At Manchester International Festival 2025, Football City, Art United takes over Aviva Studios with an ambitious group exhibition that pairs eleven international footballers with artists across disciplines, from painting and sculpture to sound, video, performance, and architectural installation. The show, co-curated by Juan Mata, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Josh Willdigg, explores what football and art can learn from each other, inviting audiences to rethink the cultural potential of both fields. The works are on view through August 24th, 2025.

Set inside Aviva Studios, the landmark cultural venue designed by OMA, the exhibition unfolds across its vast, industrial interiors. A towering green banner by Alvaro Barrington and Brazilian football icon Raí cuts across the main hall, while Philippe Parreno and Marco Perego transform the memory of home into a playable video game, layered with sketches and voices.

Among the more spatial and interactive works is The Playmaker, created by Stefano Boeri Architetti with Sandro Mazzola and artist Eduardo Terrazas. Composed of cylindrical arenas punctuated by circular openings and graphic patterns, the installation encourages movement through a reinterpretation of Mazzola’s iconic plays.

Stefano Boeri and Eduardo Terrazas x Sandro Mazzola, The Playmaker Sketch, 2025. Courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti | images courtesy of Factory International, unless stated otherwise

Football City, Art United pairs artists and footballers

Each work dives deep into the personal, mythological, and political layers of the sport. British artist Ryan Gander collaborates with Eric Cantona on a three-part installation that explores fame, solitude, and legacy, including a spotlight that tracks gallery-goers like a star player under pressure. Elsewhere, Keiken and Ella Toone invite participants to ‘wear’ a large spirit-animal mask, while listening to Toone’s reflections on introspection, routine, and personal transformation. Suzanne Lacy teams up with Vivianne Miedema and Ali Riley to spotlight the lived experiences of women footballers, blending documentary interviews and shared testimony into a filmic space for dialogue.

While some projects channel surrealism and play, like the flamboyant football mascot Brody, created by Bárbara Sánchez-Kane and Jorge Campos, others lean into introspection and memory. Jill Mulleady animates a holographic portrait of Diego Maradona in a haunting, dreamlike tribute to his status in global football mythology. In another quiet moment, Rose Wylie’s colorful drawings, made in response to an image diary by Lotte Wubben-Moy, spill over into Water Street as billboard-sized homages to women’s football and its growing visibility.

Originally launched at MIF23 as The Trequartista – Art and Football United, this expanded edition of Football City, Art United continues a wider curatorial vision to explore how sport and contemporary art can collide in unexpected ways. With its mix of nostalgia, critique, and imagination, the show becomes a field of cultural reflection, where the rules are fluid and the goals are open-ended.

Football City, Art United takes over Aviva Studios with an ambitious group exhibition

Ryan Gander x Eric Cantona, Until death let us be immortal, 2025. Photo/ Ryan Gander Studio. © Ryan Gander. Courtesy the artist

Football City, Art United. at Manchester International Festival 2025 | image by David Levene

Brody by Mexican artist and fashion designer Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, inspired by legendary goalkeeper Jorge Campo

Diego Maradona as Jill Mulleady remembers him

Rose Wylie Woman Footballer 2019 ® Rose Wylie | image by Anna Arca, courtesy the artist and David Zwirner

Image: Keiken x Ella Toone, The Divine Puppeteer, 2025. Courtesy of Keiken

Chikyuu no Osakana Ponchan and Shinji Kagawa collaborate on a manga

Chikyuu no Osakana Ponchan x Shinji Kagawa , Intangibles — Running Through Time, 2025 | courtesy the artist

project info:

name: Football City, Art United

festival: Manchester International Festival 2025

location: Aviva Studios – Factory International | @factory_international, Manchester, UK

curators: Juan Mata, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Josh Willdigg

dates: July 5th – August 24th, 2025

producer: Factory International

participating artists and footballers: Alvaro Barrington + Raí, Stefano Boeri + Sandro Mazzola + Eduardo Terrazas, Ryan Gander + Eric Cantona, Keiken + Ella Toone, Suzanne Lacy + Vivianne Miedema + Ali Riley, Jill Mulleady (inspired by Diego Maradona), Chikyuu no Osakana Ponchan + Shinji Kagawa, Philippe Parreno + Marco Perego + Zoe Saldaña, Paul Pfeiffer + Edgar Davids, Bárbara Sánchez-Kane + Jorge Campos, Rose Wylie + Lotte Wubben-Moy

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The Mosca Bianca project by AACM – Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi is a ceramic workshop that also functions as an exhibition space in Padua, Italy. The design concept integrates the entire process of terracotta crafting into the spatial and material composition of the interior. The primary design gesture takes the form of a continuous, sculptural element that extends from the ceiling and guides the spatial experience. Shaped to evoke the twisting movement of clay on a potter’s wheel, this form creates a centripetal dynamic within the space, drawing attention toward a single zenithal light source. This lighting element punctuates the central axis, aligning with a monolithic work and display table positioned diagonally within the room.

