Daxing Jizi Design inserts OctaPlay, a public art installation, into a site defined by monumental industrial remains in Beijing, reframing the heavy material legacy of the area through movement, color, and atmospheric change. The lightweight, kinetic structure is commissioned for Yong Ding He Ji, a cultural and lifestyle destination unfolding along the Yongding River at the foot of Shijingshan. Set within Shougang Park’s vast former steelworks, the installation takes its name from its eight-sided geometry. Its octagonal frame and folded surfaces recall paper origami, a contrast to the rigidity of the industrial environment.

The designers describe the project as a topological translation of Shougang Park’s iconic smokestacks. Still, instead of vertical mass, OctaPlay disperses volume into semi-transparent elements that rotate and overlap. Suspended colored discs move gently with the wind, their shifting alignments producing an ever-changing composition of light and shadow.

all images by Zhu Yumeng, unless stated otherwise

wind-driven installation reframes the industrial landscape

In their early design ideas, the Chinese team at Daxing Jizi Design explored weaving overlapping metal sheets. As the project developed, this approach evolved into a combination of folding and nesting, paired with both heavy and light materials. Color became central in the later stages. While the metal framework of OctaPlay was initially conceived in black, prolonged time on site led the team to reconsider. Surrounded daily by dark industrial structures, they introduced silver surfaces with soft peach tones on the reverse, subtly lightening the installation.

Wind becomes the invisible conductor of the installation, animating the suspended elements and determining their rhythm. As sunlight passes through the rotating discs, colored reflections drift across the ground, turning visitors into participants within a temporary field of light. 

Yong Ding He Ji occupies a complex terrain where riverbanks, mountains, and factory relics coexist. The broader development follows a strategy of minimal intervention and spatial extension, allowing architecture, art, and commercial programs to emerge from the existing ground. OctaPlay operates within this logic and responds to the surrounding chimneys and steel structures, translating their scale and symbolism into an abstract, human-scaled form.

OctaPlay by Daxing Jizi Design stands within Shougang Park’s former steelworks

suspended colored discs through folded metal surfaces | image by Li Haibin

the installation stands between industrial relics and surrounding hills

the installation invites visitors to move through shifting fields of color and shadow

OctaPlay reinterprets the vertical mass of smokestacks

cut-out openings and folded edges define the human-scaled structure

suspended discs rotate gently, producing overlapping chromatic effects

the folded structure frames light, color, and movement

layered geometry and rotating colored elements

wind-driven colored discs animate the installation

an ever-changing composition of light and shadow | image by Kong Fansheng

wind becomes the invisible conductor of the installation | image by Kong Fansheng

octagonal frame and folded surfaces recall paper origami | image by Kong Fansheng

snow transforms OctaPlay into a seasonal landmark | image by Yong Ding He Ji

project info:

name: OctaPlay

artist: Daxing Jizi Design | @daxingjizi

location: Yong Ding He Ji, Shougang Park, Beijing (Shijingshan District, left bank of Yongding River)

area: 50 square meters

project director: Xie Qiongzhi

lead designer: Zeng Zhenwei

design consultant: Li Wenhai

structural engineering: AND Office

client: Yong Ding He Ji

photographer: Zhu Yumeng | @yumeng_zhu_coppakstudio, Kong Fansheng

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James Turrell completes the permanent installation of As Seen Below—The Dome, a Skyspace at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, ahead of its public opening on June 19th, 2026. The work is the artist’s largest Skyspace realized within a museum context and marks the final phase of the major expansion project of the institution, The Next Level. Measuring 16 meters in height and 40 meters in diameter, the work reframes the experience of looking, turning the sky into a material presence shaped by architecture, time, and light.

‘With As Seen Below I’m shaping the experience of seeing rather than delivering an image. The architecture holds the sky close, so you recognise that the act of looking is the work itself. Here light isn’t description; it’s the substance you stand within. In this Skyspace the day has weight, the evening has temperature, and the change belongs to you.’ shares the artist.

