexpected architecture but that you actually feel it. When I visited the Naoshima Pavilion, I’ll never forget that moment. It looked to me like a diamond, like a jewel so that inspired the collection. Fujimoto’s forest of music – the competition he won for the Budapest Music Hall – inspired a neck cut seam, but also a broderie anglaise. And two more houses, the finale dresses, I took from his own description – he said, "It’s funny the houses are silver covered and they had mirrored the nature and things." So I wanted the dresses to mirror that effect.

Sou, is this the first time you’ve jumped into fashion?
Sou Fujimoto: I designed a shop for Sacai a few years ago. But never a real fashion collaboration. Never. It is quite exciting because I am not a good fashion guy.

What are you wearing today?
Sou Fujimoto: Issey Miyake.

That makes you a fashion guy!
Sou Fujimoto: Well….[laughs]. Finally, through the conversations with Albert, I realised the strong similarity between fashion and architecture. They both create something between the human body and the world. Transparency, translucence or opaqueness – previously, I was only thinking of these themes on an architectural scale. So this opened the door to another realm.

Tell us about the show set?
Sou Fujimoto: The motif is a House N, one of my private houses. He wanted to use this house, so I sent the drawings and he rearranged it to fit the show space. I finally saw it today finished with the trees and it’s so nice. 
Albert Kriemler: I am most excited about how it stands here. Everyone who came to our show tonight walked through the house and that was really important for me.

Sou, it would appear that Albert knows a heck of a lot about architecture...
Sou Fujimoto: He is quite good at seeing architecture. I gave him my book and he read all of the text. And it’s a big book. Now, he knows more about my architecture than I do!

'Private museums are reconfiguring the art ecology,' says Philip Dodd, broadcaster, former director of the ICA and chairman of the advisory board for London art fair Art15. 'In some countries, they are "inventing" the art scene; in others, they are outshining their public counterparts. They are blossoming in countries where the state is withdrawing or is weak, and thriving in countries like China where it's too strong.'

With this in mind, four years ago, Dodd launched the Global Private Museum Summit, a 'self-help group' aimed at private museum owners. This May, during Art15, it will bring together more than 40 private museum owners from as many countries. Topics for discussion include philanthropy and cultural regeneration. 'We are less focused on London, New York, Miami and Basel, and more interested in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, where private museums are leading the way,' says Dodd.

Art15's selection committee includes Tim Marlow, director of artistic programmes at the Royal Academy of Arts; Sunhee Kim, director and curator of Daegu Art Museum in South Korea; and Christopher Phillips, curator at the International Center of Photography in New York. All share Dodd's take on art's regenerative power, and agree that in reaching out to these newer markets and trying to address art - and its infrastructure - in the wider context of driving regeneration, Art15 can differentiate itself from other art fairs.

Art15 was launched three years ago, as Art13, with a mission to pull in galleries from outside Europe and the US, and provide an alternative to the selection of blue chip usual suspects who dominate the major art fairs. The fair tracks developments in art's emerging markets and explores growth at private collector-backed museums. It is in China that the idea of the private museum, pop-up or permanent, is really taking hold. And in unexpected places. Last year, more than 340,000 people went to the K11 shopping mall in Shanghai to see an exhibition of 40 works by Monet. K11's founder, the billionaire art patron Adrian Cheng, borrowed the works from the Marmottan Museum in Paris and entry was free. Cheng hopes to bring his 'art mall' concept to a further 20 Chinese cities by 2020. 'People love the idea of being able to see art exhibitions while hanging out in a retail space, and we will continue to promote this in our future projects,' says 34-year-old Cheng, who is also general manager of New World Development, a luxury conglomerate founded by his grandfather.