The table serves multiple functions. While it operates as an exhibition platform when closed, it transforms into a worktable during ceramic workshops. Its structure reveals a series of concealed chairs and storage compartments integrated into the volume. Constructed from okumé wood sheets and supported by T-shaped frames, the table features a slender, cantilevered design that visually reduces its mass and emphasizes lightness. The choice of surface material responds to functional requirements for clay workability.

table without chairs | all images by Catalogo

Spatial Design by AACM is Rooted in Material Lifecycle

The surrounding surfaces contribute to the narrative of the ceramic-making process. Walls and ceilings are finished with a rammed-earth plaster composed of clay and brick production waste. This material selection reflects a focus on reuse and closed material cycles, consistent with the lifecycle of terracotta. Storage for tools and workshop equipment is integrated discreetly behind metal blades and fabric curtains, maintaining a clear spatial language and allowing functional elements to appear only as needed during use.

Throughout the project by studio AACM – Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi, the relationship between form, material, and function remains central. The spatial layout, material palette, and lighting strategy collectively reference the phases of terracotta production, from raw material, through shaping and working, to final display.

table closed altar

worktable

diagonal table closed

diagonal table open

table light curtain

ceramics

table light and shelves

hidden shelves

table structure detail

ceiling detail

junction detail open

junction detail closed

exterior

project info:

name: Mosca Bianca
architect: AACM – Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi | @aacm_studio

client: Mosca Bianca Ceramics | @mosca.bianca.ceramics

location: Padua, Italy

area: 45 sqm

photographer: Catalogo | @catalogo.studio

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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After seven years of restoration, the Carré Sainte-Anne in Montpellier reopens with a major new commission by JR, a participatory, large-scale tree installation titled Adventice. Unfolding within the nave of the neo-Gothic former church, the project transforms the historic site into a living artwork composed of 10,000 scanned hands from people across the world. Assembled into the form of a tree, the hands stretch toward the vaulted ceilings, forming a symbol of rootedness, migration, and collective identity.

In botanical terms, ‘adventice’ refers to plants that appear where they were not intentionally planted, often labeled as weeds. The exhibition reclaims this term to describe those presences that arrive uninvited but prove essential in the context of nature, cities, and communities. The massive tree of hands suspended inside the Carré Sainte-Anne captures this idea, with each hand representing an individual story and together forming a single, interconnected structure that grows with each new visitor. Additional hands can be scanned on-site and added to the artwork, allowing the installation to evolve throughout the exhibition’s run, which continues until December 7th, 2025.

Adventice exhibition view, Carré Sainte-Anne, Montpellier, 2025 | images © JR, unless stated otherwise

Adventice Connects Local Soil to Global Stories

With Adventice, French artist JR draws on a lesser-known chapter of Montpellier’s history, the arrival of foreign seeds through the medieval textile trade. Wool brought from Spain, North Africa, Constantinople, and Izmir was washed in the Lez river, unintentionally releasing seeds that took root along its banks. These plants, though not native, adapted and gradually transformed the landscape, contributing to the biodiversity of the region. The installation uses this ecological phenomenon as a metaphor for cultural exchange and migration, highlighting how external influences have helped shape Montpellier’s identity.

In addition to the central installation, Adventice features five new works in wood and paper that expand on the exhibition’s themes. These sculptural pieces, on view for the first time, extend JR’s language of human connection into more intimate material expressions. 

a living artwork composed of 10,000 scanned hands from people across the world

he hands stretch toward the vaulted ceilings

a symbol of rootedness, migration, and collective identity

each hand represents an individual story

JR under the tree | image by Christophe Ruiz, Montpellier Ville et Métropole

Adventice features five new works by JR in wood and paper

Adventice, #1, Bois, 2025 © JR

these sculptural pieces are on view for the first time

extending JR’s language of human connection

project info:

name: Adventice

artist: JR | @jr

location: Carré Sainte-Anne, Montpellier, France

dates: June 27th – December 7th, 2025

curator: Numa Hambursin

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V&A East Storehouse announces new details on the David Bowie Centre ahead of its opening on September 13th 2025 in London, England. Set to be the permanent home of David Bowie’s personal archive with more than 90,000 items, the museum allows visitors to schedule a one-to-one with the items on display so they can view certain objects more closely and with a reduced crowd. The David Bowie Centre archive includes handwritten lyrics, drawings, costumes, photos, letters, musical instruments, set lists, and design sketches. Some of the late revered artist’s unrealized projects are on display too, from ideas for albums to films and tours that were never finished. 

Isolar II poster magazine, David Bowie, 1978, US. Museum no. S.1171:1 to 2-2010. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London | all images courtesy of V&A Museum

More than 90,000 items on display within V&A East Storehouse

At the David Bowie Centre, opening in September 2025 within the V&A East Storehouse museum, the archive collection also showcases the artist’s many artistic identities, such as Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane. Visitors can learn how he created these characters, how he used technology and science fiction, and how he designed his stage shows to be unique and theatrical in the permanent archival home.