James Turrell, As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell | images by Mads Smidstrup © ARoS, 2025. From James Turrells visit in As Seen Below, June 2025.

how ‘as Seen Below—The Dome, a Skyspace’ reshapes perception

For more than five decades, Turrell has built a practice around light and the proposition that it’s not merely something we see, but something we inhabit. His Skyspaces, architectural environments punctured by a ceiling aperture that frames the open sky, are among his most widely known works. They cultivate attentiveness, slowing the visitor’s body and senses down to meet the shifting conditions of natural light.

As Seen Below—The Dome, a Skyspace pushes this logic further than any of Turrell’s previous museum-based projects. Visitors enter the installation through an underground, light-filled corridor before arriving inside the vast domed chamber. From there, Turrell’s calibrated lighting washes across the interior surfaces, subtly modulating the way the sky is perceived through the central oculus.

Unlike many Skyspaces that function as solitary or intimate encounters, this work is conceived as a shared environment. The scale of the dome allows for a collective experience of light unfolding over time, emphasizing seasonal shifts and daily cycles. According to ARoS, the work is designed to foreground our relationship to nature, the sky, and the idea of a shared planet.

James Turrell completes the permanent installation of As Seen Below

completing the major expansion of ARoS Aarhus Art Museum

The opening of As Seen Below—The Dome, a Skyspace concludes The Next Level, ARoS’ multi-year expansion developed in collaboration with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. The project includes The Salling Gallery, a subterranean exhibition space dedicated to annual contemporary commissions, which opened in June 2025, as well as the Art Square, a permanent outdoor platform for art set to open in 2026. Turrell’s dome operates as the conceptual and spatial anchor of this transformation, integrating architecture, landscape, and perception into a single work.‘We are thrilled to announce that As Seen Below will open to the public in June 2026, in what promises to be a defining moment in the history of ARoS. We are proud that our museum will be home to the artist’s most significant Skyspace to date, an extraordinary work that invites visitors to slow down, look up, and experience light, time, and space in profoundly moving ways,’ shares Rebecca Matthews, Director of ARoS, framing the installation as a defining moment for the institution.

the work is the artist’s largest Skyspace realized within a museum context

marking the final phase of the major expansion project of the institution

James Turrell and Rebecca Matthews inside the Skyspace installation

the artist conceives this work as a shared environment

the work is designed to foreground our relationship to nature, the sky, and the idea of a shared planet

Turrell’s dome operates as the conceptual and spatial anchor of this transformation

project info:

name: As Seen Below—The Dome, a Skyspace

artist: James Turrell

location: ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark

public opening: June 19, 2026

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Desert X AlUla 2026 returns to northwest Saudi Arabia with a fourth edition that scatters contemporary art across within the valleys, canyons, and oases of AlUla. Presented by Arts AlUla in collaboration with Desert X, the exhibition runs from January 16th to February 28th, 2026 as part of the AlUla Arts Festival. It brings new site-responsive sculptural commissions into conversation with the scenic desert.

The curatorial theme, Space Without Measure, shapes an edition that attends closely to scale, distance, and perception across a vast landscape. Works are positioned across Wadi AlFann and the surrounding oasis zones, where shifts in light and wind are a part of the experience. Desert X AlUla 2026 approaches the site as an active participant, asking visitors to move slowly and read materials in relation to desert and sky.

Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

site-responsive artworks scatter across the desert

Sustainable production methods inform Desert X AlUla 2026 at every level. Rammed earth, carved stone, and locally sourced wood appear across multiple projects, produced in Saudi Arabia through collaborations with regional artisans and cultural centers.

Partnerships with the locally-based arts and design center Madrasat Addeera and the AlUla Music Hub extend this emphasis on local knowledge, while consultation with the AlUla Native Plant Nursery guides the integration of plantlife into the ‘oasis’ environment.

The exhibition is co-curated by Wejdan Reda and Zoé Whitley, with artistic direction led by Neville Wakefield and Raneem Farsi. Their approach favors works that respond to specific conditions of AlUla, from ancient water routes to cultivated palm groves.

