Drawing Architecture Studio has completed a large-scale, site-specific rolling ball installation in Chengdu, China, commissioned by Taikoo Li Chengdu, an open-air, low-rise commercial and cultural district in the city center. Installed for the holiday season in a central plaza facing a thousand-year-old temple, the installation titled Fun Palace transforms the site into an immersive landscape of movement, combining five looping ball-track systems with five sculptural architectural forms. Drawing on Aldo Rossi’s ideas of architecture as a repository of collective memory and echoing the spirit of Luna Luna, the 1987 Hamburg art amusement park that turned works by artists such as Keith Haring and Salvador Dalí into playful public experiences, the public installation frames architecture as a tool for joy, participation, and everyday wonder.

2025 winter public art installation at Taikoo Li Chengdu | all images © Arch-Exist Photography unless stated otherwise

‘fun Palace’ Weaves Kinetic Landscape into Chengdu plaza

The Fun Palace installation occupies a plaza framed by ginkgo trees and a shallow reflecting pool, a space that becomes the setting for a temporary artwork each holiday season. Drawing Architecture Studio fills the site with overlapping tracks that weave around five miniature buildings, creating a layered environment that visitors can walk through, observe, and inhabit. Each building functions both as an independent sculpture and as a key node within the kinetic system, redirecting the rolling balls and altering their speed as they pass through.

At ground level, the curved outline of the installation echoes the fluid geometry of the tracks above, while parts of the system extend into the surrounding tree clusters, visually integrating architecture and landscape. Colorful metal balls and custom benches are scattered throughout the plaza, encouraging visitors to pause and watch the choreography of movement unfold.

the Stage, echoing the forms of Sichuan opera headpieces

Everyday Rituals Transformed into Playful Architectural Forms

The five sculptural forms reinterpret familiar local activities, eating hotpot, visiting teahouses, playing mahjong, watching Sichuan opera, and skiing in nearby mountains, into fictional ‘architectural sculptures.’ These memories shape both the appearance of the structures and the specific routes of the rolling balls, turning cultural references into spatial and kinetic experiences.

Constructed from ordinary corrugated PVC panels, the installation maintains an everyday material language while achieving a precise and carefully crafted finish. Fun Palace ultimately proposes a lighter, more playful role for architecture in public space, one that invites curiosity and shared experience within the contemporary urban fabric. 

the Mahjong Building, referencing both mahjong tables and the zigzag staircases of the locally well-known Yuanyang Building

the Teahouse | image © UNIQ Energy

the Hotpot City, drawn from the image of a hotpot

the Teahouse, inspired by Sichuan’s long-neck teapots

the Ski Tower, reinterpreting the watchtowers of Qiang villages outside Chengdu

the Hotpot City within the track network | image © UNIQ Energy

the rolling ball track network | image © UNIQ Energy

the installation titled Fun Palace transforms the site into an immersive landscape of movement

the Stage interwoven with the track network

the installation combines five looping ball-track systems with five sculptural architectural forms | image © UNIQ Energy

project info: 

name: Fun Palace
architects: Drawing Architecture Studio | @drawingarchitecturestudio
design team: Li Han, Hu Yan, Zhang Xintong

curation & track structure design: UNIQ Energy

location: Chengdu, China

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Carsten Höller installs Pink Mirror Carousel on the ice rink of the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz this winter, introducing a slowed, reflective amusement structure to the Alpine resort. Clad in pink mirrored panels and precisely calibrated to complete a full rotation every two minutes, the work takes a familiar fairground structure and transforms it into an immersive sculptural environment that folds time, movement, and spectatorship into a disorienting experience set against the Engadin landscape.

