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Jul
16

paris square to be named after christo and jeanne-claude on 40 years of pont neuf wrapped

Paris celebrates christo and jeanne-claude’s public art

An iconic square in the heart of Paris is set to be named after Christo and Jeanne-Claude following the 40th anniversary of their fabric-wrapped Pont Neuf in September 2025. Alongside the naming of the square, whose specific place is yet to be identified and announced, there’s an outdoor exhibition that will be set up on the banks of the river Seine from September 6th to October 30th, 2025, a show dedicated to the artists’ works.

The artist JR also pays homage to the 40th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s installation in Paris by unveiling the Projet Pont-Neuf, a public art wrapping the same bridge that the artists worked on with rock formations. Originally planned for the autumn of 2025, the project is now expected to be on view in the summer of 2026 (dates to be announced), making way for the celebratory projects in honor of Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85 | all images courtesy of Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation; photos by Wolfgang Volz, unless stated otherwise

Brief history of the pont neuf wrapped

In September 1985, Christo and Jeanne-Claude created a temporary public art project in Paris by wrapping the Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in the city that connects both sides of the River Seine and passes over Île de la Cité, with gold-colored fabric. The immersive installation, which lasted for 14 days, had 41,800 square meters of woven polyamide fabric take over the bridge, covering the sides and arches under it, the sidewalks and curbs, the street lamps, the railings, and the area around the Vert-Galant park at the end of the island. The silky-looking fabric shone in golden sandstone, and to hold it in place, the artists used 13 kilometers of rope as well as 12.1 tons of steel chains, which were hidden underwater to secure the fabric to the bridge towers.

in September 1985, Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped the Pont Neuf with gold-colored fabric

Significant public art project for the artists

Over 300 workers helped install the fabric to realize Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s public artwork in Paris, and the artists collaborated with French and American engineers for the installation, many of whom had worked with them before. The Pont Neuf is a historical bridge in the city, the oldest standing one, and over centuries, it has experienced changes, including having shops built on it (which were later removed) as well as a large water pump structure, which was built, torn down, rebuilt, and removed again.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s public artwork around this bridge in Paris is considered one of its transformational histories, allowing the visitors and passersby to see the shape and look of the architecture differently by making it look softer, brighter, smoother, and more alive. It was a significant moment for the artists considering that they didn’t use any sponsors and donations to realize the public artwork but instead paid for it themselves by selling their drawings, plans, and earlier artworks. In September 2025, Paris rightfully celebrates the 40th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Pont Neuf wrapped.

detailed view of The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85

view from above of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85

the installation, which lasted for 14 days, had 41,800 square meters of polyamide fabric around the bridge

portrait of Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1985

Christo, Wrapped Trees (Approximately 267) Project for the Avenue des Champs Elysées in Paris, Collage, 1969 | photo by The Olnick Spanu Foundation

Christo, Projet pour l’Empaquetage de l’École Militaire à Paris, Collage, 1963, property of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation | Photo by Shunk-Kender © 1963, courtesy of Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation and J. Paul Getty Trust

project info:

artists: Christo and Jeanne-Claude | @christojeanneclaude

public artwork: Pont Neuf wrapped

exhibition location: Pont Neuf, 75001, Paris, France

dates: September 6th to October 30th, 2025

photography: Wolfgang Volz, The Olnick Spanu Foundation, Eeva-Inkeri

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Jul
16

fala atelier inverts the sloped roof with slants and curves for this sculptural home in portugal

Category: Design Boom

fala atelier inverts the sloped roof for a playful suburban home

Porto-based fala atelier turns the traditional pitched roof on its head, creating a house defined by a gently curved and sharply slanted silhouette that breaks from the uniformity of its residential surroundings. Titled 125, the home sits in a quiet suburb of Matosinhos, Portugal, perched atop a translucent plinth with an inverted sloped roof giving rise to an expressive, sculptural volume. Its elevations are punctuated by round and square windows, green and blue shutters, and a palette of crisp whites and muted hues that lend it the appearance of a paper collage rendered in three dimensions. Within, the studio carefully composes concrete, glass brick, and marble as layered surfaces that intersect and fold around each other.

all images courtesy of fala atelier

the contrasting geometries perch on a translucent plinth

The house takes a design approach that balances precision with idiosyncrasy in its forms, materiality, and programming. A rhythmic arrangement of round and square openings punctuates the white exterior walls, with colored shutters in blue and green animating the facade. Some elevations resemble abstract faces while others playfully evoke paper collages with scattered color fields.