Bahraini-Danish, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

eleven participating artists for 2026

Among the Saudi artists participating in Desert X AlUla 2026, Budapest-born artist Agnes Denes contributes The Living Pyramid, a planted structure situated within the oasis. Continuing a project developed across multiple geographies, the work emphasizes cycles of growth and regeneration through its changing surface. 

Sound plays a central role in several commissions. The collective practice Bahraini-Danish introduces Bloom, a kinetic sculpture animated by sunlight and shadow. Its rotating elements register the passage of time across the day, producing a shifting visual rhythm that aligns with the desert’s cycles. Participation remains gentle and open-ended, inviting viewers to linger rather than perform.

Basmah Felemban’s Murmur of Pebbles enlarges geological fragments into carved limestone forms. Installed along pathways shaped by ancient rivers, the work draws attention to sediment, erosion, and time embedded within stone. Originally commissioned for a previous edition, the installation returns with renewed emphasis on scale and spacing under the current curatorial framework.

Basmah Felemban, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

In a nearby valley, Héctor Zamora’s Tar HyPar introduces percussion-inspired forms that respond to collective movement. Visitors activate the installation through sound, producing a low, resonant energy that travels across open ground.

Ibrahim El-Salahi’s Haraza Tree responds to acacia species found across the region, translating their resilience into sculptural forms that gather individually while standing as a unified artwork.

Mohammad Alfaraj contributes What was the Question Again?, a living installation centered on a palm structure assembled from grafted trunks. Referencing the agricultural landscapes of Al Ahsa, the piece reflects long-standing relationships between cultivation, storytelling, and renewal.

Héctor Zamora, Tar HyPar, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu presents A Kingdom Where No One Dies: Contours of Resonance, a sculptural installation formed through layered rammed earth walls. Poetry and geology intersect within its surfaces, drawing attention to construction techniques shared across cultures and eras. The work reads through touch and proximity, its mass tempered by subtle shifts in tone and texture.

Future Fables by Vibha Galhotra encloses fragments of demolished buildings within a steel framework. The structure shelters traces of recent change, transforming debris into a place for reflection and shared narratives.

Several works in Desert X AlUla 2026 engage directly with ecological systems. Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons shows Imole Red, an installation inspired by AlUla’s sunsets and Yoruba spiritual traditions. Color and planting combine within a garden-like structure that acknowledges water as a sustaining presence within the valley. The work carries a sense of continuity between land, ritual, and care.

Ibrahim El-Salahi, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui presents The Water Song, continuing his research into listening practices initiated during the AlUla Arts Festival 2025. Instruments emerge partially from the ground, encouraging visitors to attune to subtle vibrations carried through soil and air. The landscape becomes an acoustic field shaped by movement and attention.

Nearby, rare sculptural works by the late Mohammed AlSaleem appear for the first time, including The Thorn and AlShuruf Unit. Created during the 1980s, these geometric forms extend upward with a measured sense of aspiration, shaped by desert horizons and celestial reference points.

Mohammad AlFaraj, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Sara Abdu, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Vibha Galhotra, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

Tarek Atoui, Desert X AlUla 2026, image courtesy Lance Gerber

works by Mohammed Al Saleem throughout the exhibition are on loan courtesy of Riyadh Art collection, The Royal Commission for Riyadh City

project info:

event: Desert X | @_desertx

location: AlUla, Saudi Arabia

on view: January 16th to February 28th, 2026

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

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DIVIDED is an illuminating installation by Spanish urban artist SpY presented during the Lighting Xi’an Festival 2025, China. The public artwork forms part of the artist’s ongoing investigation into the relationships between body, space, scale, and perception. The project examines how light and monumental form can reshape spatial experience and alter the reading of an urban environment.

The installation consists of a large luminous sphere rendered in red light and divided into two identical hemispheres that are positioned apart from one another. Each half is housed within a metal framework constructed from industrial scaffolding, a system commonly associated with temporary construction. In this context, the scaffolding operates as both a structural support and a visible component of the work, establishing a contrast between the rigid, cubic geometry of the frame and the smooth curvature of the spherical forms. This juxtaposition introduces a condition of containment, in which the sphere appears simultaneously revealed and restrained.

all images courtesy of SpY

in SpY’s DIVIDED installation, Light becomes the primary material

Monumental in scale, the installation establishes a direct spatial relationship with the surrounding environment and the human body. The work is experienced not only as an object in space but also as a spatial configuration that responds to proximity and movement. Visitors can pass between the two hemispheres, entering the gap created by the division of the sphere. This passage functions as a corridor of light, in which the viewer becomes positioned within the work rather than observing it from the exterior.