Installed outdoors on the hotel’s ice rink, Pink Mirror Carousel continues Höller’s long-standing engagement with amusement rides as what he calls ‘confusion machines.’ Rather than delivering speed or thrill, the carousel deliberately slows the body down. Its rotation becomes almost meditative, encouraging riders to register duration, repetition, and anticipation as material conditions. The structure is composed of twelve identical mirrored segments arranged as a dodecagon, reflecting skaters, riders, the surrounding mountains, and the carousel itself in shifting fragments. 

all images courtesy of Kulm Hotel St. Moritz

Pink Mirror Carousel rotates on the Kulm Hotel ice rink

While earlier carousel works by Höller have required up to twenty-four hours for a single turn, the St. Moritz installation completes its cycle in exactly two minutes. This double minute references the carousel’s counter-rotating elements, with the top turning counter-clockwise and the middle section rotating clockwise. The result is a subtle but persistent sense of misalignment, where mechanical precision and bodily perception never fully sync. As Baldo Hauser, the Belgian artist’s alter ego, notes, the work functions as ‘a sculpture with people inside, animating the inanimate, the mechanical, the lifeless rotation with the realness of human bodies being transported through their own biological time.’

Music curated by the Kulm Hotel’s directeur d’ambiance, Arman Naféei, accompanies the skating rink, layering sound into the experience. Open to both hotel guests and the public, the installation operates as a shared, temporary situation.

Carsten Höller installs Pink Mirror Carousel on the ice rink of the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz

Pink Mirror Carousel continues Höller’s long-standing engagement with amusement rides

its rotation becomes almost meditative, encouraging riders to register duration

composed of twelve identical mirrored segments

reflecting skaters, riders, the surrounding mountains

Carsten Höller at the Kulm Hotel St. Moritz, Switzerland

project info:

name: Pink Mirror Carousel

artist: Carsten Höller | @carsten.holler

location: Kulm Hotel St. Moritz | @kulmhotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland

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Vancouver-based artist David Spriggs completes his latest public artwork, Astra, within the atrium of the State Docking Building in Kansas. Suspended high above the public floor, the work takes shape as a spatial installation to be experienced from below, around, and through movement.

From a distance, Astra reads as a loose atmospheric mass gathered beneath the ceiling plane. As viewers approach, its structure becomes legible through a sequence of layered acrylic sheets, each UV printed and suspended in alignment. The installation floats within the space lightly and forms a volume defined by depth and spacing rather than solid mass. Sightlines through the atrium shift continuously as the layers compress and separate in perspective.

images courtesy the artist

david spriggs’ shifting artwork to be viewed gradually

David Spriggs constructs Astra through stacked transparent planes that carry fragments of image and color. Individually, each sheet appears partial and insubstantial. Together, they generate a volumetric presence that feels architectural in scale yet dependent on position and movement. The acrylic surfaces catch ambient light from the atrium while integrated LED lighting sharpens edges and intensifies chromatic transitions.

Mirrored stainless steel panels installed above extend the visual field vertically, multiplying the perceived height of the installation and folding the atrium back into itself. This reflection doubles the depth of the work and reinforces its suspension between ceiling and floor. Steel beams and hanging hardware remain precise and restrained, as the layered field reads as a continuous — yet ephemeral — whole.

The artist creates this work to reward slow circulation. Viewed from one angle, the form appears to dissolve into thin lines and gaps. From another, density returns and the volume coheres. This constant recalibration places the body in an active role, with perception shaped by pace and position. This way, the atrium becomes a space for pause and observation rather than passage alone. 

Astra hangs within the atrium of the State Docking Building in Kansas

the installation occupies the atrium of the civic building

layered acrylic sheets form a spatial image through depth and alignment

the work changes appearance as viewers move through the atrium

mirrored surfaces extend the perceived height of the space

movement shapes how the form gathers and disperses in view

project info:

project title: Astra

artist: David Spriggs | @david_spriggs

location: State Docking Building Kansas, USA
completion: 2025

photography: © David Spriggs

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Emirati artist Shaikha Al Mazrou presents The Contingent Object at Manar Abu Dhabi 2025, a public light art exhibition unfolding within a coastal landscape shaped by mangroves and tidal air.

Sited close to water, the luminous work takes the form of a circular salt field measuring roughly thirty meters across. The installation registers time through material change. Seawater settles into a shallow plane, and as heat and wind take hold, evaporation thickens the surface. Color intensifies, crystals begin to assemble, and a pale crust develops along the edges. What begins as a calm liquid state gradually compacts into a dense, reflective plane, carrying the imprint of climate and duration.