Some of the highlights include David Bowie’s 1987 Glass Spider Tour as well as his 1987 concert at the Berlin Wall. The David Bowie Centre also features guest-curated displays, where artists who worked with him or were inspired by him choose memorabilia to show. One is by Nile Rodgers, a music producer who worked on David Bowie’s albums Let’s Dance and Black Tie White Noise.

photograph of David Bowie, Kevin Cummins, 1970s, Uk. Museum no: S.1326-2010. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Guest-curated displays with rare photos of studio sessions

For his guest curation, Nile Rodgers chooses items that show their friendship and musical teamwork, including the custom suit David Bowie wore on tour, photos of him recording music with Rodgers, some personal letters they exchanged, and several rare photos of studio sessions with backup singers, to name a few. Another display is by The Last Dinner Party, a modern British rock band, choosing objects from the 1970s that show David Bowie’s artistic energy, such as the handwritten lyrics from his Young Americans album and notes from his Station to Station tour.

The other archives are a manual for a special synthesizer Bowie used in his Berlin Trilogy albums as well as photos of the artist working in the studio. The David Bowie Centre, set to open on September 13th, 2025, was made possible by the David Bowie Estate, the Blavatnik Family Foundation, and Warner Music Group. It’s now part of the larger V&A Archive, which holds works from like Vivien Leigh, The House of Worth, and Glastonbury Festival.

Aladdin Sane album cover, Duffy and Philo, 1970, Uk. Museum no: E.583-1985. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Diamond Dogs, vinyl, produced by David Bowie, RCA Records, cover art by Guy Peellaert, 1974, England. Museum no. S.3354-2013. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

photograph of David Bowie, Terry O’Neill, 1974, England. Museum no. E.315-2011. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

project info:

name: David Bowie Centre 

museum: V&A East Storehouse | @vamuseum

opening date: September 2025

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The Grid, designed by Trung Mai / Ad hoc Practice, is an adaptive reuse project situated within the former Gia Lam Train Factory in Hanoi. Presented at the Venice Biennale 2025, curated by Carlo Ratti, the intervention reinterprets the site’s industrial remnants into an exhibition space, framing the existing structure as a repository of spatial and cultural memory. Rather than introducing new architectural elements, The Grid exposes the site’s latent formal logic, treating it as a spatial archive. This approach aligns with the principles of behavioral archaeology, wherein the built environment is studied through the material traces of human activity. The design strategy emphasizes recontextualization, both conceptually and materially, positioning reuse as a form of dynamic preservation that engages with contemporary questions of urban development and memory.

all images by Trieu Chien

Ad hoc Practice Reimagines Gia Lam Factory’s Layered History

Hanoi’s ongoing urban expansion has led to the relocation and decommissioning of several socialist-era factories, placing their architectural and cultural legacies at risk. The Gia Lam Train Factory, formerly a mechanical hub at a key railway junction, has become emblematic of this transitional condition. The structure’s layered past, which spans colonial, wartime, and reformist periods, provides the backdrop for a design inquiry into Vietnam’s industrial narrative. The exhibition space within the factory is conceived as both an archaeological site and a testing ground for new forms of spatial engagement. By occupying part of the abandoned structure, The Grid reflects on the site’s transformation from production facility to cultural artifact. Through systematic reconstruction, the project, developed by architects at Ad hoc Practice, led by Trung Mai, frames the factory not only as a container of industrial materials but also as a repository of memory, labor, and ideology.

The grid-based design draws from two key references: the 19th-century urban planning principles of Ildefons Cerdà’s Eixample district in Barcelona, and the internal ceiling structure of the warehouse itself, a product of mid-20th-century engineering. This dual reference reinforces themes of order, equality, and modularity, principles foundational to Vietnam’s post-war industrialization. Sunlight filtering through the original ceiling panels creates dynamic light conditions across the exhibited objects and architectural fragments. This quality of light reinforces the project’s temporal focus and enhances the spatial reading of the factory’s preserved form.

The Grid reactivates the abandoned Gia Lam Train Factory through adaptive reuse

Collective Memory Transforms the Factory’s Spatial Future

Structurally, the project maintains and adapts the existing building framework. The design incorporates participatory construction methods, including collaborations with students and community members, to explore alternative futures for the site. The exhibition encourages dialogue on retrofitting strategies, slow construction, and site-responsive design, offering a critical perspective on contemporary development practices that prioritize rapid turnover and high-density production.