In DIVIDED, interaction is directed inward, emphasizing immersion and bodily engagement. The use of red light, recurrent in the artist’s recent projects, defines the atmosphere of the installation and contributes to a suspended spatial condition shaped by illumination rather than enclosure alone. The work reconfigures the site through light, scale, and movement, positioning perception itself as a central material. DIVIDED is part of SpY’s Earth series, which also includes Earth and Confronted. The series has been presented in multiple cities, including Madrid, Athens, Riyadh, and Ghent, and addresses themes of fragmentation, coexistence, and spatial confrontation through large-scale luminous installations.

DIVIDED by SpY at the Lighting Xi’an Festival 2025

a large red luminous sphere split into two identical hemispheres

the installation explores body, space, scale, and perception

monumental form and light reshape the surrounding urban environment

each hemisphere is supported by an exposed industrial scaffolding frame

red light defines the spatial atmosphere of the installation

light becomes the primary material defining space

scale blurs conventional references of distance and enclosure

project info:

name: DIVIDED
designer: SpY | @spy__studio

organizer: Xian Mixc
curator: Wavelength
event: Lighting Xi’an Festival

location: Xi’an, China

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

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Digital by Nature: The Art of Miguel Chevalier at Kunsthalle München presents the artist’s largest solo exhibition in Europe to date, curated by Franziska Stöhr. The exhibition surveys Miguel Chevalier’s practice from the early 1980s to the present, tracing his sustained engagement with digital technologies as both tools and subjects of artistic inquiry.

Born in 1959 in Mexico City and based in Paris, Chevalier has worked with computers as a creative medium for more than four decades. The exhibition brings together approximately 120 works that reflect the evolution of his approach, from early experiments with pixels, binary code, and algorithmic systems to recent projects that explore the intersections of digital and analog processes, technology and nature, and human interaction with computational environments.

The presentation includes a wide range of media and formats, such as 3D printed sculptures produced in ceramic and recycled plastic, robot-generated drawings, machine-produced embroidery and tapestries, and video works created using artificial intelligence. Large-scale generative and interactive installations form a central component of the exhibition. In these works, algorithmic systems continuously generate visual compositions that respond to visitors’ movements, establishing a reciprocal relationship between human presence and machine-driven processes. These installations are accompanied by sound compositions by Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, which further structure the spatial and sensory experience.

Complex Meshes | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Cyrille Henry, Antoine Villeret, image: Thomas Granovsky

visualizing Interaction, Growth, and Transformation

Two works were developed specifically for Kunsthalle München. Complex Meshes Robot Drawings is a performative installation in which a robot produces drawings based on visual motifs from Chevalier’s interactive series Complex Meshes. The artist defines the parameters by selecting the paper and drawing tools, while the robot executes the marks. Originally designed for industrial repetition, the robotic system is reprogrammed to produce variable, gesture-like drawings that foreground the translation between programmed movement and hand-drawn expression.

The second new work, In Vitro Pixel Flowers, expands Chevalier’s ongoing exploration of digital botanical systems. The installation presents his largest virtual herbarium to date, allowing visitors to generate plant forms through an online interface and observe their development within a greenhouse-like environment. The digitally generated plants emerge, evolve, and disappear in continuous cycles, forming a shared, participatory landscape that visualizes processes of growth, variation, and renewal.

Across its diverse works, Digital by Nature positions digital technology not only as a means of production but as a framework for examining systems, transformation, and interaction. The exhibition emphasizes Chevalier’s long-term investigation into how computational tools can shape visual form, spatial experience, and collective participation within contemporary art contexts.

