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a closer look at the making of SANAA’s ethereal ‘better co-being pavilion’ at expo 2025 osaka

william mulvihill reveals ‘better co-being’ under construction

Within the Forest of Tranquility at Expo 2025 Osaka, SANAA’s Better Co-being Pavilion appears as a delicate field of white columns and overlapping roof plates that hover just above the landscape. Designed by the Japanese Pritzker Prize–winning duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the pavilion is composed of slender steel supports topped by a constellation of thin, translucent canopies, some circular, others irregular, recalling clouds or tree branches.

The columns are positioned in a seemingly organic arrangement, creating soft porous pathways, gathering points, and transitional moments within the wooded clearing. This unenclosed architecture, defined by natural rhythms, porosity, and light, echoes its organic context. New photographs by William Mulvihill document its early stages of assembly, capturing how SANAA’s architectural language of lightness and ambiguity is resolved through precise material detailing and structural calibration.

all images by William Mulvihill unless stated otherwise

sanaa’s expo osaka pavilion appears as a field of white canopies

Curated by art critic and curator Yuko Hasegawa, and produced by Hiroaki Miyata, a professor and lead researcher for the thematic project Resonance of Lives, the pavilion is one of several projects at Expo 2025 Osaka exploring how architecture can facilitate new forms of coexistence. Miyata’s framework centers around the idea that we are entering a global turning point, spanning economics, health, education, human rights, and environmental practice. SANAA conceives this to act like a social interface in this context, a place where people can gather, interact, and imagine alternative models for living together.

This ethos is embedded in the physical language of the project. Better Co-being embraces the idea of ambiguity and openness. The architects have selected materials that are almost diagrammatic in their simplicity — from lightweight steel columns to translucent roof panels — somewhat recalling data networks or cellular structures. Without any harsh boundaries, the pavilion then allows the landscape to almost entirely flow through it. Light filters down through the layered roof elements in constantly shifting patterns, changing with the weather and time of day. Photographed during construction, William Mulvihill’s photo series emphasizes this transitional quality, framing the pavilion from different perspectives as it appears mid-formation with geometries only partly resolved.

SANAA’s Better Co-being Pavilion

on view at Expo 2025 Osaka’s Forest of Tranquility

appearing as a delicate field of white columns and overlapping roof plates that hover just above the landscape

the organic arrangement creates soft porous pathways, gathering points, and transitional moments

the series captures how SANAA’s language of lightness is resolved through precise material detailing

without any harsh boundaries, the pavilion then allows the landscape to almost entirely flow through it

image © designboom

project info: 

name: Better Co-being

architect: SANAA | @sanaa_jimusho

photographer: William Mulvihill | @williamulvihill

location: Osaka, Japan

event: Expo 2025 Osaka | @expo2025japan

dates: April 13th — October 13th, 2025

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diriyah art futures opens call for its emerging new media artists programme on UNESCO site

DAF opens call for 2025/26 emerging new media artists programme

The Saudi institution invites emerging digital talents to experiment, collaborate and innovate. In the historic heart of Diriyah, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the edge of Riyadh, a quiet revolution in art and technology is taking place. Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), the first institution in the MENA region dedicated to New Media and Digital Arts, has announced its second international open call for the Emerging New Media Artists Programme. The initiative, launching in October 2025, invites participation from digital artists and scholars through upcoming public activities, educational programming, artistic and research residencies and grant opportunities.

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) announces its second international open call for the Emerging New Media Artists Programme | all images courtesy of Diriyah Art Futures

the one-year programme includes personal mentorship

Founded by the Saudi Ministry of Culture, Diriyah Art Futures exists at the nexus of interdisciplinary exploration, where art, science, and technology collide to form new cultural perspectives. As Saudi Arabia invests in cultural innovation, DAF represents a pivotal move toward establishing the region as a custodian of heritage as well as a leading force in future-facing creative practices. Through the platform, local roots meet international reach, and young artists are given the opportunity to grow both conceptually and materially.

The Emerging New Media Artists Programme is meticulously designed to foster radical artistic development. It targets artists under the age of 35 who have a foundation in digital or new media practices and who are poised to evolve their work within a conceptual and technical framework. Over the course of twelve months, selected participants receive full institutional support, including a production budget, access to a suite of advanced technology labs, and personal mentorship from a global network of leading artists and theorists. The programme, developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France, builds on a pedagogical model that balances theoretical immersion with hands-on making, allowing participants to research, prototype, and produce significant new work.

the initiative launches in October 2025

exploring the role of art with lectures, seminars and screenings

Set in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Diriyah, DAF reflects the Ministry of Culture’s commitment to preserving the country’s unique heritage while playing a pioneering role in developing and leading new art practices that will shape the future of art and humanity. From the outset, the programme immerses artists in three months of intensive conceptual inquiry. This phase—offered through lectures, seminars, screenings, and group critique—asks fundamental questions about the role of art in the face of ecological collapse, technological acceleration, and social transformation.