The Grid by Trung Mai / Ad hoc Practice positions adaptive reuse as a method of cultural inquiry. By transforming the factory into a site for reflection and experimentation, the project engages with Vietnam’s urban condition while foregrounding the role of collective memory in shaping spatial futures.

latent architectural forms are revealed rather than replaced

traces of Vietnam’s industrial legacy become spatial anchors within the former factory

The Grid treats the site as a spatial archive of cultural memory

the former mechanical hub now becomes a platform for cultural reflection

layers of history, from colonial to post-reform, inform the spatial logic of the intervention

exhibited fragments and artifacts reflect labor, ideology, and material memory

order and modularity frame the project’s formal and conceptual structure

the intervention avoids spectacle, focusing instead on subtle spatial reactivation

the space operates as both exhibition and research platform

architecture becomes a tool for reading and writing the city’s industrial past

retrofitting strategies are tested on site, advocating for slow, responsive design

the preserved ceiling structure acts as a light modulator across the space

the factory is reframed as a living document of urban transformation

project info:

name: The Grid
architect: Ad hoc Practice – Ha noi Ad hoc | @hanoiadhoc_adhocpractice

lead architect and curator: Trung Mai 

design team: Viet Phung, Trang Pham, Duong Nguyen, Ha Hoang, Lauren Lu, Ngoc Nguyen, Linh Tang

guest artists: Vy Trịnh, Jennifer Vanderpool
location: Hanoi, Vietnam

photographer: Trieu Chien | @trieuchien

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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MORF designs the Colombia Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka as a temporary national exhibition space that combines narrative-driven design with modular, sustainable construction. The design draws conceptual inspiration from the opening lines of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Referencing the moment a young boy encounters ice for the first time, the design interprets this narrative through an architectural motif titled ‘ICE CUBE.’

The pavilion’s facade is composed of numerous translucent cubes, oriented in varying directions to create a sense of motion and texture. These cubes are constructed from semi-transparent polycarbonate panels and equipped with programmable lighting. This feature enables the facade to shift in appearance over the course of the day and night, serving as both a visual marker and a platform for presenting Colombian culture within the Expo context.

all images by Forward Stroke Inc., Koji Okumura, Susumu Matsui

adaptive design and visual storytelling define Colombia Pavilion

MORF’s design team organizes the structure around a prefabricated light steel frame system, selected to accommodate the short construction timeline and environmental considerations typical of Expo buildings. The frame sits on a floating foundation system, allowing construction to adapt to the site’s soil limitations. Excavated portions of this foundation are utilized to create a mezzanine level for back-of-house operations, optimizing the spatial configuration within the pavilion’s limited footprint.

Visitors enter through a central hall that includes a Colombian coffee bar, highlighting a key cultural product. The open and adaptable interior space supports various exhibition layouts, ensuring flexibility throughout the event duration. The exhibition narrative presents Colombia as ‘the Country of Beauty’ through the conceptual lens of Magical Realism. The Yellow Butterfly, drawn from García Márquez’s novel as a symbolic bridge between reality and imagination, acts as a guiding motif throughout the pavilion’s immersive environments. In addition to its role during Expo 2025, the pavilion has been designed with a post-event lifecycle in mind. Its modular steel structure allows for easy disassembly and reconstruction in a new context. Discussions are currently underway regarding its future use after the Expo concludes.

translucent cubes form the dynamic facade of the Colombia Pavilion

the ‘ice cube’ concept organizes the pavilion’s outer skin into shifting geometries

polycarbonate panels allow light to transform the building throughout the day

a prefabricated steel frame system supports fast, efficient construction

programmable lighting animates the facade with subtle color transitions

a layered facade conveys movement and complexity in form

the structure’s light steel components can be reused after the Expo

the pavilion demonstrates how storytelling informs architectural form

sustainable materials and modular planning shape the pavilion’s life cycle

project info:

name: Colombia Pavilion Osaka Expo 2025

architect: MORF Inc. | @a.morf.jp

location: Osaka, Japan

client: ProColombia

site area: 875,89 sqm

footprint area: 513,42 sqm

total floor area: 584,44 sqm

project director: Karim Chahal

principal architect: Ko Oono

lead architect: Masaki Suzuki

project architects: Won Sungmin, Gen Kurokawa

assistant project manager: Maki Nomura

associate architect: AA-DC

project architect: Nicole Del Santo

structural design: Ando Imagineering Group (AIG)

lead structural designer: Kosaku Ando

structural designer: Toshiki Tanabe

general contractor: Sakane Sangyou Inc.

construction manager: Tsunehiko Muroi

modular structure contractor: NS Hi-Parts

representative director: Atsushi Morioki

landscape design & construction: 1moku Landscape Design & Research

lead landscape architect: Hirofumi Suga

exhibition design & construction: Sigongtech

general managers: Junseok Kang, Karen Ko

lead designer: Hansol Lee

senior designers: Hanna Lee, Sohee Jang

photographer: Forward Stroke Inc., Koji Okumura, Susumu Matsui

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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At the Fondation d’Entreprise Martell in Cognac, France, an exhibition titled ‘Memo. Remembering the Futures’ opens June 13, 2025, and runs through January 4, 2026. Curated by the Franco-Italian duo d-o-t-s (Laura Drouet and Olivier Lacrouts) and co-produced with the Belgian design center CID at Grand-Hornu, the show brings together 15 transdisciplinary projects that explore how memory – personal, collective, material – can be used as a lens to address ecological loss and envision sustainable futures. The showcase includes works by artists and designers from around the globe, each engaging with sensory experiences, ritual practices, and archival gestures to respond to the escalating environmental crisis.

at the Fondation d’Entreprise Martell, the exhibition titled ‘Memo. Remembering the Futures’ runs through January 4, 2026 | image © Pauline Assathiany

Can a Rug, a Dress, or a Digital Island Keep the Planet Alive?