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Shaikha Al Mazrou uses Material as Process

Creating the Contingent Object, artist Shaikha Al Mazrou, employs salt as both medium and indicator. The material’s responsiveness to environment gives the piece a living quality, shaped daily by light levels, humidity, and shifting temperatures. The ground plane remains precise in geometry, yet its surface resists exact repetition. Fine variations accrue across the circle, producing subtle tonal gradients and textures that register up close before resolving at scale.

After dusk, a restrained lighting system activates along the perimeter and beneath the salt plane. The illumination stays low and even, allowing the circle to hover visually above the ground. Approached on foot, the work reveals itself gradually. The surrounding darkness compresses attention toward the illuminated edge, creating a measured spatial rhythm that encourages slow movement and extended viewing.

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Light, Landscape, and Duration

Within the broader context of Manar Abu Dhabi, The Contingent Object participates in a city-scale conversation about light, site, and public access. The biennial brings together installations that engage outdoor settings through restraint and technical precision. Our recent coverage of DRIFT’s installation for Manar Abu Dhabi, which translated motion and aerial choreography into a shared nocturnal experience, offers a point of comparison rooted in light as a spatial tool rather than an effect-driven gesture.

Shaikha Al Mazrou’s approach remains grounded in physical transformation. Light plays a supporting role, tracing the boundary of the work rather than overtaking it. The glow frames the salt field and reveals the incremental shifts in its surface, reinforcing the idea of duration as a central design parameter.

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Shaikha Al Mazrou, Contingent Object, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi

project info:

name: Contingent Object

artist: Shaikha Al Mazrou | @shaikha.almazrou

location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

photography: © Lance Gerber | @lance.gerber

festival: Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 | @publicartabudhabi

theme: The Light Compass

dates: November 15th, 2025 – January 4th, 2026

The post shaikha al mazrou creates light art from crystallized seawater at manar abu dhabi appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

The Christmas Festival of Bad Habits is a temporary public-space installation located on Římské náměstí in the historic center of Brno, Czech Republic. Developed by architectural studio Peer Collective in collaboration with artist Kateřina Šedá, the non-profit organization Renadi, and the Brno-střed Municipal District, the project reconsiders the spatial and social format of the traditional Christmas market. Instead of retail-driven programming, the installation introduces a structured environment for reflection, movement, and collective experience.

The project occupies a long-overlooked urban site adjacent to Františkánská Street, transforming the square into a calm, barrier-free environment during the holiday season. Its conceptual framework draws from Šedá’s long-term participatory project, The National Collection of Bad Habits, which examines everyday behaviors and shared social patterns. This material informs a guided spatial sequence designed as a path of self-reflection through the square.

Peer Collective’s architectural intervention consists of a lightweight, temporary structure made from modular truss systems commonly used in stage construction. From this framework, large red and white curtains are suspended, subdividing the square into eighteen open-air ‘rooms.’ These spaces create a sequence of thresholds, passages, and partial enclosures that encourage slow movement and individual engagement. The curtains operate as soft architectural elements, forming spatial boundaries without fully enclosing the space and maintaining visual continuity with the surrounding city.

all images by Matej Hakár unless stated otherwise

An Urban Interior for Reflection and Collective Experience

The installation covers approximately 2,478 sqm and functions as an urban interior within the public realm. During evening hours, the white curtain surfaces serve as projection screens for text-based testimonies derived from The National Collection of Bad Habits. These projections, combined with subdued lighting and ambient sound, transform the square into an open-air exhibition environment that blurs the distinction between public space and personal reflection. At the center of the spatial sequence is a freestanding ‘confessional’ structure composed of six individual booths. Replacing the conventional market stall, this element serves as the focal point of the installation. Visitors are invited to enter the booths to record or reflect on personal habits, contributing to a collective audiovisual system that aggregates individual input into a shared narrative. Circulation routes guide visitors back around the curtain perimeter, completing the spatial loop and returning them to the surrounding urban fabric.

