The habit of sitting at the table and sharing a specific moment with other people has been present for centuries in the most diverse cultures. The Greek Symposium, Roman Convivium, Medieval Feasts and Banquets, and Parisian Salons are just a few examples of how this custom was historically built and has been relevant in social and political negotiations, intellectual discussions, and philosophical debates.
Commensality often serves as a ritual for bonding, negotiation, and celebrating important events. In many Spanish-speaking cultures, the stretch of time after the meal when the entire family stays seated and talks is so present that there is a word for it: sobremesa — literally translated as "upon the table" (though in Spanish it more accurately means "dessert" or "after-meal conversation"). But, despite often being associated with sharing a meal, the table can be considered a flexible platform open to many possibilities for appropriation and interaction.
The 2025 edition introduced projects that examined themes of ecology, memory, and connectivity while responding to the challenges of building in the desert. Ranging from intimate interactive pieces to monumental landmarks, the installations encouraged reflection, participation, and community engagement before disappearing at the close of the event.
As cities continue to develop, we are seeing ever more well-planned, thoroughly executed, and tightly regulated approaches to shaping urban centres and their surrounding spaces—for better and for worse. As codes, restrictions, and guidelines improve and tighten, urban environments become safer, more balanced, and less prone to surprise. Yet the flip side is that highly managed districts can drift toward over-order and sanitisation, shedding the messy, accretive character that once produced alleyways, residual spaces, and unexpected sequences of movement—conditions often born from ongoing community improvisation in the grey zones of regulation.
In response, a growing number of initiatives around the world are proposing short-term urban installations that test alternate futures for the city. These works aim to provoke dialogue between what the city is and what it could offer its communities through thoughtful, context-specific spatial practices. One notable example is Concéntrico, the international festival in Logroño, Spain, conceived as an urban innovation laboratory. Marking its tenth edition, the festival is about to publish Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory, a book that surveys a decade of urban design and collective transformation shaped through successive editions of the festival. Its launch is paired with an international tour designed to share a decade of insights on collective transformation and design.
"Spinning Around" installation by Sophia Taillet. Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, 4–13 September 2025. Image Courtesy of Maison & Objet
This year, the Maison&Objet interior design trade fair and the city-wide celebration Paris Design Week joined forces to highlight emerging designers, bring renewed value to French métiers d'art, and temporarily transform heritage landmarks with contemporary design visions. Both events began on September 4, turning Paris into a city-wide design festival. Galleries, showrooms, and concept stores opened their doors, while renowned landmarks became venues for designers from more than 30 countries. The abundance and diversity of the program have drawn comparisons to Milan Design Week, while giving Paris a distinct platform on the global design calendar. This article presents a selection of installations and exhibitions of architectural interest that emerge from the synergy between the two initiatives.
Teatro del Mondo, Venice 1979. Image by Antonio Martinelli
The first edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale took place in 1980, immediately revealing its role as a platform for images and ideas that would become essential references in contemporary architectural theory and practice. This disruptive character was embodied from the very beginning by the strangely familiar floating structure designed by Aldo Rossi, titled Teatro del Mondo. At once temporary and archetypal, the project introduced central themes that would shape Italian architectural discourse in the years that followed. To this day, it continues to inspire reflections on timelessness, imagination, and the memory embedded in cities.
The Serbian Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale consists of an immersive installation made of wool. The exhibition, titled Unraveling: New Spaces, was curated by architect Slobodan Jović and designed by an interdisciplinary team composed of Davor Ereš, Jelena Mitrović, Igor Pantić, Sonja Krstić, Ivana Najdanović, and Petar Laušević. The interior space of the Pavilion, located in the Biennale's Giardini, is occupied by an ephemeral installation that follows the principles of circular design, effectively producing no waste. The installation consists of a broad woven wool fabric that gradually unknits according to a guided choreography of algorithmic precision, completely disassembling by the end of the Biennale's exhibition.
Bangladeshi architect and educator Marina Tabassum and her firm, Marina Tabassum Architects, have been selected to design the 2025 SerpentinePavilion. Titled "A Capsule in Time," the proposal takes inspiration from the ephemeral nature of architecture in the Bengal Delta, incorporating a semi-transparent structure intended to evoke a sense of community and connection. The Pavilion will open to the public on June 6th, until 26 October 2025, with a press preview two days before the opening. Tabassum's pavilion will mark the 25th year since the Serpentine's first commission of Zaha Hadid's inaugural structure in Hyde Park in 2000.
The 2025 edition of Milan Design Week and Salone del Mobile.Milano, spanning April 7th to 13th, brought together a diverse range of temporary installations at the intersection of architecture, design, and material innovation. Spread across historic sites, courtyards, and exhibition venues throughout the city, these site-specific works explored concepts such as sustainability, impermanence, sensory experience, and spatial interaction, in line with the theme of this edition of exploring the deep connections between humanity and design. Architectural studios, designers, and artists collaborated with brands and institutions to create environments that responded to context while proposing new approaches to how spaces are designed, experienced, and constructed. The following selection highlights ten installations presented during the week, reflecting a range of design approaches, materials, and spatial concepts.
Milan Design Week 2025 is one of the most significant events in the design world, taking place from April 8 to April 13. Following in the previous years' tradition, the city of Milano will host a variety of exhibitions, installations, and discussions throughout its diverse districts, each offering a unique atmosphere and thematic focus. Alongside the renowned Salone del Mobile 2025 at the expansive Rho Fiera exhibition grounds, numerous activities and initiatives will be featured, all coordinated under the Fuorisalone agenda. This article will help navigate the many events by highlighting key venues and installations, ranging from the major fair to vibrant design districts and distinctive locations, such as historic courtyards and revitalized industrial spaces.