Established in 2017 in the heart of Cognac, the Fondation d’Entreprise Martell is an incubator for socially and ecologically engaged creativity. With a strong emphasis on regenerative design, the Foundation supports artists, designers, and researchers whose work contributes to environmental and social transition. Through residencies, exhibitions, and public programs, it fosters dialogue between disciplines, territories, and generations. Memo. Remembering the Futures exemplifies the Foundation’s mission: to provide a platform for emerging practices that rethink how we interact with the living world and respond to its ongoing transformation.

Memo. Remembering the Futures is built on the idea that remembering is not just a look backward – but a way of looking forward. In the face of ecological grief, extinction, displacement, and the fading of ancestral knowledge, the featured projects serve as ‘acupuncture points’ in the collective consciousness. Across media, from textiles and sound to performance and digital mapping, the exhibition invites visitors to experience memory as a dynamic, embodied, and often radical act of care.

Roberta di Cosmo, Rebirth – Trauma as a Performative Process, 2020 | image © Ilenia Tesoro

twenty artists Archive a Dying World

Performing Grief in Apulia, Italian designer Roberta Di Cosmo’s Rebirth–Trauma as a Performative Process centers on the devastating spread of the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, which has decimated olive groves in southern Italy. Centered on the Apulian region’s olive trees, decimated by the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium, the work reflects on collective grief and ancestral knowledge.

The performance, created in collaboration with villagers, preserves harvest gestures and seasonal rituals at risk of disappearing with the groves themselves. The piece anchors itself in Il Gigante, a once-majestic olive tree said to be 2,000 years old, now lifeless. This symbolic skeleton serves as both witness and monument—testifying to a devastated landscape and the people who lived by it. Through embodied storytelling and ritual, Di Cosmo channels the trauma of loss into a process of cultural healing and ecological remembrance.

Emma Bruschi, Almanach Collection – Look 1, rye straw vest and pants | image © Cynthia Mai

Additionally, French designer Emma Bruschi pays homage to agricultural rhythms and ancestral skills with her Almanach collection. Made from rye straw grown on her family’s land in the French Alps, the garments are intricately plaited, woven, and crocheted into accessories and fashion pieces. Bruschi draws on a heritage of peasant crafts, reconnecting fashion with the patience of the growing season.

In a world dominated by industrialized fast fashion, her work insists on slowness, care, and intimacy with material. Every step, from sowing the seeds to stitching the final details, honors the temporal cycles of land and labor. Almanach revives rural memory not as nostalgia but as a radical, rooted alternative for the future of design.

Iamisigo, SS2024 collection Bonde la Vivuli / Valley of Shadows, barkcloth two-tone corset | image © Bugu Ogisi

Back in Africa, in her Bonde la Vivuli/Valley of Shadows collection, Nigerian designer Bubu Ogisi reclaims barkcloth – a sacred Ugandan textile historically used in spiritual and royal contexts. By incorporating this natural fibre into contemporary fashion alongside raffia and bronze, Ogisi weaves ancient knowledge into present-day storytelling. The garments pay tribute to Queen Nyabinghi, an East African ancestral figure whose priestesses wore barkcloth veils during rituals.

For Ogisi, fashion becomes a vessel for memory and resistance. Her work not only preserves endangered material traditions but also revives a matrilineal spiritual lineage that colonialism once sought to erase. Through I A M I S I G O, she creates clothing as living archives—artifacts of both aesthetic beauty and cultural continuity.

Into the Mountain, 2019 | image © Felicity Crawshaw, courtesy Simone Kenyon

Artists Simone Kenyon and Lucy Cash translate landscape into movement in How the Earth Must See Itself (A Thirling), a performance-film inspired by Nan Shepherd’s writings on the Scottish Cairngorms. The work features an all-women ensemble engaging in choreographed gestures across the Glen Feshie valley—reframing walking as a way of listening and belonging. Through touch, repetition, and presence, the performers make memory physical.

Set against a stark mountainous backdrop, the film meditates on how bodies can archive place. Just as the land carries imprints of water, weather, and time, so too do the dancers’ movements become inscriptions of awareness. Their choreography reminds us that to remember the earth is to feel it—viscerally, intimately, and again and again.

Resting Place, 2023, upholstered plywood, avocado dyed cotton and plated upholstery tacks, 20.5 x 86.5 x 37.5 inches | image © Fernando Laposse

And behold the avocado capitalism with Conflict Avocados by Mexican designer Fernando Laposse, who exposes the environmental and social costs of avocado monoculture in Michoacán. Once a local crop, the avocado has become ‘green gold’ – fueling deforestation, corruption, and cartel violence. Laposse documents this extractive economy through a blend of handcrafted furniture, textiles, and photojournalism.

