The exhibition "Nosso Barco Tambor Terra" by Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto, held at the recently renovated Grand Palais in Paris from June 6 to July 25, 2025, is a large-scale, immersive installation that invites visitors to reconnect with nature and community through sensory experience. Drawing inspiration from Brazilian and Indigenous cultures, Neto uses textiles, scents, and organic materials to create a space for reflection and interaction. The textile installation was recently captured by photographer Paul Clemence, who sought to portray its architectural qualities.
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.
Expo Osaka 2025 officially opened its doors on April 13 in Osaka, Japan. The Philippines' exhibition for this edition opened with a pavilion designed by the Filipino-led architectural firm Carlo Calma Consultancy Inc., in partnership with Japanese executive architect Cat Inc., who also handled project management. Titled "Woven," the pavilion reflects the country's connections to nature, its cultural heritage, and its community values. With the theme "Nature, Culture & Community: Woven Together for a Better Future," the pavilion aims to highlight the Philippines' creativity, diversity, and aspirations for sustainable development while inviting visitors to engage with its cultural and environmental priorities.
Much before humans constructed their first permanent shelters, they discovered the protective power of animal hides as a barrier against harsh environmental conditions. This fundamental principle of building with flexible materials finds influence in the architecture of today, despite the lack of strong precedents that have been lost to time. Textiles served as humanity's first architectural elements, predating ancient construction methods like stone masonry. The relationship between textiles and shelter would go on to shape the entire history of architecture, from prehistoric settlements to modern skyscrapers. What lessons might these ancient origins of architecture hold for future advancements in building design?
At ‘The Thai Silk Company’, Jim Thompson blends heritage with modernity in craftsmanship. Image Courtesy of Jim Thompson
Today, there are only a handful of names in the contemporary world of textiles that have a significant historical legacy and an incredible biography woven into their backstory. Jim Thompson is rich in romance. The Delaware native was a serviceman in South Asia and working for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. intelligence agency. When the conflict ended, he found himself in Thailand, building a new life rooted in his fascination with the beauty and craft inherent to the nation. It was a time when silk weaving was threatened by machine-made fabrics and he discovered a community of exceptionally skilled silk weavers in Bangkok. He worked closely with them to develop production and introduced them to other talented weaving communities, including one in Pak Thong Chai, Korat – a province in the North East of Thailand. His efforts were instrumental in reviving Thailand's silk industry, a legacy that endures today.
https://www.archdaily.com/1021734/elevating-interior-spaces-with-modern-textile-craftsmanshipMark C. O'Flaherty
The Chile Pavilion, recently revealed by Constructo Architects for Expo Osaka 2025, blends contemporary industrial design and traditional Mapuche textile artistry. Constructed using industrialized wood (CLT) and featuring handwoven textiles, the pavilion emphasizes both innovation and cultural heritage. The structure is designed to be a "nomadic pavilion," easily assembled and disassembled, allowing it to travel from Chile to Japan and back.
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Turning waste into beautiful flooring. Image Courtesy of Bolon
In contemporary architecture, recycling has evolved from a desirable to an unavoidable necessity. This change is mainly due to the growing climate crisis, accentuated by the constant presence of waste (for which no use has been found beyond the initial one).
This approach has stimulated the creation of innovative materials to reuse waste in various contexts. A notable example is the case of woven flooring and rugs, where Bolon took a step forward in 1949 by transforming textile waste into stylish products. Since then, they have continued to innovate in materials, fusing the traditional flooring branch with sustainable creative design.
https://www.archdaily.com/1014951/walk-on-waste-weaving-waste-into-stylish-floorings-and-rugsEnrique Tovar
Translucency, at its essence, is an optical property that enables the total or partial passage of light through materials, without providing a clear view of the objects behind them. Despite its apparent simplicity, this property has fascinating applications in the architectural field, generating attractive and powerful proposals that play with light without obstructing views.
Traditionally, glass sheets have been the symbolic material associated with transparency, commonly used in the fabrication of doors and windows. However, technological advances in production and the exploration of innovative materials have significantly expanded the opportunities to take advantage of this property in both interior and exterior applications. These advances challenge preconceived limitations and encourage creativity in the development of novel architectural proposals.
https://www.archdaily.com/1013517/seeing-through-layers-translucent-materials-in-architectureEnrique Tovar
Built on a former airport site in Hong Kong, Snøhetta Asia has unveiled its latest project in Hong Kong, Airside. This mixed-use landmark was actually Snøhetta’s first project in the country and serves as a central hub in a redeveloped business district. The project boasts ample public areas and gardens, including outdoor plazas and rooftop gardens that may be used for events, dining, urban farming, and leisure. As the first project in Hong Kong to obtain five of the highest green building certifications, this development integrates several sustainable practices.
As society, technology, and architecture have evolved, designers and architects have embraced novel construction systems and innovative approaches to reshape the built environment. This advancement has stretched the boundaries of traditional construction techniques and ignited fresh ideas in building design.