Throughout, fala atelier’s architecture reads like a child’s drawing rendered in marble, glass, and concrete — simultaneously rigorous and naive. Each surface, whether folded, tilted, or curved, has also been deliberately crafted and composed. Walls in green, blue, and black contrast with the muted palette, while the roof’s unique profile challenges the visual norms of its suburban context.

fala atelier turns the traditional pitched roof on its head

mint-green columns are scattered freely across the space

Moving inside, the house continues to experiment with spatial conventions to infuse elements of architectural surprise. Five slender, mint-green concrete columns weave through rooms without following any clear, typical structural logic, with one even standing freely on the terrace, supporting nothing at all.

Spaces shift as you move through them, as the living room opens to the garden and connects to an office above, while the master bedroom tucks itself into a curved corner beneath the roof. Double-height ceilings, angled walls, and additional unexpected moments in the layout give the interior a sense of balance that echoes the precision of the geometries while feeling improvised. As the team at fala atelier describes, ‘the figure of the house is simultaneously complete and broken.’

the house is defined by a gently curved and sharply slanted silhouette

the design breaks from the uniformity of its residential surroundings

located in a quiet suburb of Matosinhos, Portugal

unctuated by round and square windows, green and blue shutters, and a palette of crisp whites and muted hues

a design approach that balances precision with idiosyncrasy in its forms, materiality, and programming

double-height ceilings, angled walls, and additional unexpected moments in the layout

each surface, whether folded, tilted, or curved, has also been deliberately crafted and composed

the unconventional volumes carry through to the interiors

five mint-green concrete columns weave through rooms without following any clear, typical structural logic

some elevations resemble abstract faces, while others playfully evoke paper collages with scattered color fields

the architecture reads like a child’s drawing rendered in marble, glass, and concrete

project info:

name: fala 125

architect: fala atelier | @fala.atelier

design team: Filipe Magalhães, Ana Luisa Soares, Ahmed Belkhodja, Lera Samovich, Joana Sendas, João Carlos, mp+pp (engineering), Calipa (contactor)

location: Portugal

The post fala atelier inverts the sloped roof with slants and curves for this sculptural home in portugal appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Jul
16

wind-powered sculpture turns donated guitars into sonic art installation in manchester

Category: Design Boom

Cathedral of Sound combines sound, structure, and community

Cathedral of Sound is a large-scale, wind-powered sound sculpture developed by Liam Hopkins of Lazerian as part of Manchester’s Music for the Senses art trail. Initially installed in St. Peter’s Square before being relocated to Mayfield, the work brings together sound, structure, and public participation through the reuse of musical instruments. The installation is constructed from hundreds of acoustic and electric guitars donated by residents of Manchester. These instruments, ranging from vintage to damaged and disused, are integrated into the sculpture’s framework to form a layered, architectural structure. The design draws from the logic of masonry, with guitars arranged similarly to bricks, creating a cohesive surface that reflects the varied musical history and community contributions of the city.

A steel internal framework provides structural integrity, supporting both the dense configuration of guitars and a kinetic wind-responsive system. This system includes a sculptural flag mounted at the top of the installation, which captures wind energy. As wind passes through the structure, it activates a mechanical interface that interacts with the guitars, generating acoustic sound. The movement of the flag influences tonal qualities such as pitch and rhythm, allowing the sculpture to change sonically in response to weather conditions.

all images courtesy of Lazerian

Designed by Liam Hopkins of Lazerian for Music for the Senses

The production of Cathedral of Sound involved both traditional fabrication methods and iterative design processes to accommodate the unique form and material variability of the donated instruments. The project by multidisciplinary creative studio Lazerian emphasizes material reuse, transforming objects originally designed for individual use into a collective, site-specific installation. Public participation played a central role in the development of the work through the Guitar Amnesty initiative, which invited residents to donate unused or broken guitars. Instruments in working condition were redirected to local grassroots musicians, extending the project’s engagement beyond the sculptural installation itself.