The installation acts as both archive and protest, giving voice to displaced communities and threatened ecosystems, including the monarch butterfly’s habitat. By embedding his research into design objects, Laposse confronts the environmental and social consequences of Western consumer trends. Conflict Avocados urges viewers to reconsider what sustainability really means in a global supply chain.

Liselot Cobelens, Dryland, 2022, rug, 78.7 x 98.4 inches | image © Liselot Cobelens, Jon Mensink, Ton Cobelens & Ad Wisse

All while Dutch designer Liselot Cobelens transforms the impact of a devastating 2020 wildfire in the Deurnese Peel into a tangible, tactile memorial. The piece—a large, map-like wool rug—was physically burned by the artist using a welding torch, embedding the landscape’s trauma into the material itself. The eight tonal variations in the rug reflect the degrees of drought across the scorched national park, turning the object into a cartography of climate-induced transformation.

Drawing from archival research and fieldwork, Cobelens collaborated with local farmers and environmental experts to better understand the land’s ecological grief. By converting this research into design, Dryland becomes both an artistic response and a call for reflection on the human and environmental consequences of a warming world. It’s a woven warning that what burns today may not grow back tomorrow.

The First Digital Nation by Collider and The Monkeys, 2022 | image © Collider

Leading the visitor is powerful political gesture, Tuvalu, The First Digital Nation by Collider and The Monkeys that captures a real-time existential crisis: the total submersion of an island nation. Using 3D mapping, drone footage, and immersive digital media, the project virtually preserves Tuvalu’s geography, language, oral traditions, and natural landscapes. This digital reconstruction is a poignant act of cultural preservation as rising seas render the physical territory increasingly uninhabitable.

At once a technological solution and philosophical provocation, the project challenges global ideas of sovereignty and nationhood. Can a country survive in the cloud? Will international law recognize a digital state? Tuvalu forces viewers to confront the paradox of using cutting-edge technology to memorialize what we are failing to protect in the real world.

running through January 4, 2026, the showcase includes works by artists and designers from around the globe | image © Pauline Assathiany

each artist engages with sensory experiences, ritual practices, and archival gestures to respond to the escalating environmental crisis | image © Pauline Assathiany

Memo. Remembering the Futures is built on the idea that remembering is not just a look backward – but a way of looking forward | image © Pauline Assathiany

project info:

exhibition name: Memo. Remembering the Futures

organization: Fondation d’Entreprise Martell | @fondationmartell

concept & curatorship: d-o-t-s (Laura Drouet & Olivier Lacrouts) | @we_are_dots
scenography: Olivier Vadrot
graphic design: WIP office | @wip.eu
co-production: CID Grand-Hornu | @cidgrandhornu

artists: Félix Blume (France), Emma Bruschi (France), Liselot Cobelens (Netherlands), Collider x The Monkeys (Australia),  dach&zephir (France), Roberta Di Cosmo (Italy), Cian Dayrit & Cla Ruzol (The Philippines),  Alexis Foiny (France), Suzanne Husky (France / USA), Simone Kenyon & Lucy Cash (United Kingdom), Fernando Laposse (Mexico), Sally Ann McIntyre (New-Zealand), Neve Insular (Cabo Verde) , Bubu Ogisi / I A M I S I G O (Nigeria), Yesenia Thibault-Picazo (France)

dates: June 13, 2025 – January 4, 2026

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Louis Vuitton unveils The Louis, a monumental structure moored in Shanghai’s central business district. Resembling a modernist ship at anchor, the boat-like building brings together a multi-story flagship store, Le Café Louis Vuitton, and the brand’s Visionary Journeys exhibition, housed within a surreal facade of metallic Monogram hulls and stacked trunks. Located on Wujiang Road, The Louis honors Louis Vuitton’s maritime roots while anchoring itself in Shanghai’s historic identity as a port city.

Visionary Journeys, the multi-room exhibition spanning two floors, is conceived by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA. It opens with Trunkscape, an installation composed of Monogram canvas trunks that curve into an archway, evoking architecture and dreamscape. Originally shown in Bangkok and Osaka (find designboom’s previous coverage here), this iteration draws visitors into a cinematic voyage through Louis Vuitton’s intertwined history with design, innovation, and travel, from the 1859 workshop in Asnières to high-seas regattas and couture-bound steamer trunks. ‘Our installation uses iconic Louis Vuitton trunks in a playful display that intuitively and instantly communicates the Maison’s heritage and spirit of innovation,’ shares Shohei Shigematsu. ‘Conceived to fit the central atrium of the temporary store, the four trunk towers are part structural and part sculptural, familiar in materiality yet foreign in shape, height, and slenderness, created by their distinctly stacked forms. Together, they become a spatial amplifier that feels surreal yet rooted to Louis Vuitton’s origins.’

all images courtesy of Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton draws from transoceanic journeys

The Louis is a space created by Louis Vuitton that encapsulates the spirit of travel and the deep connection of the french house to movement, craftsmanship, and culture. Its design draws inspiration from transoceanic journeys, the kind once made by ocean liners, combining the shape of a ship’s prow with the form of a classic Louis Vuitton steamer trunk. The outside is covered in shimmering metallic Monogram patterns that reflect light like the surface of the sea, making the structure itself a symbol of travel and timeless design.