Over the past year, the K11 Art Foundation has organised more than 200 exhibitions and workshops across China, hosted pop-ups at the Art Basel fairs, and established an 'art village' offering artists in residency programmes for young artists in the Chinese city of Wuhan (more will follow). And should anyone doubt his credentials, Cheng is also a trustee of London's Royal Academy of Arts, a member of the Centre Pompidou's patrons' group, International Circle, and has set up a three-year partnership between the K11 Art Foundation and the Palais de Tokyo.

Cheng is not alone in his philanthropic mission to open up access to art in China. Last year, Chinese-Indonesian collector Budi Tek opened the Yuz Museum in a 9,000 sq m former aircraft hangar on Shanghai's West Bund, reworked by architect Sou Fujimoto; and Chinese power couple Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei opened two of their Long Museums in West Bund and Pudong in the space of two years. All focus predominantly on Chinese art, although the mix is international. And so fast paced is Shanghai's private museum building boom, it has been compared to New York's in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Other cities are close to matching that pace. In the next five years, Beirut will have five new private art museums, designed by architects such as Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Christian de Portzamparc. The frst of these, the Aïshti Foundation, belongs to Lebanese retail mogul and major collector Tony Salamé and opens this October on the city's seafront. Like K11, it will offer art and 17,500 sq m of retail under one roof, alongside a restaurant and rooftop bar, all designed by David Adjaye. 'Private museums play a key cultural role in emerging markets,' says Salamé. 'They establish a dialogue between societies in developing countries like Lebanon and other nations in the region and in the West. They also create a platform for local artists to showcase their work.'

Azerbaijani heiress Aida Mahmudova founded the Yarat art organisation in 2011. 'The art infrastructure of any city should provide a variety of experiences to engage wide audiences,' she says. This March, Yarat opened its first permanent space in Baku in a former Soviet-era naval headquarter with the intention of displaying works by artists from the Caucasus and Central Asia. 'One of Yarat's aims is to complement Azerbaijan's national museums by providing alternative viewpoints,' she adds. Over the past three years, Yarat has commissioned more than 80 projects in Baku and has led to education programmes and collaborations with museums and institutions in Azerbaijan.

There's a caveat when it comes to private museums; sometimes it can be hard to draw the line between vanity and genuine philanthropy, between the whim of one individual, and the greater good. Enlisting curators, creating solid education programmes and, of course, commissioning good art are a must if any private museum is to generate genuine social change and stand the test of time. As Cheng explains: 'Our competitors are trying to follow suit, but our model is not easy to copy. Hardware is easy, but you need the software - that is, the right content; quality exhibitions and supporting programmes, such as seminars, workshops and forums, to make it all work.' Without firm roots, these private foundations are little more than houses of cards. 'We're seeing a mixed ecology where private museums become as, or more, important than public ones,' says Dodd. 'For good or bad, the privatisation of museums is a reality.'

As featured in the May 2015 (W* 194) issue of Wallpaper*

ADDRESS

Art15
Olympia
Olympia Way
London
W14 8UX

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Construction is booming on the island of Taiwan. A number of recent, high profile competitions in the region have led to several major commissions that involve work by a wealth of well-known international architects. The result? A wave of new, architecturally inspiring public and private buildings are starting to take shape across the island.

Infrastructure projects (such as port terminals) are key to the island's development, but many of the most prominent building sites dotting Taiwan are for cultural or leisure schemes. Among them is the much-awaited Taipei Performing Arts Centre by OMA - which scooped a Wallpaper* Design Award this year for Best Building Site - and the innovative Taichung Metropolitan Opera House by 2013 Pritzker Prize winning Japanese architect Toyo Ito (also, the winner of our Best Building Site award in 2014).

Local housing is also getting a boost, with international names, like the dynamic Danish practice BIG and US architecture heavyweight Richard Meier, contributing with concepts designed to balance the East Asian island's distinct local qualities - such as its traditional architecture, tropical and subtropical climatic conditions and natural landscape - with a contemporary approach and the growing Taiwanese cities' urban character.