Functioning as both a sonic object and a public artwork, Cathedral of Sound offers an evolving auditory and spatial experience. Its design reflects a convergence of environmental interaction, structural reuse, and civic collaboration, contributing to Manchester’s urban landscape and cultural narrative through form, sound, and community-driven design.

a wind-powered sculpture built from donated guitars in Manchester

Cathedral of Sound combines sound, structure, and community engagement

hundreds of acoustic and electric guitars form the skin of the sculpture

each instrument reflects a personal story, forming part of a shared structure

a large flag atop the sculpture captures wind and influences the sound

the guitars are arranged like bricks, echoing traditional masonry techniques

a steel frame supports the densely layered outer shell of guitars

wind movement activates a system that allows the sculpture to play music

the sculpture turns disused instruments into an evolving public artwork

an installation that listens and responds to its environment

project info:

name: Cathedral of Sound

designer: Lazerian | @lazerian_studio

lead designer: Liam Hopkins

client: Music For the Senses

location: Manchester, UK

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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Jul
16

clad in terracotta tiles, morjor café floats above water pond in thailand

Category: Design Boom

Morjor Café by Studio Bewell employs Regional Materials

Located adjacent to the existing Chai Thung Restaurant, Morjor Café was conceived by Studio Bewell as an extension to accommodate additional visitors while maintaining the spatial and atmospheric continuity of the original site. The new café sits partially over a pond and integrates local materials and construction knowledge drawn from Dan Kwian, a village renowned for its pottery traditions in the Korat region of Thailand. The architectural approach centers on the reinterpretation of Dan Kwian’s terracotta, a material selected for its availability, durability, and cultural relevance. Characterized by its bronze-like tones, ranging from deep red-browns to near black, the terracotta is fired at high temperatures without added pigments, producing a natural and consistent palette that defines the café’s material language.

Terracotta roof tiles, cut-edge and installed at a slight incline, reference the geometry of the nearby restaurant roof while adapting it into a contemporary architectural form. This roof treatment, along with terracotta floor tiling, creates material continuity across surfaces. In addition, red solid bricks were assembled along a curved entry route. This design move, inspired by the forms of traditional pottery, scales down the approach to the building and establishes a threshold that connects the built structure to the surrounding natural context.

all images courtesy of Studio Bewell

Morjor Café Embeds Regional Ceramic Traditions in Design

Internally, the café floor features white terrazzo incorporating fragments of terracotta grade B tiles sourced from local factories. These fragments, repurposed and rearranged by local craftsmen, form a distinctive surface that highlights both reuse and artisanal input. A notable feature of the design is the use of jor, ceramic saggars traditionally employed during firing processes in Dan Kwian kilns. Typically serving as support containers to protect more delicate pottery in the kiln, these utilitarian forms are recontextualized as sculptural objects within the café. Their inclusion offers a direct material reference to local ceramic production, integrating function, history, and spatial narrative.

Through site-sensitive planning and material reuse, Morjor Café by architectural practice Studio Bewell reflects a broader strategy of working with local knowledge systems and craft-based materials. The project serves as both a functional public space and a quiet documentation of regional ceramic practices, embedded within the architecture itself.

Morjor Café sits partially over a pond, extending Chai Thung Restaurant

the café was designed as an integrated expansion, maintaining the original site’s ambiance

local terracotta from Dan Kwian forms the project’s core material palette

cut-edge terracotta roof tiles are set at a subtle incline, echoing traditional forms

a curved brick path at the entrance draws from traditional pottery shapes

Studio Bewell collaborated with local craftspeople from Korat’s ceramic community

red solid bricks help scale the approach and connect to the surrounding landscape

the café emphasizes reuse of grade B materials to reduce waste and support artisans

every material element contributes to a quiet narrative of reuse and craft

project info:

name: Morjor Café

architect: Studio Bewell | @studio.bewell
lead architects: Nattarapong Pitaktanin, Wannaleela Choosakun
location: Korat, Thailand

area: 153 sqm

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 clad in terracotta tiles, morjor café floats above water pond in thailand appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Jul
16

MAD’s lucas museum of narrative art in los angeles nears completion for 2026 debut

Category: Design Boom

mad’s Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in los angeles takes shape

Construction continues to surge ahead at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, as the MAD-designed landmark prepares to open its doors in 2026. Envisioned by filmmaker George Lucas, who also serves as the museum’s curator, this futuristic civic space is shaped like a sculptural canopy, hovering lightly above a revitalized, pedestrian-friendly parkland.

all images by LA TIMES – Chun Myung & Jason Armond, via MAD

a floating landmark

Led by Ma Yansong, the team at MAD replaces right angles with fluid, organic geometries in the Lucas Museum’s design, shaping its sculptural form with over 1,500 uniquely molded fiberglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) panels. As it arches across the site with cloud-like massing and deep cantilevers, the building contrasts with its more conventional neighbors in Exposition Park. A 56-meter-long central archway spans a public plaza and forms the entry point of the museum, while above it, a four-story elliptical oculus cuts through the volume and gallery spaces, visually linking the park and sky.