Accessibility and inclusion form a key part of the project’s spatial strategy. The ground surface of the square was leveled with fine gravel to create a barrier-free environment suitable for wheelchair users, parents with strollers, and visitors with limited mobility. The installation operates without alcohol sales, reinforcing its role as a sober and inclusive public setting during the holiday period. Local residents also participated in preparing the site through a community event prior to the festival. Through temporary architecture, minimal material intervention, and participatory content, the Christmas Festival of Bad Habits demonstrates how seasonal urban installations can shift emphasis from consumption to spatial experience, reflection, and shared presence. The project positions architecture as a framework for social interaction, using adaptable construction systems and soft boundaries to reshape public space in the city center. Designed by architectural studio Peer Collective in collaboration with artist Kateřina Šedá, the installation is on view from December 9th to December 31st, 2025.

the temporary installation reinterprets the traditional Christmas market as a space for reflection

a long-overlooked urban square is reactivated as a calm public environment

the installation functions as an urban interior within the public realm

the Christmas Festival of Bad Habits occupies Římské náměstí in Brno’s historic center

red and white curtains subdivide the square into eighteen open-air rooms

modular truss systems form the lightweight structural framework

the installation replaces retail stalls with a guided spatial sequence

a central confessional structure anchors the spatial sequence

the project was developed by Peer Collective with artist Kateřina Šedá and local partners

temporary architecture frames social interaction without permanent intervention

circulation routes expand beyond the central installation before returning to the city

white curtain surfaces become projection screens after dark | image by Jan Urbášek

project info:

name: Christmas Festival of Bad Habits
architect: Peer Collective | @peer.archi

art concept: Kateřina Šedá | @katerinaseda.cz

location: Římské náměstí, Františkánská ulice, Brno, Czech Republic

dates: December 9th–December 31st, 2025

built-up area: 1784 sqm

client: Brno-střed Municipal District

lead designers: Daniel Struhařík, Georgi Dimitrov, Ondřej Válek [Peer Collective] + Kateřina Šedá

design team: Vojtěch Heralecký, Jakub Čevela, Jan Urbášek, Radim Koutný, Monika Matějkovičová, Aneta Báčová

idea initiator: Renadi | @renadibrno

graphic design: Kristína Drinková

editors: Lucie Faulerová, Petra Konečná

interactive concept: Zkrat kolektiv | @zkrat.kolektiv

production: Martin Ondruš, David Ondra, Lenka Holenda Jirků, Michal Ondráček, Petr Štika, Martina Pokorná, Radim Preuss

structure contractor: Kletch CZ

curtain supplier: Kubíček Factory

contractor of the confessional: Georgi Dimitrov

projector supplier: Jaroslav Zelina

photographer: Matej Hakár | @matejhakar

night photos: Jan Urbášek [Peer Collective]

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 red and white curtains transform czech historic center’s pathways into christmas installation appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Relic installation for Noor Riyadh in Saudi Arabia builds on Karolina Halatek’s previous site-specific piece in Metz, redefining the concept of a monument. The pyramid-shaped structure emits a sky-tracing beam of white light through mist and mirrored surfaces, creating a serene gathering place. As visitors approach the sculptural composition, they are reflected, illuminated, and transformed. The public artwork invites each person to acknowledge their own presence and significance, momentarily becoming a living monument and an active participant in co-creating history. Combining modern aesthetics and technology with evocative form, Relic serves not as a historical tribute but as a participatory space for reflection and transformation.

a pyramid-shaped structure emits a vertical beam of white light | image courtesy of Noor Riyadh Festival

Karolina Halatek Reimagines Monument as interactive Experience

Karolina Halatek’s works are catalysts for experience. Using light as her central medium, she creates site-specific installations that integrate visual, architectural, and sculptural elements. She studied Design for Performance at UAL (UK), Fine Arts at UdK Berlin, and Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland, and took part in Olafur Eliasson’s Institut für Raumexperimente. The Polish artist is a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and a visiting researcher at the Lighting Lab, Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. The installation was produced by TETRO+A agency and exhibited at the fifth edition of the Noor Riyadh festival titled ‘In the Blink of an Eye,’ Saudi Arabia, 2025.

mist and mirrored surfaces frame a sky-tracing column of illumination | image courtesy of Noor Riyadh Festival

the piece encourages collective engagement and shared experience | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

the installation forms a quiet gathering point within the festival | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

light and mist subtly transform each person entering the space | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

the work invites visitors to recognize their own presence | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

participants momentarily become part of a living monument | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