Meanwhile Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is set to provide the island with a shiny new landmark; Taiwan Tower's steel body will include a striking 300m-high floating garden and an observation deck, inviting locals and visitors to explore the urban landscape beyond.

Absurdity - that's how world-renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma describes the determination of Tokyo families to own a patch of land, no matter how small, in the world's most populated city. But it's an absurdity that results in architectural outliers: tiny yet unique family homes.

Kuma's musings appear in French photographer Jérémie Souteyrat's 144-page study of Tokyo's urban landscape, titled Tokyo no Ie (Tokyo Houses). The Japanese master's houses are presented alongside those by Pritzker Prize winners Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima; small-home champions Atelier Bow-Bow; Sou Fujimoto (Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London) and many more.

Souteyrat, 35, spent four years in search of these urban treasures 'sown like jewels in the immensity of Tokyo'. Says the photographer: 'I like the diversity of this city. If one has the chance to discover a jewel while walking on the street it's a pretty good surprise, isn't it?'

For cultural reasons few Japanese want to live in an old house, so even the gems in this book will likely be demolished within 40 years. 'As the houses are rebuilt every 25 years on average, there are a lot of opportunities for innovative design.'

For the same reason, Tokyo no Ie might become an ongoing project. 'I'd like to take the same pictures at the same locations in 25 years,' says Souteyrat. One of the Kengo Kuma houses in the book has already been refurbished and repainted. In Tokyo, the jewels sparkle for all too brief a moment - making Tokyo no Ie an important document of a city in constant flux.

You don’t have to be an architect to realise your building design vision - well, at least in miniature. Architectural construction games have been part of many a childhood memory, and the new Lego Architecture Studio set is the latest incarnation of the much-loved toy building bricks.

The project is the Danish construction toy manufacturer’s exciting new venture into the architecture field, following up from their coveted Architecture models series, which features mini Lego versions of buildings such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. 

The Architecture Studio’s box includes over 1,200 monochromatic building pieces matched with a 250-page guidebook that provides food for thought and inspiration on how to build and what.

Lego’s Architecture Studio may be, in its essence, a toy but it comes with some serious design credentials. Developed together with representatives of the architecture field, the set is endorsed by leading firms such as Sou Fujimoto, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, MAD Architects and REX architecture. A series of building exercises and techniques based on the architects’ body of work are included in the guidebook.

The Lego Architecture Studio set is a great tool for some hands-on miniature architecture fun and it was recently launched in a creative workshop in London that invited participants to create from the Eiffel tower to their own mini architectural masterpiece, led by Urban Designer and founder of Common Office Finn Williams.

The possibilities seem endless. Says Williams: ’Architecture Studio takes Lego fans back to the basic building bricks that have inspired generations of aspiring architects, including me.’

Chilean practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects has just completed the first house in an ambitious residential development in Spain. The Solo Pezo property is part of the Solo Houses project in Matarraña, south of Barcelona, which French developer Christian Bourdais hopes will become a reference point in the architecture world. It will be joined by a further 11 innovative designs for holiday homes by young international architecture practices, scattered over a dramatic 40-hectare site.

When he initiated the project in 2010, Bourdais' key influence was the Arts & Architecture magazine's mid-century experimental program Case Study Houses, which commissioned the likes of Richard Neutra and Charles Eames to interpret the post-war house. The developer picks his architects carefully. 'An interesting point is how these architects read society and how they integrate this reading in their buildings,' he explains. 'It has a strong sociological interest. Each project of the Solo Houses collection is one very different reading of society.'

Solo Pezo is a concrete construction elevated aboved the surrounding foliage on a monolithic square platform. Its main living areas have far-reaching views and a deep pool rests in the roofless central space as a symbolic tether between sky and earth.

