Architecture

SFMOMA exhibition explores the architectural provocations of Neri Oxman Melanin-enriched building materials and decomposing pavilions are among the pieces on show in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of Neri Oxman's work, Nature x Humanity. Curator Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher discusses five key works. An architect, designer and pioneering materials researcher who founded The Mediated Matter Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and recently opened her own laboratory, Oxman is best known for otherworldly-looking designs and installations built from unexpected biological matter. Above: the exhibition in San Francisco showcases Neri Oxman's design. Top image: Nature x Humanity looks at...

Gridded facade defines car-free IKEA store in Vienna by Querkraft Architekten A gridded facade dotted with trees animates the inner-city IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof store, which local studio Querkraft Architekten has deliberately designed without parking spaces. Located in the heart of the Austrian capital, the car-free IKEA store is designed by Vienna-based Querkraft Architekten to be accessible solely by foot or public transport. Querkraft Architekten has completed the IKEA Vienna Westbahnhof store According to Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which revealed the design in 2020, the seven-storey store is a response to "radically changed customer and mobility behaviours" and an ambition to...

Balenciaga wraps London store in pink faux fur to celebrate its Le Cagole "it-bag" Fashion brand Balenciaga has transformed its Mount Street store in London, creating a maximalist look to launch its Le Cagole collection by blanketing the interior in bright pink faux fur. To celebrate its popular Le Cagole bag, which references Balenciaga's maximalist It Bags of the past, and launch the line's collection of accessories and shoes, the entire interior of the store has been covered in fur. Balenciaga's Mount Street store was lined in faux fur The brand removed its accessories, ready-to-wear collections and permanent shelving from...

Jacquemus creates surrealist interpretation of his own bathroom for Selfridges pop-up French fashion designer Simon Jacquemus has opened a series of surrealist pop-up installations at London department store Selfridges, including a luxury-bag vending machine and a swimming-pool changing room. Titled Le Bleu, the installation occupies a number of locations across the store, including its creative retail space The Corner Shop and the Old Selfridges Hotel, a former hotel space that is now being used as a pop-up venue. The pop-up installations are located in and around Selfridges on Oxford Street The Corner Shop, which functions as the installation's main retail...

Shigeru Ban builds modular partitions to offer privacy to Ukrainians in emergency shelters Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has installed his Paper Partition System across temporary shelters in Europe that are housing Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. Installed by Ban with the Voluntary Architects' Network non-governmental organisation (NGO), which he founded in 1995, the modular system offers privacy to people seeking refuge in the hastily constructed refugee centres. Shigeru Ban has installed his Paper Partition System in refugee shelters housing displaced Ukrainians The Paper Partition System (PPS) is quickly and easily constructed using cardboard tubes as structure and textiles as...