Participants are invited to interrogate systems and narratives, explore personal and political histories, and speculate on alternate futures. The topics under consideration are broad but deeply relevant, including the blurred lines between reality and artificial systems, the Anthropocene and human-nonhuman entanglements, the dissolution of identity in the post-internet era, and the rise of AI-generated creativity. These sessions are not treated as didactic modules, but rather as open fields of exploration, where artists are encouraged to cross disciplinary boundaries and formulate unique lines of inquiry.

the programme immerses artists in three months of intensive conceptual inquiry

As the year progresses, the programme transitions into its production phase, in which each artist begins to develop and fabricate their own major project. Here, the conceptual threads of earlier sessions are brought into dialogue with cutting-edge technologies housed within DAF’s purpose-built facilities. Artists work across platforms, from immersive virtual environments to generative audio, sensor-based installations to machine learning interfaces. They are supported throughout by a tailored mentorship model that pairs them with established figures in their chosen field. This close mentorship relationship is central to the programme’s ethos: the idea that bold creative leaps happen most fruitfully in environments of rigorous conversation and critical trust.

DAF’s infrastructure is purposefully designed to accommodate diverse artistic practices. The facilities include high-spec laboratories for spatial audiovisual experimentation, immersive simulation spaces, coding and interaction design environments, and advanced digital fabrication tools. Artists have the opportunity to test the limits of these systems, but also to question them—probing how tools shape aesthetics, politics, and meaning. The aim is not to teach technology as an end in itself, but to use it as a lens for thinking through urgent cultural, social, and ecological conditions.

as the year progresses, the programme transitions into its production phase, in which each artist begins to develop and fabricate their own major project

The final months of the programme are devoted to scenography, refinement, and public presentation. Each artist’s project is curated into a public exhibition held at DAF, which serves as both a culmination of the year and a point of departure for wider visibility. The exhibition is juried, offering professional feedback and positioning participants within an international critical context. But perhaps more importantly, it functions as a meeting point—between artist and audience, form and theory, idea and impact.

What sets this programme apart is its intellectual ambition and its emphasis on creating conditions for deep artistic inquiry. It resists fast-paced production models in favor of depth, dialogue and process. It prioritizes local engagement while remaining unapologetically global in its perspective. Throughout the year, visiting artists, curators and scholars will contribute to an evolving ecosystem of exchange—ensuring that participants are not only receiving but also shaping the conversations around contemporary digital art.

the final months of the programme are devoted to scenography, refinement, and public presentation

what sets this programme apart is its intellectual ambition and its emphasis on creating conditions for deep artistic inquiry

the aim is not to teach technology as an end in itself, but to use it as a lens for thinking through urgent cultural, social, and ecological conditions

project info:

name: Emerging New Media Artists programme

organization: Diriyah Art Futures | @dafmoc

partner: Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains | @lefresnoy

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world’s smallest violin is so tiny it can fit inside human hair

Researchers use nanotechnology for world’s smallest violin

Physicists at Loughborough University use nanotechnology to create the world’s smallest violin, so tiny it can fit inside human hair. The miniature musical instrument is a test subject for the researchers to try out the capabilities of the university’s new nanolithography system, which can allow them to build and study structures at the nanoscale. While the physicists are able to create the world’s smallest violin, they add that it’s a microscopic image of it rather than a playable musical instrument. In fact, this thinner-than-hair photo sits on top of a small chip. The making of the world’s smallest violin: first, the physicists use a clean chip.

They put the chip into a glove box, and inside, they coat the chip with a thin layer of polymer. Next, they place the chip under the NanoFrazor, which is a nano-sculpting machine from Heidelberg Instruments. They load a violin pattern into the NanoFrazor’s software and set the machine’s parameters. The NanoFrazor’s hot tip then ‘writes’ the violin pattern onto the polymer. After this, they dissolve the polymer, and this process leaves a hole in the shape of a violin. They then move the chip to a deposition chamber and add a layer of platinum. Lastly, they take the chip out of the system and put it in acetone. As soon as the acetone removes all the remaining polymer, a platinum violin comes through, displaying the microscopic image of the instrument.

all images courtesy of Loughborough University

Thinner than a human hair and no larger than dust

The making the world’s smallest violin can be comparable to screen or silk printing, just on a much smaller scale. The physicists at Loughborough University say that the musical instrument’s image measures 13 micrometers across and 35 micrometers tall. For comparison, an average human hair measures between 15 and 120 micrometers wide. In this case, the violin is smaller than a human hair, even no larger than a speck of dust. For the researchers, nanotechnology results like this can help produce small parts for devices, such as smartphone and laptop components.