Complex Meshes | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Cyrille Henry, Antoine Villeret, image: Thomas Granovsky

The Origin of the World | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Cyrille Henry, Antoine Villeret, image: Thomas Granovsky

Complex Meshes | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Cyrille Henry, Antoine Villeret, image: Thomas Granovsky

Meta-Nature AI | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Claude Micheli, image: Nicolas Gaudelet

The Origin of the World | music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, software: Cyrille Henry, Antoine Villeret, image: Thomas Granovsky

In Vitro Pixel Flowers | software: Samuel Twidale, image: Thomas Granovsky

Complex Meshes Robot Drawings | industrial robot, felt-tip pen, paper, software: Ludovic Mallegol

The Eye of the Machine | software: Claude Micheli, image: Thomas Granovsky

In Vitro Pixel Flowers | software: Samuel Twidale, website: Ollie Smith, interface: Elise Michel

Fractal Flowers | software: Cyrille Henry, image: Thomas Granovsky

Euphorbia Alchimica Veritas of Rousseau 1 > 12 | image: Thomas Granovsky

Brain Corals Stratigraphy | image: Thomas Granovsky

project info:

name: DIGITAL BY NATURE – The Art of Miguel Chevalier Kunsthalle München / Munich
artist: Miguel Chevalier | @miguel_chevalier

location: Munich, Germany

museum: Kunsthalle München / Munich | @kunsthallemuc

dates: September 12th, 2025 – March 1st, 2026

curator: Franziska Stöhr

curatorial assistant: Jasmin Gierling

music: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi

director: Roger Diederen

exhibition production: Voxels Productions

exhibition design: Martin Kinzlmaier

photographer/videographer: Thomas Granovsky

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

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Dan Flavin: Grids is on view at David Zwirner Gallery in New York, bringing renewed focus to a body of work by Dan Flavin that engages space through light with confidence and openness.

The exhibition gathers several grid installations first developed in 1976, presented here through careful re-creations of historic works. Installed directly into corners, the luminous sculptures become a fixed part of the gallery as walls, ceilings, and floors receive light as an active condition. The atmosphere of each room shifts, all while remaining unified by the straightforward presence of the simple fluorescent fixtures.

Dan Flavin’s fluorescent light shapes corners as active architectural elements | image © designboom

re-created works illuminate david zwirner gallery

From Dan Flavin’s earliest experiments with fluorescent lamps in the early 1960s, light served as a practical tool for shaping space. Over time, this approach grew more assured, and the grids reflect that maturity. Their geometry feels steady and deliberate, while color introduces warmth and variation that responds to the proportions of each room.

As curator Michael Govan notes, the grids stand among the most concentrated works the artist produced. Each piece balances vertical lamps facing inward with horizontal lamps facing outward. Color travels across surfaces through reflection, a condition which softens the edges of the gallery and invites exploration between its rooms.

the Grids establish clear geometry and flood each room with a wash of color | image © designboom

colorful grids in dialogue with one another

The first of Dan Flavin’s grids on view, ‘untitled (for Mary Ann and Hal with fondest regards) 1 and 2’ (1976), offer a clear entry point. Each eight-foot square combines pink and green lamps arranged in opposing directions. Installed diagonally across from one another, the works establish an easy rhythm between corners, encouraging visitors to notice how light behaves differently as distance and angle shift.

Grids dedicated to Leo Castelli continue this dialogue. In ‘untitled (for you, Leo, in long respect and affection) 1 and 2’ from 1977, Flavin introduces yellow and blue alongside green and pink, allowing color interactions to feel more relaxed and expansive. Smaller four-foot versions, intended to be suspended across corners, suggest an architectural element that floats within the room, extending light into shared space.