Relic blends contemporary aesthetics with technological precision | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

the work acts as a participatory space rather than a traditional monument | image courtesy of Karolina Halatek

project info:

name: Relic for Noor Riyadh

artist: Karolina Halatek | @karolinahalatek

location: Qasr Al Hokm Metro Station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

materials: steel, stainless steel, acrylic

dimensions: 300 x 600 (base diameter)

event: Noor Riyadh Festival | @noorriyadhfestival

production: TETRO+A | @tetro_agency

special thanks to: Nouf Almoneef | @nouf.almoneef, Riyadh Art | @riyadhartofficial, Matthieu Debay | @mattdebay, Nicolas Roziecki | @hyvn, Matteo Messina | @mttmex, Adrien Jolivet | @adrisocialbot, Gabriel Ducolombier | @rielgabzz, Lavínia D. Freitas | @lavinfreitas, m5iw | @m5iw

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 reflective pyramidal monument emits sky-tracing beam of white light in saudi arabia appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Slalom and UNA/UNLESS unveil Ecotonos, a site-specific acoustic installation premiering at Open Air Design 2025, held September 18–21 at BAM – Biblioteca degli Alberi, Milan. Designed by architect Giulia Foscari, founder of UNA/UNLESS, the project merges Slalom’s acoustic expertise with a conceptual framework rooted in ecology, cinema, and multispecies coexistence. Staged within the event’s theme ‘Frames of Nature,’ the installation explores silence and listening as tools for reconnection between city and biodiversity, while extending research from UNA/UNLESS’s Voice of Commons project at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

This immersive vision did not stand alone. During the same days, Ecotonos became a catalyst for a wider cultural program. The installation joined a broader series of public conversations exploring design, cinema, and urban ecologies. Moderated by Francesca Molteni, the talks united designers, curators, actors, and musicians. The opening event featured Giulia Foscari alongside cultural figures including Rosita Celentano, Giampiero Judica, and Patrizia Sardo Marras, with contributions from Alida Catella of COIMA Image and Caterina Mosca of MoscaPartners. Additional sessions, including one led by architect Michele De Lucchi, expanded on the role of nature within contemporary urban imaginaries. The program is accompanied by three open-air screenings focused on architecture and design.

Slalom takes part in BAM Open Air Design with Ecotonos, a site-specific installation that brings together the brands’s expertise in acoustics and the design vision of UNA/UNLESS | all images courtesy of Slalom

an acoustic multispecies architecture

Established in 2012 by Elettra de Pellegrin, Slalom specializes in high-performance acoustic panels for contract, cultural, and public environments. Their approach centers on circularity, using post-consumer plastics transformed into PETfelt, along with wool, wood, and natural fibers. Every product is designed for durability, recyclability, and reusability, in line with the 2030 Agenda and ESG principles. De Pellegrin’s guiding concept of ‘Acoustethics’ merges functional sound performance with tactile and visual refinement, a philosophy clearly embodied in Ecotonos.

This shared attention to material intelligence and environmental responsibility forms the bridge to UNA’s practice.

Founded by Giulia Foscari, UNA operates globally across cultural, residential, and product design, with a portfolio that includes work for the Anish Kapoor Art Foundation and LAS Art Foundation. Running parallel to the practice, the UNLESS Foundation ETS advances interdisciplinary research on the Global Commons, notably through Antarctica-focused initiatives such as Antarctic Resolution. UNA/UNLESS’s work is characterized by a belief in preservation as radical sustainability, a principle that anchors both Voice of Commons and Ecotonos.

the event investigates how nature and culture can intersect, offering the public a unique and inclusive outdoor experience

ecotonos absorbs sounds with diamond-like surface

Ecotonos appears as a fractured prism in the center of the park, a sculptural threshold that divides the sensory regimes of the city and the natural environment. The installation borrows its name from ‘ecotones,’ the transition zones between ecosystems where diversity concentrates. On one side, its diamond-like, reflective surface dematerializes the skyline into ghostly mirages; on the other, it opens into a soft, honeycomb-like interior carved with cavities that recall a beehive. This geometry absorbs and modulates sound, dampening mechanical noise and amplifying subtle natural frequencies, from bees’ vibrations to the rustling of leaves.