In many ways, the Los Angeles museum seems to levitate, with its form touching the ground at just a few strategic points, allowing for openness and lightness despite its massive scale. This illusion of floating is engineered with seismic resilience in mind, with one meter of lateral space allowing it to ‘roll’ during an earthquake, what the former CEO of the museum, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, once described as ‘a giant roller skate’ built for the realities of LA’s tectonic landscape.

construction nears completion at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles

Mia Lehrer creates an urban public oasis

Surrounding the museum, landscape architect Mia Lehrer is transforming what was once a sea of parking lots into a shaded public oasis, planting over 200 trees and creating a green, walkable environment. This shift from car-dominant infrastructure to community-oriented parkland aligns with the museum’s broader mission to be a place for people, not just artifacts.

Inside, the programming reflects this same democratic spirit. Beyond galleries spanning 8,361 square meters, the museum will house two state-of-the-art theaters, ten education studios, a library, a restaurant, a museum shop, and even a rooftop event space beneath its ribbed ‘cloud’ ceiling.

the MAD-designed landmark prepares to open its doors in 2026

storytelling across media drives the institution’s evolving vision

The Lucas Museum is built around the idea of storytelling as a global cultural force. The collection spans everything from Norman Rockwell’s illustrations to Frida Kahlo’s iconic work, alongside film models, props, and concept art from the Star Wars creator’s own archive. With this expansive approach to narrative art, the museum positions itself as a one-of-a-kind institution dedicated to visual storytelling across cultures and media.

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, who has been overseeing the museum’s development for the past five years, left her post in April 2025 following the introduction of a new organizational structure. The change splits the roles of director and CEO; Lucas steers the museum’s artistic content, while former Paramount and Fox CEO Jim Gianopulos serves as interim CEO.

As Los Angeles grows and reshapes its identity as a global center for arts and culture, the Lucas Museum wants to be an everyday destination in the heart of South LA, where people can gather, learn, and connect.

the building contrasts with its more conventional neighbors in Exposition Park

MAD replaces right angles with fluid, organic geometries

the building hovers lightly above a revitalized, pedestrian-friendly parkland

landscape architect Mia Lehrer is transforming what was once a sea of parking lots into a shaded public oasis

a green, walkable environment planted with over 200 trees

project info:

project title: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art | @lucasmuseum

architecture: MAD architects | @madarchitects

location: Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California

previous coverage: March 2018, February 2020, September 2022, March 2024, March 2025

photography: © Roberto Gomez, Sand Hill Media/Eric Furie

MAD Architects team: Ma Yansong (founder, principal partner), Lu Junliang (Dixon) (associate partner), Lee Flora (associate partner)
architect of record: Stantec (Michael Siegel) | @stantec
landscape architect: Studio-MLA (Mia Lehrer) | @studio_mla
construction manager: JLL (Cory Langer, Dustin Worland)
general contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie (Rick Cridland)
structural engineer: LERA
mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire life safety: Alfa Tech

MAD Architects partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano

competition and design team: Kin Li, Tiffany Dahlen, Daniel Weber, Jordan Kanter, Daniel Gillen, Wu Kaicong, Zhao Wei, Flora Lee, Jonathan Kontuly, Carmen Carrasco, Jacob Hu, Satoko Narishige, Zhu Yuhao, Casey Kell, Matthew Pugh, Kazushi Miyamoto, Ben Yuqiang, Hiroki Fujino, Chris Nolop, Kek Seow, Younjin Park, Brecht Van Acker, Andrea D’antrassi, Zhang Yiran, Pouya Goshayeshi, Dora Lam, Victor Tung, Steven Park Chaffer, Sean Tan, Sheenam Mujoo, Dookee Chung, Cesar D. Pena Del Rey, Valeria Pestereva, Wang Yiqi, Dmitry Seregin, Lin Yuyang, Che-hung Chien, Zhang Lu, Zeng Hao, Young Koo Kang, Shen Han

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Jul
16

raphaëlle peria carves nature’s decay onto photos in BMW’s les rencontres d’arles exhibition