In return, it can result in making them thinner. Having smaller parts can also mean more components can fit inside a single device. Building the world’s smallest violin builds on knowledge for future research since few NanoFrazor systems exist in the UK at the present time. Tools like such help researchers design experiments to study different materials in various ways, including light, magnetism, or electricity, and to observe how the materials respond. So far, there are already two Loughborough University research projects that are underway using the nanolithography system. One is exploring alternatives to magnetic data storage, and another is investigating how heat can be used for faster and more energy-efficient data storage and processing.

viewers can see the violin through a microscope

view of the human hair strand

image of the violin in the middle compared to the strand of hair next to it

the miniature instrument is a subject to test the university’s new nanolithography system

the making the world’s smallest violin then can be comparable to screen or silk printing

project info:

name: World’s smallest violin

institution: Loughborough University | @lborouniversity

physicists: Dr. Naëmi Leo, Professor Kelly Morrison, Dr. Fasil Dejene

machinery: Heidelberg Instruments

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semicircular skylights cast sunbeams across takeshi hosaka’s concrete residence in tokyo

takeshi hosaka builds two-story concrete residence in tokyo

In Bunkyo, Tokyo, architect Takeshi Hosaka designs Yayoi House for a family of four, rooting domestic life in an ecosystem of plants, water, and light. The reinforced concrete residence spans two stories and prioritizes cyclical living. From rooftop rainwater runoff to edible wall-climbing vines, the home integrates natural processes within the city, creating a resilient, self-sustaining habitat.

The decision to build only two stories instead of three was deliberate—an intentional move to create a vertical canvas where sunlight and moonlight could refract across raw concrete surfaces. Two large, semicircular skylights, set diagonally from one another, channel celestial light into the heart of the home. This luminous core opens up into a generous, nearly six-meter-high space that unites the living, dining, and kitchen areas. Surrounding this central volume are the terrace, the children’s rooms, the master bedroom, and the wife’s hobby room, where aquariums and fish tanks introduce a living element to the interior.

all images by Noboru Inoue

yayoi house integrates nature into everyday life

At first glance, Yayoi House stands out for its unique environmental approach. Tokyo-based architect Takeshi Hosaka wraps the structure with greenery. Bitter gourd vines scale the walls, biotopes cluster at the ground, and rainwater drips openly from roof to earth. Water flows along uncovered gutters, down the exterior walls, and into a curated biotope near the entrance. Initially maintained by the family, this aquatic microcosm is later left to self-regulate, evolving into a miniature ecosystem of plankton, plants, and fish. The system is both visible and experiential: glimpsed from a semicircular window inside the foyer and animated during daily rituals like entering the home or bathing beside a planted inner garden.

Hosaka also threads in a subtle food cycle. Waste from the kitchen garbage processor nourishes the terrace plants, yielding nutrient-rich soil. This closed-loop logic of waste, water, and growth exemplifies the architect’s intention, which is to embed the basic elements of nature within the city and in daily life.

Takeshi Hosaka designs Yayoi House for a family of four

the reinforced concrete residence spans two stories

the architect carves two large, semicircular skylights, set diagonally from one another

the skylights channel celestial light into the heart of the home

uniting the living, dining, and kitchen areas

a vertical canvas for sunlight and moonlight to refract

the terrace, the children’s rooms, the master bedroom, and the wife’s hobby room surround the central volume

rooting domestic life in a deliberate ecosystem of plants, water, and light

Yayoi house prioritizes cyclical living

project info:

name: Yayoi House
architect: Takeshi Hosaka Architects | @takeshi_hosaka_official

location: Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan

site area: 202.86 square meters

building area: 120.92 m² square meters

total floor area: 218.55 m² square meters

lead architect: Takeshi Hosaka 

structure: Kenji Nawa / NAWAKENJI-M

photographer: Noboru Inoue

film: Ryuto Fujii

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boss design dresses uma chair in bio-based foam refining carbon-free sculptural elegance

boss design sets high seating standard with uma

Uma by Boss Design embodies a new standard in leadership seating, merging sculptural elegance with tangible sustainability. Drawing from nature, its organic form and tactility present a softer vision of authority – one rooted in ergonomic integrity and material responsibility. At a glance, the Uma chair appears poised, but beneath its elegant exterior lies a sophisticated fusion of material science and design engineering. The chair’s posture belies its low-impact footprint, made possible by the integration of BioPUR® foam – a revolutionary bio-based alternative that reduces embodied carbon by up to 75% when compared to traditional polyurethane. With Uma, Boss Design stands as a refined expression of how circular thinking can reshape timeless workplace icons.