The installation functions as an interspecies refuge, integrating plug-in components to host seeds, microhabitats, and water stations for insects and birds. These ‘cells’ are designed not as decorative motifs but as active spatial tools for supporting biodiversity. Ecotonos frames nature not as scenery but as protagonist, creating a micro-sanctuary that encourages visitors to slow down, listen, and engage with the more-than-human world. In this gesture, the work becomes a political threshold between extraction and care, proposing silence as an act of resistance.

in the heart of the park, a fractured prism emerges as a threshold between two worlds: the city and nature

Ecotonos carries forward material research developed for Voice of Commons, presented by UNA/UNLESS as a Special Project of the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. At the Biennale, Carlo Scarpa’s restored ticket office becomes a Planetary Embassy dedicated to the Global Commons, where Slalom and UNA/UNLESS experimented with acoustic ‘Spikes’ developed using space-inspired techniques. At BAM, these surfaces reappear in an evolved, sustainable form, inaugurating a new line of sound-absorbing products designed with recycled, regenerated, and natural materials—a move away from conventional petroleum-based polyurethane.

Open Air Design 2025 adopts cinema as a conceptual backbone, a theme that resonates throughout Ecotonos. The installation echoes Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, where the silence of Antarctica reveals otherwise imperceptible natural phenomena. Similarly, Ecotonos aims to suspend urban noise and cultivate a state of attentive stillness, where interspecies interactions gain clarity. This cinematic sensibility transforms the installation into a narrative device, a frame through which the public perceives new relations between the city, nature, and sound.

in the park-facing side, the installation opens up. It welcomes. It softens mechanical noise to allow the breathing of bees

its interior, sculpted with regular cavities, recalls a honeycom

the ‘cells’ invite participation, with plug-in elements designed to host life

this dual orientation is an architectural expression of the tensions that define our age: extraction versus care, blind growth versus radical listening

Elettra de Pellegrin, founder of Slalom (left) with Giulia Foscari, founder of UNA/UNLESS (right)

project info:

name: Ecotonos

company: Slalom | @slalom.acoustic

event: BAM Open Air Design

design: Giulia Foscari

design vision: UNA/UNLESS | @una_unless

location: Biblioteca degli Alberi, Milan, Italy

dates: September 18-21, 2025

photography: DSL Studio | @dsl__studio

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The Observer Effect by Pilar Zeta opens on the shoreline in front of The Shelborne By Proper in Miami, bringing a temporary architectural presence that responds directly to its coastal setting. Unveiled on December 2nd, 2025 the public artwork introduces a sequence of metallic portals whose scale, alignment, and surface treatment are shaped by an interest in perception and spatial awareness.

During the evening launch, visitors first encountered the work from the sand, where the relationship between geometry and light came into focus. Eight large-scale portals form a rhythmic perspective toward the horizon, and create a corridor that frames the ocean while remaining permeable to the movement of people and shifting daylight. See designboom’s complete guide to Miami Art Week 2025 here!

image © James Jackman

pilar zeta’s portal of glimmering arches

Each portal of The Observer Effect is built from stacked geometric volumes, producing Pilar Zeta’s arch-like forms with a distinct massing that contrasts the softness of Miami’s coastal landscape. The surfaces are coated in an iridescent metallic finish that reacts to Miami’s changing conditions, transitioning between muted greys and saturated chromatic tones as the sun moves. This treatment gives the work its atmospheric quality, allowing the structure to register even subtle variations in light.

As visitors move through the sequence of forms, the reflective surfaces respond with shifting color gradients, producing a heightened awareness of one’s position in relation to the geometry. The effect aligns with the installation’s title, prompting people to consider how the act of looking shapes their experience of the work.

image © James Jackman

a chromatic colonnade to frame miami beach

In full sun, Pilar Zeta’s The Observer Effect takes on the appearance of a radiant chromatic field, catching both direct light and the softer reflections from Miami’s water and sand. The clarity of the volumes becomes especially noticeable at midday, when shadows emphasize their height and the spacing between each element. Under evening lighting, the work transitions into a focused environment where the forms feel more unified and the reflective surfaces produce a quiet and ambient glow.