Category: Design Boom

Environmental changes at BMW’s rencontres d’arles exhibition

Artist Raphaëlle Peria showcases the progressive environmental decay using carving techniques on her childhood photographs at BMW’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 exhibition. On view between July 7th and October 5th at Cloître Saint-Trophime in Arles, France, the series titled Traversée du fragment manquant (Crossing the Missing Fragment) and curated by Fanny Robin is the winning entry of the BMW ART MAKERS Program, an initiative that grants a fellowship to an artist-curator duo, along with funding for research and the production of their works. The program brings together and supports an emerging visual artist and curator in the joint creation of an original artistic project. The exhibition marks the 15th anniversary of a long-standing cultural partnership between BMW France and Les Rencontres d’Arles, and it is on display at Les Rencontres d’Arles and will move to Paris Photo 2025, where BMW is also an official partner, from November 13th to 16th, 2025, at the Grand Palais in Paris, France.

With the series Crossing the Missing Fragment, Raphaëlle Peria revisits her childhood photographs from her father’s archives to present her new body of work. Here, she retraces the path of the plane trees from her first journey along the Canal du Midi, which are now under threat with the presence of the fungus called canker stain. During designboom’s visit at the exhibition, the artist explains what she recalls of her journey on the Canal du Midi, a river in the south of France. ‘There is a big problem here: there is a mushroom with a disease that came in the trees, and they will die in a few years. We don’t know exactly when, and if we don’t find a solution for this mushroom, so we have to cut down all the trees. There were 72,000, and we cut 42,000 of them, and we continue. They lasted for 200 years, so they were very big trees, and that’s why the canal was designated part of UNESCO heritage. When I found this story, I said we have a project that’s about water, about trees, and it’s here in the countryside,’ she says.

Le reflet de ce qu’il reste by Raphaëlle Peria | all images courtesy of BMW ART MAKERS

Raphaëlle Peria prints archival images on plexiglas

The photographs that Raphaëlle Peria has worked on for BMW’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 exhibition are from his father’s archives. ‘It’s the first time I’ve worked on others’ pictures and not mine, as well as introducing humans in photos because usually, I take pictures of the landscape. It’s also the first time I’ve worked with transparency. I often take my photo, print it, and scratch on the paper. The photo paper, then, has two different layers: one white and one with the color,’ she explains during the exhibition tour designboom attended. The artist’s technique is mainly scratching the surface of a photograph, which then reveals the white paper underneath. By doing so, the original photo adopts more details, sharpened and underlined by the appearances and shadows of the scratches.

However, for BMW’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 exhibition, curated by Fanny Robin, the artist prints some of the archival images on plexiglas for the first time. ‘There’s no white behind, but it’s transparent. The final result is a photo, but it’s also a drawing and a sculpture. If you turn it around on one side, you will see the photo. On the other side, it’s more like a drawing. That’s important because I started as an engraver, so my work is always between photo, engraving, and now maybe a bit of sculpture,’ says Raphaëlle Peria. In some of the exhibited photographs, she used copper to indicate the leaves of the trees. ‘Why copper? Because when the mushrooms came, all the trees took on a copper-like color. So as you walk across the exhibition, you see the copper taking over more and more of the vegetation in the images,’ the artist adds.

Cueillir les murmures by Raphaëlle Peria

Showcasing the past and present environment through etchings

Around the BMW’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 exhibition by Raphaëlle Peria and Fanny Robin, the artist displays the photographs of the healthy trees in the past, the ones being slowly eradicated by canker stain. The fungus enters through the bark and spreads inside, destroying the trees from within, and it cannot be stopped easily. As a result, many of the trees that were healthy in the artist’s childhood photos are now dying or gone. Some are already cut down, burned, or broken, and the forest in the pictures no longer exists in the same way. From here, Raphaëlle Peria decided to immortalize these trees by showing them in their healthy state and natural changes. She hopes that through the scratches onto the images’ surface, the viewers can see what they might lose if they fail to take care of the environment. The etchings, then, are a means for her to show that pieces of nature start to fade away.