The next few designs are equally exciting, showcasing the talent of more international young practices. MOS Office's design is strongly connected to the earth and olive grove around it, while the 'geometric forest' by Sou Fujimoto (much like this year's Serpentine Pavilion) is a sophisticated reprise of architecture's primitive origins. Didier Faustino and Mésarchitecture designed the otherworldly Solo Faustino, favouring weightlessness inspired by the big bang theory. The designs are unified in their simple approach that nevertheless leads to an arresting effect.

Marketed for sale by Architecture de Collection, these houses may only be the beginning of the Solo House project, as Bourdais is considering locations in Turkey and Portugal to expand his scheme in the future. In the meantime, more designs by Office KGDVS, Jonston Mark Lee, Studio Mumbai and TNA are soon coming up at the Matarraña site, while the Solo Pezo open days (28 to 30 June) will offer a taster of what it feels like to live in a Solo House.

This year's Serpentine Pavilion in London's Hyde Park is a jumbo, 3D grid that grows organically from the ground. Articulated by slender, white, steel bars, this assemblage of small cubes - a cross between a garden folly and a mathematical model - is the product of the Tokyo architect Sou Fujimoto. In this short film, we take a look at the making of the pavilion, and follow its journey from concept to reality.

See more images of the 2013 pavilion and its predecessors

'The experience is more like a labyrinth but the space is very simple,' says Fujimoto. Sized more like furniture than architecture, the main frame consists of 80 cm cubes, many subdivided into 40 cm cubes that double as stairs and stepped seating. While railings outside minimize missteps and roof climbing, guiderails inside prevent bumped heads.

The decision to build with a white grid stemmed from Fujimoto's initial goal of creating an 'architectural landscape'. To forge a strong connection between his building and its surroundings, he needed to create a translucent volume. A small scale, 3D grid - Fujimoto has been grappling with grids since the start of his career  - fit the bill perfectly. To sculpt the pavilion's form plus place clear polycarbonate inserts, vertical panels for windbreaks and horizontal, disks for rain protection, Fujimoto used a 1:10 study model. '[The design] is so complicated that we had to make a big model to understand it exactly,' explains the architect.

Prefabricated at creative manufacturers Stage One's facilities in York, Fujimoto's design was then trucked to London in preassembled units that were bolted together on site by the engineers at Aecom, under the direction of David Glover, who has worked a succession of Serpentine Pavilions, though formerly with Arup. At the end of its tenure, the pavilion can be taken apart and carted off to a new home.

ADDRESS

Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
London W2 3XA

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It may be tough to teach old dogs new tricks, but perhaps they can learn to live in new houses. Japanese graphic designer and curator Kenya Hara has made it his mission to find out.

In our last Handmade issue (W*161), we were thinking along similar lines when we commissioned Jarmund/Vigsnæs Arkitekter to design a dog retreat for us, and Hara's new venture, Architecture for Dogs, takes the idea further.

Debuting at Design Miami in early December, in collaboration with a star-studded cast of designers and architects from America, Europe and Japan, this online venture supplies free blueprints for 13 different DIY doghouses, each one earmarked for a particular breed. Hara hopes that pet enthusiasts everywhere will build them and that their photos will go viral and kickstart an online architectural discourse about the designs when the website launches this month.

Hara has been mulling over the idea of designer doghouses for around 15 years, and the project finally caught the attention of American investors at Imprint Venture Lab. Hara knew the pet-related theme would be popular, he said, 'I have the impression that the whole world is interested in babies and dogs.'

Building on the 'man's best friend' bond, he started by matching designers to dogs, choosing only small breeds that like to live inside. Some are random pairings, such as the Dachshund with architects Atelier Bow-Wow and the Toy Poodle with product designer Konstantin Grcic, but others are special requests, like architect Toyo Ito who wanted to build for his own Shiba, and Kengo Kuma who was keen to make a new home for a client's Pug.

Because conversation with their canine clients could be a bit one-sided, Hara provided each designer with a dossier of information covering the physical characteristics, temperament and health concerns of their breed. Human needs were considered in the brief, too, which stipulated that the doghouses should be easy for anyone to assemble with ordinary household tools and materials.