This shift between daytime and nighttime conditions allows the installation to function as both a passage and a temporary landmark. Miami’s beachfront context plays an essential role in this transformation, offering an open horizon that accentuates the structure’s silhouette and its capacity for color modulation.

Pilar Zeta describes the installation as an exploration of how perception influences built space, and the arrangement of the eight portals reinforces this approach. The spacing encourages steady movement through the colonnade while avoiding a sense of enclosure, maintaining a direct connection to the beach. Rather than relying on symbolic gestures, the work uses proportion, repetition, and material precision to foreground the experience of passage.

image © James Jackman

image © James Jackman

image © James Jackman

images © Marina Goldi

images © Marina Goldi

images © Marina Goldi

project info:

what: The Observer Effect

artist: Pilar Zeta | @pilar_zeta

location: The Shelborne By Proper | @theshelborne, 1801 Collins Ave, Miami Beach

dates: December 2nd — December 7th, 2025

photography: © James Jackman | @james_jackman_ © Marina Goldi | Marina Goldi

The post pilar zeta brings iridescent postmodernist shapes to miami beach with ‘the observer effect’ appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Skyward by Ezequiel Pini, the artist and designer behind Six N. Five, glimmers within the landscape of Manar Abu Dhabi 2025 as a composed encounter between material density and reflected atmosphere. The public artwork begins with a single gabbro stone extracted from the UAE town of Ras al Khaimah, positioned so its dark surface absorbs the desert sun while revealing fine variations in texture. Its presence feels anchored to geological time as it was first shaped by natural forces and then by weeks of hand refinement.

Across from the stone, a illuminated mirrored plane of digital art introduces an entirely different register. The surface gathers the sky and returns it to the ground, creating a shifting field that responds to weather, hour, and the quiet movement of visitors. This pairing forms the basic spatial rhythm of Skyward, one element rooted in the earth, the other oriented toward the open expanse overhead.

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

six n. five sculpts with stone and shimmering light

Six N. Five‘s placement of the monolith and mirror frames a passage that draws visitors to Skyward through a measured sequence. The gap between them serves as a calibrated threshold, where the mass of gabbro stone meets the immaterial clarity of reflected light. Ezequiel Pini’s work often dwells on elemental contrasts, and here the installation translates those interests into a built environment.

Digital projections shimmer across the mirrored surface, guided by constellations associated with Abu Dhabi. These animated sequences bring a sense of quiet movement to the installation, echoing traditions of navigation shaped by star patterns across desert and sea. The effect remains grounded in architectural experience: visitors read the surface at scale, observing how light behaves across its height and how the projection alters their perception of depth.

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

engaging abu dhabi’s desert landscape

As the sun shifts, Six N. Five’s Skyward mirror serves as an inclined horizon, folding portions of sky into the visitor’s field of view. This creates a subtle reorientation, encouraging upward attention while still maintaining a strong relationship with the ground plane. The installation’s alignment within the desert setting amplifies this effect, giving Skyward a steady presence amid open terrain.

The stone’s handcrafted finish invites close viewing. Faint tool marks remain at certain edges, offering evidence of the labor involved and underscoring the contrast between permanence and adaptation. In relation to the mirror, the stone’s matte density stabilizes the composition, heightening awareness of the changes taking place across the reflective surface.

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

Ezequiel Pini (a.k.a. Six N. Five), Skyward, 2025. Manar Abu Dhabi 2025. image courtesy Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi & Public Art Abu Dhabi. photo by Lance Gerber

project info:

name: Skyward

artist: Ezequiel Pini (Six N Five) | @sixnfive

location: Jubail Island, Abu Dhabi, UAE

client: Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, Public Art Abu Dhabi

completion: 2025

photography: © Lance Gerber © Stéphane Aït Ouarab / Saï

The post six n. five lands in abu dhabi with glimmering desert installation ‘skyward’ appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Es Devlin unveils Library of Us, a vast, glowing amphitheater of books, sound, and movement that serves as the major centerpiece of Faena Art Miami Art Week 2025. Marking ten years of Faena Art in Miami Beach, Devlin’s commission stretches across the shoreline as a kinetic, 6-meter-tall triangular bookshelf that rotates on its axis, its reflection amplified by a surrounding pool and a circular reading table that seats hundreds.