Boss Design introduces Uma | all images courtesy of Boss Design

boss design in championing transparency through sustainability 

Boss Design, headquartered in High Point, North Carolina, merges artisanal craftsmanship with forward-thinking European design. Known for creating destination furniture for commercial and hospitality spaces, the brand is deeply rooted in material integrity and environmental accountability. Their latest release, Uma, extends this philosophy – a chair born from customer demand and brought to life through sculptural refinement, functional excellence, and a transparent life cycle approach.

Built in the USA with materials sourced from domestic suppliers, Boss Design emphasizes both regional manufacturing and reduced environmental impact. As part of the Boss Design Group, founded in the UK in 1983, the company has long upheld a design ethos where aesthetics, utility, and responsibility are treated as inseparable.

Uma has been designed for maximum comfort with every surface, line and detail honed

uma’s executive presence with modular application

While Uma was conceived with boardrooms in mind, its adaptability extends far beyond. Upholstered in premium leather, it commands attention in executive spaces; dressed in playful patterned textiles or two-tone fabrications, it becomes a casual and inviting piece for breakout areas, lounges, or touchdown spaces. With a gently sculpted form, high integrated back, and smoothly contoured armrests, Uma maintains a consistent design identity that harmonizes with the broader Boss portfolio, including collections like Paloma, Amelia, and Remi. Its tailored silhouette and subtle seam detailing allow for seamless visual continuity across workplace typologies, offering designers a flexible, cohesive solution.

Uma’s visual softness belies the structural intelligence beneath its surface. The seat’s generous cushioning is supported by an intelligently recessed plywood base that allows for an extra 15mm of foam without compromising profile or form. This not only enhances comfort but exemplifies Boss Design’s nuanced approach to ergonomic layering. The chair’s backrest—flowing naturally with the spine—includes an inset lumbar panel of lower-density BioPUR® foam that subtly boosts support exactly where it’s needed, especially during extended periods of sitting. Firm perimeter edges offer structure and definition, while the plush center seat cradles the body, producing a sensation more akin to lounge seating than typical task chairs.

Uma’s enticing form is more than justified by its generously cushioned seat, supportive back and tactile arms

At the heart of Uma is BioPUR®—Boss Design’s proprietary foam formulation developed to significantly cut emissions without compromising tactile performance. Made using bio-based content and cleaner chemistry, BioPUR® represents a major stride toward decarbonizing upholstered furniture. Its integration into Uma is not cosmetic but foundational: the foam is fully embedded within both the seat and backrest, delivering enveloping softness while maintaining ergonomic fidelity. More than just a material choice, BioPUR® is central to Boss Design’s commitment to measurable sustainability. Each Uma chair carries a carbon certificate based on third-party life cycle assessment methodologies aligned with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14067 standards.

Durability is another cornerstone of Uma’s sustainable design. Its internal skeleton features a robust steel frame, while the base, available in four- or five-star cast aluminium, is both lightweight and long-wearing. Functional enhancements such as height adjustment, a swivel mechanism, and a lockable tilt function make Uma suitable for daily use, whether as an executive desk chair or a dynamic conference seat. When it reaches the end of its first lifecycle, Uma can be easily reupholstered or refurbished thanks to its component-driven design. Every material – from foam and fabric to plywood and metal—has been chosen for its ability to be cleanly disassembled, reused, or recycled in alignment with circular economy principles.

In a design landscape increasingly defined by greenwashing and vague claims, Boss Design takes a different approach – rooted in transparency, traceability, and third-party validation. The carbon footprint of each Uma chair is reported per product using Design Conformity’s Circular Design Certificate framework, based on openly published environmental product declarations and validated for a three-year period. This rigorous methodology ensures that sustainability is embedded not just in materials and manufacturing, but in how the product’s impact is communicated and understood.