Desert X is a site-specific international art exhibition taking place this year across the Coachella Valley, California. Its fifth edition, curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and co-curator Kaitlin Garcia Maestas, opened on March 10, 2025, featuring eleven installations by international artists integrated into the desert landscape. Artists were invited to propose alternative ways of perceiving a world "increasingly encircled by the transformational effects of nature and humanity," through physical installations in specific locations within the California desert. In this context, architecture is understood as the most visible evidence of human transformation, while immaterial elements, such as wind and light, highlight the transformative effects not only of human activity but also of nature itself. The exhibition is free and open to all, running through May 11, 2025. Below are images and descriptions of the eleven art installations featured in this year's Desert X exhibition.
2025 promises to be a landmark in architecture, heralding a vibrant renaissance of creativity and exploration. As societies confront challenges such as climate change, rapid urbanization, and technological evolution, architecture is both a mirror to these dynamics and a compass pointing toward a sustainable and inclusive future. This year's architectural calendar offers abundant opportunities to celebrate the discipline's transformative power — from boundary-pushing festivals to thought-provoking exhibitions that explore pressing cultural and environmental narratives.
From well-established biennials to inaugural gatherings, including the World Architecture Festival 2025, Desert X Al Ula, and the COP Climate Conference, the 2025 calendar highlights themes such as sustainability, heritage, and community. These events underscore architecture's unique ability to shape a better future, addressing global challenges while honoring cultural diversity and design ingenuity.
Pavilions offer architects a unique opportunity to experiment, serving as compact spaces that push the boundaries of design and spatial concepts. Free from many conventional functional constraints, these structures allow for artistic expression and the testing of new technologies. Pavilions often act as living laboratories of architecture, positioned in public or cultural contexts. They transform their surroundings into interactive, memorable experiences, providing a stage for architects to showcase their most innovative ideas. In recent years, climate responsiveness has emerged as a crucial focus in pavilion design. By using temporary structures as a testing ground for more sustainable practices, architects can experiment with alternative materials and environmentally conscious approaches that address the climate crisis.
Architects Belinda Tato and Jose Luis Vallejo of Ecosistema Urbano have designed a plug-in public space designed to address the effects of climate change in ill-equipped urban environments. Titled Polinature, the installation has been funded by the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard, and is now installed in the backyard of the Harvard Center for Green Buildings and Cities. The pavilion, featuring native plans set into a scaffolding, with an inflatable bioclimatic canopy, aims to demonstrate how small-scale interventions can create compound positive effects for the local micro-climate and biodiversity.
Known for its unconventional art installations and striking desert setting, the Burning Man festival has concluded this year with an array of temporary installations spread across the Black RockDesert in Nevada. The festival's 2024 theme, "Curiouser & Curiouser," inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, encouraged participants to embrace wonder and whimsy.
At Burning Man, a tapestry of themes emerges through diverse installations, from reflections on connectivity and isolation to explorations of time and space. Installations like Nebula Shroom Grove and the Temple of Together emphasize community and unity, inviting interaction and participation. Pieces like "I'm Fine" and Tree Circle delve into universal emotions and humanity's connection to the infinite, while works like Matter Out of Time and The End of Time play with perceptions of time and reality.
Every August, the Black Rock Desert in Nevada transforms into a vibrant city for Burning Man, a week-long festival that culminates in the ceremonial burning of a large wooden effigy. Established in 1986, the festival is renowned for its unconventional art installations and striking desert setting. While varied in their expression, the installations follow a central theme of the year. For this edition, the title “Curiouser & Curiouser” takes inspiration from the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, prompting participants to engage with wonder and embrace the whimsical and mysterious. This year’s central temple installation is designed by Caroline Ghosn to represent togetherness and mutual respect. Following a Burning Man Tradition, the temple design is selected following an international competition.
Ephemeral architectures, characterized by their temporary and flexible nature, have emerged as powerful tools for revitalizing urban spaces and fostering architectural creativity. These transient installations transform public areas, engaging communities, and prompting reflections on the potential futures of our cities. By temporarily transforming environments, ephemeral architectures encourage both architects and the public to reimagine the possibilities of urban living. This dynamic interplay, between the temporary and the permanent, challenges traditional architectural practices and opens up new avenues for sustainable and inclusive urban development.
The first Olympic village was built for the 1924 Summer Games in Paris. Before this, athletes stayed in hotels, hostels, schools, headquarters, and even on the ships that brought them to the host cities. Pierre de Coubertin, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), proposed the idea of an Olympic village. He realized it would be more cost-effective to house athletes in temporary structures rather than hotels. He believed the village would also create a sense of community among the international competitors.
To take advantage of the historic heritage of the city of Paris while also minimizing the impact of the Olympics, the Paris 2024 Games are organizing a set of temporary arenas and installations to host several key competitions, only to be disassembled after the games' closing. Only one sports venue has been built specifically for the 2024 Olympic Games, the Aquatics Centre Paris, as the city aims to use its existing sporting infrastructure to the maximum, ensuring a smaller footprint compared to previous editions. In addition to the established venues, key temporary sites include the Trocadéro, Eiffel Tower, Champ-de-Mars, Esplanade des Invalides, Pont Alexandre III, Place de la Concorde, and Place de l’Hôtel de Ville, with additional stands along the Seine for the Opening Ceremony.
The assembly and disassembly of these temporary sites will follow a step-by-step approach to minimize disruption. Geographical phasing will preserve traffic lanes and access to public spaces, while time phasing will gradually activate and deactivate competition perimeters to limit construction impact and quickly restore spaces post-Games. These measures align with Paris 2024's commitment to organizing responsible and respectful Games and preserving the city's urban and natural heritage.