In the past, some architects and artists aimed to question an architectural paradigm deeply entrenched in anthropocentrism. Historically, architecture has been linked to the notion that buildings, being conceived by human beings, must be extremely durable, even imperishable. Considering the principle that the best intervention is the least intrusive, inflatable architecture, in contrast to these human-centric viewpoints —but aligned to our ephemeral nature—, can propose structures that may exist one day and vanish the next, leaving a temporal imprint on the landscape. This architectural approach uses textiles as the primary material and air as the structural system, potentially challenging the traditional Vitruvian ideals of Venustas, Firmitas, and Utilitas.
https://www.archdaily.com/1007496/inflatable-architecture-pneumatic-structures-transforming-built-environmentsEnrique Tovar
London Design Biennale has opened on June 1st, 2023, at Somerset House, bringing together participants from around the world to celebrate new forms of international cooperation through design. The Biennale, now in its fourth edition, will display more than 40 installations focused on the theme ‘The Global Game: Remapping Collaborations,’ chosen by this year’s Artistic Director, the Nieuwe Instituut, Instituut, led by Aric Chen. In addition to the national participants, the Eureka exhibition will showcase cross-disciplinary innovations from UK’s leading research centers.
Acoustic Divider Vario / Création Baumann. Image Courtesy of Création Baumann
Beyond their features in the world of fashion, fabrics can also be an essential part of an interior design’s creative possibilities. While enhancing the aesthetic appeal of a space, these versatile materials –made from fibers or yarn that have been interlaced, knitted, or bonded together– also provide functionality to space. As part of a holistic architectural strategy, these natural and synthetic elements are essential for designing upholstery for furniture, curtains and drapes, space divisions and wall coverings. Changing the traditional notion of fabrics –known as stain collectors, bug homes and easily catching fire– the latest design innovations are exploring properties which take the use of fabrics one step further. Diving into Architonic’s fabric catalog, we take a look at different products with distinctive acoustic, fireproof and repellent properties.
In the heyday of high modernism, architects such as Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe extolled the aesthetic value of whiteness, which they viewed as connoting purity and simplicity. Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, for example, paired the stripped-down whiteness of its structural skeleton with expansive floor-to-ceiling windows, using the enveloping natural light to further elevate the already heavenly aspirations of the space. Today, some contemporary architects and designers have evolved the sublime aesthetics of white high modern architecture by using translucent fabric partitions, complementing the purity of the white walls with the fabrics’ ethereal play of light and shadow. Below, we discuss different design strategies for working with white fabrics in this way, and include two examples of projects that have used translucent fabrics in soothing but innovative ways.
https://www.archdaily.com/957021/white-atmospheres-how-to-create-calm-spaces-with-fabric-partitionsLilly Cao
Christian Kerez was announced as the winner of the competition for the renovation of the Palazzo Rosso in St. Gallen, home to the Textile Museum St. Gallen, in eastern Switzerland. The project, titled “Das Schwere ist des Leichten Wurzelgrund,” or “The Heavy Is the Root of the Light,” responds to the goal of raising the profile of the Palazzo Rosso and increasing its visibility and attractivity. The proposal is currently undergoing further development by order of the Textile Museum Foundation for clarifying questions of feasibility and finance.
Through the “Search History” exhibition at MAXXI Museum in Rome, Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, directors of the architecture and art studio Space Popular, set out to explore the work of Also Rossi and to translate his notions of “urban fact” and “analogous city” to the virtual realm. The installation is a reflection on the proliferation of metaverse platforms and the concept of virtual urbanism. The exhibition is part of the fifth edition of Studio Visit, a partnership between Alcantara and the MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, which challenges designers to put forward a personal reinterpretation of the works of the masters in the MAXXI Architecture Collections.
The construction industry's future will undoubtedly include "carbon reduction" as a mandatory task. Aside from locally sourced, virgin materials, an increasing number of new materials are becoming available. New materials can be developed in several ways, including low-carbon substitution, recycling, performance enhancement, and 3D printing. New materials will not only be more environmentally friendly and enable new construction methods, but they will also influence the starting point and direction of design concepts, resulting in new buildings with new perceptions and spaces.
Tsz Yan Ng is a Michigan-based firm principal, professor, researcher, and artist whose interdisciplinary and collaborative work seeks to challenge and improve upon modern fabrication and manufacturing practices. “We haven’t changed the way we build in so long,” Ng said. “We need to think of it more productively—not just economically—but as a collection of different voices. Architecture is a global ecosystem of people, where the sum is greater than the parts.”
The JUT Foundation in Taipei has recently had its 240-square-meter lecture hall by MVRDV transformed into a mossy art installation with a textile artwork that spans not just edge to edge, but up the walls, by Argentinian artist, Alexandra Kehayoglou. The lecture hall hosts a number of talks and events and requires versatility. The custom moss-inspired carpet adds a level of comfort and interest to what otherwise could have been a monotonous space.
.jpg?1646040749 "SOM Explores Future Timber Construction Methods at the 2021 Chicago Biennial. Image © Kendall McCaugherty © Hall+Merrick Photographers")
.jpg?1646040755 "SOM Explores Future Timber Construction Methods at the 2021 Chicago Biennial. Image © Kendall McCaugherty © Hall+Merrick Photographers")