The lines and scratches she makes elaborate the passage of time and the loss of the trees, and the artist uses these physical damages to the photographs as a way to express the natural impacts of nature on nature. Her sculptural and photographic works also underline the past and present: what used to be there and what is now gone. Hence, the exhibition’s name is Crossing the Missing Fragment. ‘When you’re in the landscape, you have the grass under your foot; you can touch it, you want to touch it. The engravings in my works here are only on the plants and trees at the moment. Why? Because for me, the things I engrave are the things that will disappear. One French philosopher, Michel Pastoureau, said white is the color of what we have forgotten. So then I say, we will forget these trees. They will disappear. They will become white, like the color of the ghost,’ she says. By carving scaly husks onto the photographs from her past and showcasing them at BMW’s Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 exhibition, Raphaëlle Peria reminds the viewers how art can help remember and preserve what is slowly disappearing.

etchings revealing the white paper beneath | Lever les voiles sur le passé by Raphaëlle Peria

L’écho des rires se mua en silence / The echo of laughter turned to silence (close-up), scratching on photographs enhanced with copper leaf, 2025

Sur les berges les platanes #1 / Along the banks, the plane trees #1, Ritzungen auf Kupferplatte, 2025

L’écho des rires se mua en silence / The echo of laughter turned to silence, scratching on photographs enhanced with copper leaf, 2025

BMW ART MAKERS exhibition view of “Traversée du fragment manquant” at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 by artist Raphaëlle Peria and curator Fanny Robin

Rien n’est à la fois beau et vral / Nothing is both beautiful and true, scratching on copper wallpaper, 2025

from left to right: Le reflet de ce qu’il reste / The reflection of what remains and Un atoll sur les eaux / An atoll on the water, scratching on photographs enhanced with copper leaf, 2025

Lever les voiles sur le passé (close-up), scratching on copper wallpaper, 2025

detailed view of the scratches

BMW Group France presents a preview of ‘Traversée du fragment manquant’ by the prize winners of the BMW ART MAKERS program, Raphaëlle Peria and Fanny Robin, before the rencontres d’Arles

Ils étaient quarante deux mille / They were forty-two thousand (close-up), 2025

project info:

exhibition name: Traversée du fragment manquant (Crossing the Missing Fragment)

artist: Raphaëlle Peria | @raphaelleperia

curator: Fanny Robin | @fanny__robin

festival: Les Rencontres d’Arles 2025 | @rencontresarles

partner: BMW France | @bmwfrance

location: Robin Cloître Saint-Trophime, Arles

dates: July 7th to October 5th, 2025

The post raphaëlle peria carves nature’s decay onto photos in BMW’s les rencontres d’arles exhibition appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

Jul
16

interlocking volumes define barozzi veiga’s dynafit HQ in the bavarian alps

Category: Design Boom

crystalline volumes rise among the alpine landscape

The new headquarters for sportswear brand Dynafit has taken shape in in Kiefersfelden, Germany with architecture by Barcelona-based studio Barozzi Veiga. Sited near the highway linking Germany and Austria, the building is defined by its textural facade and bold geometry. Its sculptural composition of twin triangular volumes merges into a single crystalline figure.

This formal gesture is born from a desire to engage the alpine context with a structure that echoes their rhythm while asserting its own architectural clarity. The pyramidal massing enhances vertical perception along the upright faces, while the sloping planes taper toward a more approachable human scale. The resulting contrast animates the building’s silhouette and intensifies its relationship to the natural environment. With its abstracted form, the structure occupies a transitional position between monument and workplace.

a wide-open workplace by barozzi veiga

Inside, the team at Barozzi Veiga has organized the Dynafit Headquarters to support interaction among employees. The section plays a critical role in shaping a sequence of varied interior volumes, allowing light and movement to animate the space. Service cores are consolidated at either end of the floorplates, enabling open and flexible work areas between them. Daylight reaches deep into the interiors, reinforcing a sense of spaciousness and visual connectivity.

The architecture supports a range of programs and activities — offices, meeting zones, and common areas — all within a coherent framework that favors clarity over spectacle. This spatial discipline mirrors the ethos of the company’s products, which emphasize streamlined performance and functional design.

A light, porous Facade

The facade is treated with a diagonal metal lattice that reinforces the clarity of the building’s geometry. This envelope moderates solar gain while preserving outward views, achieving both environmental and experiential goals. The interplay of shadow, light, and reflection on the lattice produces subtle shifts in the building’s appearance throughout the day, lending movement to an otherwise stable volume.

The project presents an abstract formal language that resists direct reference, opting instead for a geometry that can be read as elemental. This approach gives the Dynafit Headquarters a sense of autonomy while allowing it to resonate with its context. The result is a building that is at once enigmatic and exacting, capable of absorbing the surrounding landscape into its identity without diminishing its own character.