Leading the pack, Hara launched the project by designing two doghouses of his own: a hard, paper cone suspended from the ceiling for a Japanese Terrier and a plywood contraption for a Teacup Poodle.

Intended to improve contact between pooch and person, the poodle's structure consists of a 70cm-high, wedge-shaped, wooden tunnel enclosing a puppy-sized run of stairs. They lead up to a platform at chair height where the dog can recline while gazing adoringly at their owner. 'Putting a dog on the table is not so good,' says Hara. 'Yet the floor is a little too far away.' Located between these two extremes, Hara's proposal may have conceptual merit. But it took lots of Liver Snaps to coax a live Poodle up the stairs.

This reaction is not much of a surprise since the actual dogs did not participate much during the design phase. And when they did, many were more challenging than human clients. Architect Sou Fujimoto's subject, a Boston Terrier rented at a Tokyo dog park, refused to even go inside the prototype. Scrapping that sphere-shaped model, Fujimoto devised an open-frame structure instead, reminiscent of his House NA.

Most designers started by presenting a conceptual sketch to Hara and his staff who then investigated ways to realise the projects. 'Architects are very busy so we tried to provide ideas for materials and construction methods,' explains Hara.

Like a fast-paced game of fetch, ideas moved back and forth between the designers and team Hara. Sometimes it took four or five months to develop a realistic solution - more time than required for many full-fledged buildings. And even then certain proposals, such as Toyo Ito's inflatable, vinyl roof worn on the dog's back, still proved unbuildable.

Others, however, like architect Kazuyo Sejima's home for a Bichon Frise, met with more success. The Pritzker-prize winner had little time to spare, but knew that she wanted to create something fluffy for her assistant's fuzzy white pup. Running with her idea, Hara's group began exploring soft materials and ways to support them.

In due course, all agreed on a curved wooden frame enrobed by a hand-knitted cover. Though it bears little resemblance to the minimalist, glass buildings that have made Sejima famous, her doghouse got a warm reception from its canine resident who crawled inside and took an immediate liking to the soft, protective shell.

The Tokyo architecture firm Torafu also sincerely considered the needs of its Jack Russell Terrier, creating an easy-to-build, simple structure that recycles old clothes. Resembling a hammock, it consists of a wooden frame that supports an old T-shirt, preferably one well worn by the dog's owner. 'The smell of the owner is very, very important for a dog,' says Hara. 'It makes the dog feel safe and want to be here.'

But a pooch's response is only one measure of success. 'Architecture for Dogs is not a pet's project,' explains Hara. 'It is a project for architects.' For that reason, he engaged Yugo Nakamura, one of Japan's leading web designers, to create the interactive, trilingual website where participants can download drawings and view instructional videos, as well as upload photos of their newly built pet palaces, showcasing customisations and material substitutions.

'One idea can create lots of architecture around the world,' says Hara. And potentially turn Architecture for Dogs into a catalyst for architectural invention.

If you like minimalist grown-up playgrounds and fairytale houses with some serious architecture credentials, then you will love the new '1:1 - Architects Build Small Spaces' exhibition at the V&A. Featuring seven full-size structures built on various locations within the museum grounds, this engaging show will keep not only the architecture-lover, but also the child in you, entertained, with everything from mini Japanese tea ceremony tree-houses and a cosy wooden library tower, to a forest-inspired structure made of Norwegian ash trees and a narrow corridor complex transporting you to life in high-density urban centres.

Choosing the seven installation concepts from an original list of 19 submissions from architects around the world, V&A curator Abraham Thomas wanted a selection of architects that would 'operate in an area away from the mainstream.' He picked projects from young or relatively new architecture practices - such as Terunobu Fujimori – offering a fresh approach to issues of materiality, as well as the building process.