Dan Flavin: Grids concludes with the re-creation of ‘untitled (in honor of Leo at the 30th anniversary of his gallery),’ first shown in 1987. Spanning twenty-four feet across a corner, the joined editions stretch the room laterally, offering a generous sense of scale.

corners become zones of exchange between inward and outward facing fixtures | image © designboom

walls, ceilings, and floors register light as a spatial condition rather than a surface effect | image © designboom

re-created works reflect how Grids were originally presented during Flavin’s lifetime | image © designboom

color interactions shift with distance, movement, and angle of view | image © designboom

scale varies from intimate eight-foot works to expansive multi section installations | image © designboom

the exhibition frames light as a practical tool for redefining interior space | image © designboom

project info:

name: Dan Flavin: Grids

artist: Dan Flavin 

gallery: David Zwirner Gallery

location: 537 West 20th Street, New York, NY

dates: January 15th — February 21st, 2026

photography: © designboom

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In Gregory Orekhov’s site-specific land art installation, Gravity, the landscape becomes a space in which the condition of the world becomes visible. The red sphere, originally associated with the ritual of celebration and the expectation of magic, is stripped of its function and returned to the landscape as a heavy, vulnerable form without foundation. Suspended by a hemp rope from a bare century-old tree, the object exists between ground and space; neither in fall nor at rest, but in a prolonged state of uncertainty. This is not balance, but resistance to the force of gravity. The video shifts the object from linear movement into oscillation, where no trajectory alters the initial condition.

all images by Nikita Subbotin – Studiolandon

Gravity installation records a state of ongoing instability

Dragging across the ground gives way to swinging in space, yet none of these forms becomes an exit. The human figure and the object remain bound by a shared dependence on gravity, holding them together. The red color of the sphere does not function as a decorative accent. It becomes a dense visual mass in which traces of violence, loss, and historical memory converge. The color ceases to signify celebration and begins to operate as a symptom of a time in which the tragic becomes part of the everyday background. For artist Gregory Orekhov, nature in this project does not act as a space of harmony. The tree neither saves nor supports; it merely allows the object to exist, becoming a silent witness to what unfolds. This work records a condition of the world that continues to exist without foundation and without outcome.

a red sphere is suspended from a century-old tree in a forested landscape

the sphere exists in a state of prolonged suspension

gravity defines the relationship between body, object, and site

the landscape functions as an active setting rather than a backdrop

the human figure and the sphere share a dependence on gravity

the installation places the object between ground and space

the red surface appears as a dense visual mass

the landscape bears witness to a suspended state without foundation

the object remains neither falling nor at rest

project info:

name: Gravity

artist: Gregory Orekhov | @gregory.orekhov 

photographer, videographer: Nikita Subbotin – Studiolandon | @studiolandon

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

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Vitamins is a collaborative project by designer Eleonore Buschinger’s Vitamin Color and photographer Tabea Mathern that explores vegetables as a material for contemporary image-making. Developed in New York, the series presents sculptural still lifes in which everyday objects, from fashion accessories to familiar household items, are reconstructed entirely from produce. By replacing industrial materials with organic ones, the project invites a new way of looking at both objects and food.  The collaboration brings together two complementary practices: Vitamin Color’s long-standing exploration of vegetables as cultural and emotional objects, and Mathern’s bold, tactile approach to image-making that blends photography, set design, and visual storytelling.

Vitamins is a collaborative project by Vitamin Color and photographer Tabea Mathern | all images by Tabea Mathern

Vegetables are handcrafted to resemble everyday objects

Vitamin Color’s work by designer Eleonore Buschinger is driven by a broader mission to reframe vegetables as objects of joy, beauty, and cultural value rather than symbols of restriction or sacrifice. With a background spanning editorial, commercial, and artistic work, photographer Tabea Mathern’s imagery moves fluidly between reality and imagination, a sensibility that shapes the surreal yet precise worlds of Vitamins.

Throughout the collaborative visual art project, each object was designed and built by hand using real vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Carrots, radicchio, asparagus, citrus, roots, and leafy greens were cut, layered, pinned, stacked, and sculpted to create silhouettes that echo familiar designed objects. Because of their perishable nature, each piece existed only briefly, assembled, photographed, and then dismantled, making the process inherently fragile and time-sensitive.

in Vitamins, everyday objects are reinvented using vegetables as sculptural material