With Uma, Boss Design presents a new archetype for what executive furniture can be: visually arresting, materially intelligent, and fully accountable. It’s a chair for leadership that doesn’t just look forward, but leads forward. 

the thick cushioning of Uma’s seat is supplemented by a recess in the plywood base allowing an extra 15mm of foam

the Bio-PUR® foam that gives the chair its next-level comfort has a carbon footprint 75% lower than conventional PU foam

Uma can be reupholstered and refurbished for second life, and its foam, steel frame, plywood and aluminum components are easy to separate for reuse or recycling

project info:

name: Uma

company: Boss Design | @wearebossdesign

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mushrooms and machine learning shape studio weave’s intelligent garden in chelsea

an intelligent Garden Alive with Data

In a quiet corner of London’s Chelsea Flower Show, Studio Weave’s Avanade Intelligent Garden pulses beneath the textures of bark and lush foliage. The project gathers and interprets signals from its plants, soil, and air to form an AI-driven ecosystem that listens as much as it grows. The English architects, in collaboration with landscape designer Tom Massey and natural materials expert Sebastian Cox, has created an architectural presence within the garden that reflects both ecological knowledge and digital intuition. The result is a place of learning, adjusting, and responding that’s alive with signals and wrapped in a facade of mushroom mycelium.

This year’s gold medal-winning entry comes from a carefully tuned partnership. Massey’s planting scheme, Cox’s material intelligence, and Studio Weave’s architectural framing find coherence through a shared interest in craft and care. Rather than standing apart, the building acts as a lightly held edge. It folds around the perimeter, creating an inner clearing that functions like a micro-courtyard — a calm interior within the lush density of the Intelligent Garden.

images © Daniel Herendi

a form informed by mushroom mycelium

Studio Weave‘s shed structure within the Intelligent Garden rises from materials that carry their own narratives. Ash timber, harvested from diseased trees in local forests, has been woven and curved to shape the outer skin. Between the slats, natural light lands on the softly undulating surface of mycelium panels. These fungal forms, grown in Sebastian Cox’s Kent workshop from agricultural byproducts, bring both tactile richness and a low-impact material footprint. Together they form a type of garden architecture that feels grown as much as it is built.

This intervention carries more function than its restrained form suggests. It provides shelter and workspace for its gardener-custodians — people tasked with tending the Tom Massey-designed garden and managing the technology embedded within it. Avanade’s AI platform gathers live data on soil health, humidity, and light exposure, offering caretakers a nuanced picture of how each tree and plant responds to its environment. The table inside serves both workshop and observation, reinforcing the idea that care and technology must coexist at a very human scale.

Studio Weave collaborates with Tom Massey and Sebastian Cox to create the Intelligent Garden

studio weave Designs for Disassembly

Tucked within the structure is a shaded, humid corner that leans into the mystery of the mycelium. Here, in conditions designed for growth rather than display, the garden shows its quieter work. Fungal fruiting bodies emerge in their own time, fed by a microclimate that speaks to forest understories. It is a moment of architectural pause, and a reminder that some processes can be invited but never controlled.

Though the Intelligent Garden is a temporary installation, the building’s afterlife has been carefully plotted. Prefabricated in four volumes, it was assembled quickly on-site and will move to Manchester’s Mayfield Park after the show. The building’s construction avoids permanence in favor of adaptability. Every joint, weave, and panel has been designed with disassembly in mind. The entire structure is biodegradable or recyclable, with nothing left as waste. It is, in essence, a compostable building.

locally-sourced Ash and mycelium emphasize sustainability and material storytelling

Beyond the structure, the Intelligent Garden makes a pointed case. Trees in urban areas are under threat from poor planting conditions, neglect, and environmental stress. Nearly half fail within ten years. The garden does not offer a single fix. Instead, it puts forward a layered system — where AI is a tool, not a substitute, for long-term stewardship. Through sensors and predictive models, the technology here helps direct limited resources where they’re most needed, supporting both survival and growth over time.

This is the second year Studio Weave and Tom Massey have collaborated at Chelsea. Their previous entry also received gold, but this year’s work pushes further into a cross-disciplinary space. Known for projects that engage civic and natural contexts with unusual sensitivity, Studio Weave brings architecture into conversation with planting and performance. The firm’s ability to work fluidly between disciplines is evident in how the structure holds the garden without overwhelming it.

the garden integrates AI technology to support the long-term care and survival of urban trees

sensors and AI track soil health and environmental data for optimal growing conditions

the building was prefabricated in modular volumes and designed for reuse after the show

project info:

name: Avanade Intelligent Garden and Building

architect: Studio Weave | @studioweave

event: Chelsea Flower Show 2025

location: London, United Kingdom

landscape design: Tom Massey | @tommasseyuk

materials: Sebastian Cox | @sebastiancoxltd

digital systems: Avanade Inc. | @avanadeinc

photography: © Daniel Herendi | @neverordinaryview

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