Inside, visitors are taken on a journey that includes food, shopping, and storytelling through exhibition. Each room is themed to reflect a different chapter in Louis Vuitton’s evolution through historic pieces and creativity.

Louis Vuitton unveils The Louis, a monumental structure moored in Shanghai’s central business district

an oma-designed journey through objects

This journey begins with Origins, a space that features the early designs of the house, reimagined with a contemporary touch. This room sets the tone for the rest of the experience, one that honors tradition while embracing innovation. Next is Voyage, which explores the more whimsical and personal aspects of travel through archival patents, stories from famous clients, and custom-made items. Olfactive Exploration focuses on fragrance and puts on display rare perfume bottles from as far back as 1927 alongside scents crafted by in-house perfumer Jacques Cavallier-Belletrud.

Moving on, Books and Sport shows how the brand functions as both storyteller and companion across many worlds. From Gaston-Louis Vuitton’s love of literature and publishing to its role in creating elegant trophy trunks for global events like Formula 1 and the Olympics. In Fashion & Leather Goods, the house’s creative metamorphosis takes center stage, spotlighting classic bags reinterpreted by artistic directors including Marc Jacobs, Virgil Abloh, and Pharrell Williams. Workshop and Testing pull visitors into the behind-the-scenes world of Louis Vuitton craftsmanship, where tools nicknamed Louise and Louisette help make sure that each piece meets rigorous standards. Perched on the third floor, Le Café Louis Vuitton brings a refined take on Shanghai-style dining, a fusion of East and West shaped by chefs Leonardo Zambrino and Zoe Zhou.

The opening of The Louis in Shanghai ties Louis Vuitton’s roots in travel to the role of the city as a longtime port of exchange, reflecting on how objects carry meaning over time.

resembling a modernist ship at anchor, the boat-like building brings together multiple uses

a surreal facade of metallic Monogram hulls

The Louis honors Louis Vuitton’s maritime roots

the project anchors itself in Shanghai’s historic identity as a port city

the design draws inspiration from transoceanic journeys, the kind once made by ocean liners

Visionary Journeys is the multi-room exhibition spanning two floors

the exhibition’s design is conceived by Shohei Shigematsu of OMA

Trunkscape is composed of Monogram canvas trunks that curve into an archway

Olfactive Exploration puts on display rare perfume bottles

Books and Sport shows how the brand functions as both storyteller and companion across many worlds

Origins features the early designs of the house

the behind-the-scenes world of Louis Vuitton craftsmanship

Origins sets the tone for the rest of the experience

project info:

name: The Louis

brand: Louis Vuitton | @louisvuitton

architect: Shohei Shigematsu / OMA | @omanewyork, @shohei_shigematsu

location: Wujiang Road, Jing’an district, Shanghai, China

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Teenage Engineering and Bentgablenits host an exhibition in New York City where 1930s musical dollhouses serenade the visitors. Running between June 27th and 29th on Greene Street, the show comes to life in collaboration with Shopify, a space where the electronics brand brings over a reimagined version of its OD-11 wireless speaker alongside the OB-4 mesh bags, hand-beaded ban shirts, lab coats, and the choir, which is a series of eight wooden dolls that serenade visitors with a repertoire of choral classics.

all images courtesy of Teenage Engineering and Bentgablenits

Bentgablenits restores original metal miniature homes

The musical dollhouses on display at the exhibition are the original metal-made ones from the 1930s. The Canadian design collective Bentgablenits restructured, collected, and handcrafted them some years ago, so in the New York City show, the visitors see that the rooftops lift up and reveal music playing from within. These miniature homes have a clear fourth wall, like in theater sets, so people can take a look inside the interiors. There’s also a magnifying glass available on site to help visitors get a closer look at the tiny and carefully crafted interior details, including the built-in speaker as well as the overall design inside the miniature musical dollhouses.

On the outside of the musical dollhouses in the exhibition by the electronics brand Teenage Engineering and Bentgablenits, round glasses with a glossy surface treasure retro images within them, and at a closer look, people find downsized versions of some of Teenage Engineering’s products, including the OB-4 wireless speaker. The edges of the Bentgablenits’ musical dollhouses are wrapped with holed metals, framing the miniature homes without taking away the detailed design of the exteriors. All of these handcrafted pieces are available to buy either at the exhibition in New York or online through the bentgablenits website, but the supplies are limited and first come, first served.