Vitamins blends still life, fashion imagery, and edible sculpture

The production followed a workflow closer to fashion and product photography than to food styling. Every composition was developed through physical prototyping, with attention to proportion, balance, and surface. Once a form was finalized, it was photographed immediately under controlled lighting to preserve freshness, color, and texture. The resulting images capture a fleeting moment in which organic matter temporarily performs as a design object. Through this process, Vitamins transforms vegetables into carriers of glamour, humor, and visual desire. By allowing produce to take on the roles of everyday objects, the project questions hierarchies of material value and invites viewers to reconsider what we choose to admire and what we usually overlook. The series was published as the Vitamins calendar, extending the project into a year-long visual format.

familiar forms are reimagined through unexpected textures, colors, and organic matter

vegetables are transformed into objects of desire, shifting their role from ingredient to icon

each composition plays with glamour, craft, and material illusion

what looks like product design is in fact entirely made from produce

the series blurs the boundaries between still life, fashion imagery, and edible sculpture

the project sits at the intersection of food, fashion, and contemporary design

humor and fantasy are used to invite viewers to look at vegetables with new curiosity

the project proposes food as a design medium rather than a culinary one

Vitamins reframes vegetables as cultural objects, not just something to eat, but something to admire

project info:

name: Vitamins | @vitamin___color
designer: Eleonore Buschinger | @eleonorebuschinger 

photographer: Tabea Mathern | @tabea.mathern

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

The post from bags to make up, vitamins photo series reimagines real vegetables as everyday objects appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Located in the center of Ljubljana, Water Sculpture LJ is a site-specific public artwork realized by M.KOCBEK architects and P PLUS arhitekti nine years after winning a public design competition. Conceived as a spatial intervention within the city’s dense urban fabric, the sculpture introduces a defined micro-environment that operates as a small urban platform. Its continuous, rounded geometry establishes a distinct spatial condition that contrasts with the surrounding movement of the city while remaining visually and physically accessible.

The mirrored sculpture is formed as a continuous spatial loop that frames views and directs movement, producing a sequence of changing visual perspectives. Rather than functioning as an object to be observed from a distance, the installation is designed as an inhabitable structure that supports movement, sitting, and tactile engagement. The spatial configuration allows passers-by to move through and within the form, integrating everyday use into the experience of the artwork and positioning it as part of the public realm rather than a detached sculptural object.

all images by Ana Skobe

Water Flow and Reflective Surfaces Animate the Urban Context

Water circulation is integrated as a central design element, reinforcing themes of movement, continuity, and flow. The presence of water operates both spatially and symbolically, referencing natural cycles and processes through continuous motion. This integration positions the sculpture as an interface between material form and environmental dynamics, linking physical presence with less tangible phenomena such as circulation, transformation, and connectivity.

For the designers Mojca Kocbek of M.KOCBEK architects and Primož Boršič of P PLUS arhitekti, material selection plays a key role in the project’s interaction with its context. The sculpture is constructed from stainless steel, chosen for its reflective properties and durability in an urban environment. Its surface mirrors surrounding activity, light conditions, and weather, causing the sculpture’s appearance to shift throughout the day. Under different atmospheric conditions, the form alternately asserts itself or visually recedes, responding to changes in light, sky, and movement around it.

Water Sculpture LJ is located in the center of Ljubljana as a site-specific public artwork

Water Sculpture LJ functions as a spatial landmark within Ljubljana’s public space network. Designed to connect rather than divide, it supports multiple forms of engagement while maintaining an open relationship with its surroundings. Through its spatial continuity, material responsiveness, and integration of water, the project contributes a flexible public element that operates at the intersection of art, landscape, and urban infrastructure.

the sculpture introduces a defined micro-environment within the dense urban fabric

a continuous, rounded geometry establishes a distinct spatial condition

the mirrored surface contrasts with the movement of the surrounding city

the sculpture is formed as a continuous spatial loop

the installation produces a sequence of changing visual perspectives

the surface mirrors light, weather, and surrounding urban activity

passers-by move through and within the sculptural form

project info:

name: Water Sculpture LJ
designers: M.KOCBEK architects – Mojca Kocbek | @mojcakocbek, P PLUS arhitekti – Primož Boršič | @pplusarhitekti