'In a way Rural Studio summarises the attitude that a lot of these practices share; the idea that at the heart of the practice is building, creating, making... It’s not about having this perfect image of a pristine building. It’s about the process,' Thomas told us.

If you head to the V&A from today until the end of this summer, you will be able to see full-scale structures by Helen & Hard Architects (Norway), Studio Mumbai (India), Sou Fujimoto (Japan), Rural Studio of Auburn University (USA), Rintala Eggertsson (Norway), Terunobu Fujimori (Japan) and Vazio S/A (Brazil), all created in the space within the museum, which was allocated to them according to the nature of their concept. Meanwhile, in the Architecture Gallery, visitors will be able to see all 19 initial submissions, presented through models and drawings.

Behind the playfulness of the fact that the visitors are not only able, but also encouraged to get in the structures and walk in, around and through them, lies a conscious effort by Thomas and the V&A team to offer alternative ways of architectural presentation. 'The audience is used to architecture exhibitions that can be very mediated and about drawings and models and photographs. There are always so many layers between the audience and the final object. I felt that what we had to do in this exhibition was to present the thing that was almost always absent in those exhibitions: the building itself', says Thomas.

Aiming to highlight direct spatial experience as its main protagonist, this exhibition will give the audience the chance to not only see, but also touch, hear and smell the buildings first hand. 'I am hoping this exhibition will help audiences and the public understand the importance architecture has and the fact that we are all active participants in the physical transactions that happen. It is important that audiences have the chance to see architectural concepts like that first hand and in full scale,' adds Thomas.

And what will happen to the structures after the show? 'We want to find good homes for them and give them an afterlife,' says Thomas. The V&A is working with Philips de Pury and a series of auctions coming up soon after the exhibition’s end will certainly help secure their future.

ADDRESS

V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL

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The 2009 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture kicked off last weekend - the third edition of Asia’s largest architecture gathering. Having previously been curated by established Chinese architects and academics, Qingyun Ma in 2005 and Yung Ho Chang in 2003, this year’s events are orchestrated by chief-curator, editor and graphic designer Ou Ning, and his international team of curators (including Beatrice Galilee for London, Kayoko Ota for Tokyo, Wei Wei Shannon for New York, Pauline J Yao for San Francisco and Ya-Zhu Xu for Taiwan).

Meanwhile in Hong Kong chief curator Marisa Yiu heads a curatorial team of three; Curator for Arts, City Integration and Events Alan Lo, Curator for Education, Film and Media Eric Schuldenfrei and Curator for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape Frank Yu.

Themed ‘City Mobilization’, the young event is passionate and thought-provoking, aiming to offer a refreshed version of the ‘biennale’ format, urging urban authorities, architects and planners to reconsider their role and refocus their creative energy to spark architectural change.

Set to nurture new ideas and young talent, the series of architectural festivities in Shenzhen hosts not only a number of established practices (like LOT-EK and Studio Pei-Zhu with Arup), but also a large number of emerging international firms. Practices like Austrians Feld72, UK-based Aberrant Architecture, Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto and Chinese MAD make an impact with a variety of imaginative installations and happenings.

In its Hong Kong guise - which will be up and running until the 27th Feb - the biennale follows a guideline, which also pushes the envelope. Following three strands of the general ‘Bring Your Own Biennale’ open call to students and professionals -‘Bring Your Own Bench’, ‘Bring Your Own Booth’ and ‘Bring Your Own Box’ – chief curator Yiu gives the power to the people, as the participants are invited to create and bring their contribution. The installations include a large-scale paper tube construction by celebrated Japanese architect Shigeru Ban at the main biennale pavilion.

Hosted in various locations around the Hong Kong waterfront and the young city of Shenzhen, the bi-city biennale highlights include installations by Chinese and International participating architects; a retrospective of iconic Chinese architect Xia Changshi; an architectural film festival; and the Odyssey literature project, bringing together famous contemporary buildings and words by celebrated Chinese writers.