On view until December 7th, 2025, the installation acts as a public library, an illuminated sculpture, and an arena for collective reading, forming the core of a district-wide program of talks, performances, and communal rituals. Beyond its physical scale, Library of Us continues Devlin’s ongoing investigation into libraries as kinetic sculptures. Earlier in 2025 she presented Library of Light at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, where daily collective readings drew nearly 200,000 visitors (find designboom’s previous coverage here). 

all images by Sunn Studio

a kinetic library that reorganizes time and encounter

At the center of the beach installation sits the 15-meter-long triangular bookshelf, holding 2,500 books and a continuous 10-meter LED line that streams text across its spine. The entire structure turns once every ten minutes, creating a quiet, perceptible drift that affects the people seated around it. Visitors read at a two-ring circular table, an outer circle that stays still and an inner circle that rotates with the sculpture, resulting in shifting perspectives. Every slow rotation introduces a new passage, a new neighbor across the table, and a subtle sense of shared temporality.

A 250-excerpt audio score, read by Devlin herself, lays out a polyphonic field of voices, memories, and literary fragments, underscored by music. Materials such as steel, marine plywood, mirror, water, and LED turn the beach into a reflective, fluid environment where text moves at the pace of tides and pages.

When the week concludes, all 2,500 books from Library of Us, supplied through a partnership with Penguin Random House, will be donated to public libraries, schools, and community organizations across Miami.

Es Devlin unveils Library of Us

reading room and tracing time expand the project indoors

Two additional commissions complement the beach installation and deepen Devlin’s study of reading, time, and community. In the Faena Cathedral, the Reading Room appears as a 14-meter bench with an integrated bookshelf and LED screen. The work is built from phrases contributed by the entire Faena hotel staff, housekeeping, gardeners, restaurant teams, security, maintenance, and long-time collaborators. Devlin reads these texts aloud throughout the day as the phrases rise along the display, offering a participatory portrait of a hotel rendered through the books, songs, and poems that shape the lives of the people who work within it.

Meanwhile, in the Faena Art Project Room, Tracing Time presents drawings and paintings on glass, paper, and TV screens. These works offer a close reading of Devlin’s process, its layers, repetitions, and mark-making, mirroring the slow accumulations that define her large-scale installations. Together, the three works form a rare survey of Devlin’s multidisciplinary practice, bridging sound, architecture, text, scenography, and performance through the shared concern of how communities gather around language. 

a vast, glowing amphitheater of books, sound, and movement | image by Oriol Tarridas

the major centerpiece of Faena Art Miami Art Week 2025

Devlin’s commission stretches across the shoreline as a kinetic, 6-meter-tall triangular bookshelf

the installation rotates on its axis | image by Oriol Tarridas

a surrounding pool reflects the bookshelf | image by Oriol Tarridas

a reading table that seats hundreds encircles Library of Us | image by Oriol Tarridas

the 15-meter-long triangular bookshelf holds 2,500 books | image by Oriol Tarridas

the entire structure turns once every ten minutes

a continuous 10-meter LED line streams text across its spine | image by Oriol Tarridas

an outer circle stays still and an inner circle rotates with the sculpture | image by Oriol Tarridas

every slow rotation introduces a new passage | image by Oriol Tarridas

steel, marine plywood, mirror, water, and LED turn the beach into a reflective, fluid environment

text moves at the pace of tides and pages

when the week concludes, all 2,500 books from Library of Us will be donated | image by Oriol Tarridas

a public library, an illuminated sculpture, and an arena for collective reading | image by Oriol Tarridas

project info:

name: Library of Us

artist: Es Devlin | @esdevlin

location: Faena Beach, Miami Beach, Florida

dates: December 1st–7th, 2025

commissioned by: Faena Art | @faenaart

The post es devlin’s triangular bookshelf rotates within a mirrored pool for miami art week 2025 appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.