Teenage Engineering and Bentgablenits host an exhibition where 1930s musical dollhouses serenade viewers

the musical dollhouses on display at the exhibition are the original metal-made ones from the 1930s

Bentgablenits restructured, collected, and handcrafted the miniature homes some years ago

visitors can lift the rooftops up and listen to the music play from within

on the outside, round glasses with a glossy surface treasure retro images within them

these miniature homes have a clear fourth wall, like in theater sets

view of the packaging for the miniature homes

objects by Teenage Engineering are also on view at the exhibition

the choir, a series of eight wooden dolls with a repertoire of choral classics

project info:

team: Teenage Engineering, Bentgablenits, Shopify | @teenageengineering, @bentgablenits, @shopify

exhibition location: Greene Street, New York City

dates: June 27th to 29th, 2025

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The seventh edition of Time Space Existence, the biennial architecture exhibition organized by the European Cultural Centre (ECC), returns to Venice through 23 November 2025. Spread across three historic venues — Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, and the Marinaressa Gardens — the show brings together 207 participants from over 52 countries, reaffirming its role as a global platform for architectural dialogue and experimentation. This year’s theme, Repair, Regenerate, Reuse, invites architects, designers, artists, and researchers to respond with works that span speculative proposals, academic research, and built interventions. Highlights include a net-zero housing prototype by HOLCIM and ELEMENTAL, and Sombra, a kinetic, light-responsive pavilion by MVRDV, both installed at Marinaressa Gardens. Notable contributions also come from Zaha Hadid Architects, Adjaye Associates, Korean architect Moon Hoon, and many more. 

Elemental and Holcim Basic Services Unit installation view at Marinaressa Gardens | all images © Celestia Studio

REPAIR, REGENERATE, REUSE

This year’s exhibition invites tangible responses to climate and social crises. Instead of posing hypothetical questions, participants present real-world solutions: architecture studio Vuild addresses rural decline in Japan using local forestry and digital fabrication, while Semillas empowers Amazonian communities through participatory architecture. Canadian firm Blouin Orzes blends traditional Inuit knowledge with modern techniques to respond to harsh northern climates.

The exhibition also includes speculative futures: Collectif Carré Noir imagines a utopian territorial reorganization, and Delft University showcases Indigenous-led design methodologies through film. These works question architecture’s conventional limits, embracing regeneration and equity as central design imperatives.

Semillas installation view at Palazzo Mora

HIGHLIGHTS across venetian venues

The Marinaressa Gardens become a laboratory of environmental dialogue. HOLCIM and Alejandro Aravena’s ELEMENTAL unveil a scalable housing prototype using low-carbon materials. MVRDV’s Sombra, a kinetic installation responsive to sun and shade, explores architecture’s adaptive potential. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech and Cloud 9’s PolliNATION pavilion reintroduces pollinators to the Venetian lagoon, turning ecological restoration into spatial form.

Meanwhile, across venues, many projects foreground material reuse, vernacular methods, and local identity. Coburg University constructs a pavilion from regional ‘waste timber’; GRAS and Huguet experiment with terrazzo made from recycled fragments. Zaha Hadid Architects and University of Calgary explore modular systems designed for disassembly and reuse, advancing circular construction logic.

Others engage history and place: Materia (Mexico) reimagines cultural heritage buildings in harmony with the landscape, while A Interiors blends desert tradition with contemporary living in Riyadh. María Isabel Paz preserves endangered textile techniques through urban storytelling in handmade rugs.

MVRDV, Airshade Technologies, Metadecor, Alumet, ARUP, Van Rossum Engineering, AMOLF Institute SOMBRA installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

A LIVING LAB FOR FUTURE ARCHITECTURE

With projects ranging from activist landscapes to modular prototypes and speculative utopias, Time Space Existence 2025 offers a cross-section of how architecture can regenerate rather than extract, reconnect rather than divide. As ECC’s Rachele De Stefano notes, the exhibition doesn’t just ask what architecture is, but what it could become — a driver of systemic change rooted in repair, resilience, and responsibility.

Enter Projects Asia Interwoven, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Juan José Castellón xmade Rice University Impluvium Redux installation view at Palazzo Mora

Moon Hoon installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Virginia Tech and Cloud 9 unEarthed Second Nature PolliNATION, 2025 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Coral Gallery – Roberto Vivo The Human Tribe Totem, 2024 installation view at Marinaressa Gardens

Henriquez Partners Architects Symplasma, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Adjaye Associates International Children’s Cancer Research Centre, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Bembo

Pfeifer Jones Architecture Organ Drone Dome, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Mora

Pfeifer Jones Architecture Organ Drone Dome, 2025 installation view at Palazzo Mora

project info: 

name: Time Space Existence 2025
organized by: European Cultural Centre (ECC) | @ecc_italy
location: Palazzo Mora, Palazzo Bembo, Marinaressa Gardens in Venice, Italy 
dates: 10 May – 23 November 2025

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