investor: Municipality of Ljubljana

location: Slovenska cesta, Ljubljana, Slovenia

area: 150 sqm

photographer: Ana Skobe | @anaskobe

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

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Habitario by Brenda Isabel Pérez is an art and research project presented in the format of a board game that examines domestic space in Mexico through narrative construction and spatial speculation. The project defines habitarios as both physical and symbolic environments in which everyday life unfolds, social relationships are formed, and collective memory is shaped. Within this framework, domestic space is treated as a site for rethinking existing structures and imagining alternative spatial models. Developed with the support of the Jóvenes Creadores grant (formerly FONCA), Habitario forms part of U/Topías domésticas, the project awarded the 2024 Jóvenes Creadores grant in the Architecture category. The work operates at the intersection of research, narrative, and material assembly, translating literary and social analysis into a participatory spatial system.

The game draws on four short stories written by Mexican women authors, Inés Arredondo, Amparo Dávila, Elena Garro, and Gabriela Damián Miravete, whose writing addresses domestic interiors as spaces shaped by care, control, and gendered expectations. Rather than directly illustrating these narratives, Habitario abstracts their themes into a set of spatial and narrative prompts. Players construct speculative houses using wooden components, acrylic figures representing characters, and action cards derived from scenes of domestic life.

Each participant begins by drawing a character defined through recognizable domestic roles, such as daughter, mother, or guest. These archetypes establish initial relationships to space without requiring prior knowledge of the literary sources. Gameplay unfolds through the gradual placement of components and the interpretation of narrative fragments, resulting in a collectively assembled domestic environment. Sessions conclude either when all cards are drawn or when a spatial configuration is completed, producing different outcomes each time.

game table and table set | all images by Amy Bello unless stated otherwise

women’s reflection on memory, trauma, and domestic labor

Designer Brenda Isabel Pérez’s literary references underpinning the project include La sunamita, El anillo, El huésped, and Espanto del mundo nuevo. Research for the project extended beyond the texts themselves to include the authors’ biographical and geographic contexts, examining the houses they inhabited, regional climates, and social conditions that informed their writing. This research shaped both the character archetypes and the conceptual framework of the game, which also draws on Marcela Lagarde’s Los cautiverios de las mujeres, a study of social structures that restrict women through prescribed domestic roles.

The speculative houses generated through Habitario operate as a living methodology. Using wooden components and acrylic figures, participants without architectural training assemble complex spatial configurations that prompt reflection on domestic memory and spatial practice. The process raises questions about past living environments, such as the presence of courtyards, circulation patterns, and spaces for domestic labor, as well as potential transformations, omissions, or removals. It also opens broader inquiries into alternative forms of living that emerge when housing is no longer structured around the traditional family model, and how domestic space might be reorganized to support different modes of use and care. As gameplay progresses, participants construct imagined domestic elements, including an always-open zaguán, a plant-filled corridor for hiding, or a window made for shouting, in a way to rework the traumatic experiences of characters such as Guadalupe or Luisa, women constrained by reproductive and domestic expectations in the twentieth century, whose conditions remain painfully current.

Habitario positions architecture as an affective and social practice, emphasizing how spatial organization influences labor, intimacy, and collective life. The project avoids predetermined narratives, instead offering open-ended configurations that allow each session to operate as an independent exploration of domestic space and its possibilities. Habitario is currently exhibited at Centro Cultural San Roque, where it will remain on view until March 22, 2026.

resulting houses, instructions and postcards

Habitario activation

play as a tool for imagination and resilience

game table and board game

folding instructions | image by Paulina Ojeda

resulting houses, instructions and postcards

character cards | image by Julieta Catalan

characters and vegetation | image by Julieta Catalán

spatial variants | image by Julieta Catalán

the artist, Brenda Isabel Pérez, and her table board game | image by Paulina Ojeda

project info:

name: Habitario
designer: Brenda Isabel Pérez

collaborators:
Marcos Popotla, Montserrat Quintanar, Julieta Catalán, Carpintería Samuraí

photographers: Amy Bello, Julieta Catalán, Paulina Ojeda

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom

The post habitario board game challenges domestic models in mexico through women’s narratives appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.