Category: Design

If you’re familiar with the Japanese art of wood joinery, you’ll likely find kumiko equally intriguing. The traditional craft emerged in the Asuka era between about 600 and 700 C.E. and similarly eschews nails in favor of perfectly cut pieces that notch into place. Intricate fields of florals and geometric shapes emerge, creating a decorative panel that typically covers windows or divides a room.

A video from The Process, a YouTube channel exploring various manufacturing sectors and hand-crafted techniques, visits the workshop of Kinoshita Mokuge. Viewers are welcomed into the meticulous, labor-intensive process of producing elaborate, interlocked motifs. Japanese Arts also offered a glimpse into this art form a few years back during an equally calming visit to Kurozu Tetsuo’s studio.

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From postage stamps to jetliner specifications to items he packed for the journey, José Naranja’s sketchbooks (previously) capture minute details of numerous international trips. “I’m lost in the intricate details, as always,” he tells Colossal. Everything from currency to noodle varieties to film references make their way into small books brimming with travel ephemera and observations.

Naranja is currently working on a thicker book than he has in the past, which is taking more time to fill, along with an illustrated card project called 2050, which merges science, tech events, and his signature “beauty of note-taking” aesthetic. The artist has also reproduced some of his sketches in The Nautilus Manuscript, a small batch-printed, hand-bound edition available for sale in his shop. Follow updates on the artist’s Instagram.

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Through colorful squiggles embedded with games, trampolines, and sculptural trees, a new public park in Guangzhou, China, re-envisions the possibilities of play.

“Wired Scape,” which design firm 100architects bills as an “an entangling forest of imagination and fun,” takes inspiration from the natural landscape to create a one-of-a-kind playground in a residential area. Trees resembling balls of colorful wire appear to spin out of the ground, and curvaceous green and blue forms reflect the interaction of land and water.

Lively trees made from pipes spiraling around central cores serve a triple purpose as climbable structures, shade-providing canopies, and supports for a series of interconnected bridges throughout the park. The overall aesthetic recalls computer-generated imagery in video games or animation.

100architects aimed to break away from traditional playground design and instead focus on the layout as a multigenerational space. Children’s imaginations are stimulated by myriad ways to jump, climb, slide, and run, while caregivers and parents have ample options for shaded seating with clear sight lines.

Explore 100architects’ exuberant public installations on the studio’s website and Instagram, and check out more incredible playgrounds.

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During the Soviet era, modernist architecture rose to popularity as a means to express power, prestige, and views toward the future following World War II. Across Eastern Europe, asymmetric details, geometric rooflines, circular footprints, monumental murals, and blocky brutalist structures rose in defiance of pre-war classical and vernacular styles.

In Ukrainian Modernism, Kyiv-based photographer and researcher Dmytro Soloviov’s first book, the nation’s under-recognized mid-20th-century built heritage takes center stage.

“Ukraine’s modernist buildings are an extraordinary blend of function, avant-garde aesthetics and ingenious design, but despite these qualities, they remain largely unrecognised,” says a statement from FUEL, which will release the book later this month.

Soloviov chronicles a buildings that are often stigmatized for their inception during the Soviet era and subsequent neglect and redevelopment over time. In the face of the nation’s struggle to overcome Russia’s ongoing incursion, war continues to threaten historic buildings. Ukrainian Modernism combines Soloviov’s contemporary photos with archival images, exploring the breadth of the region’s architectural marvels.

Preorder your copy on FUEL’s website.

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In the second half of the 20th century, “brutalism and the shall-we-call-it ‘marketplace modernism’…when it appeared in the East, was always about spectacle,” Zupagrafika founders David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka say in a blog post about Eastern Bloc suburbia.

Brutalist housing estates and public buildings of the post-war Soviet era were built on a massive scale, often from concrete and prefabricated panels, to accommodate growing populations and to demonstrate power, socialist values, and modernity. Sometimes blocked in color or complemented by murals, these hulking structures largely emphasized monolithic forms, an unmissable PR message about communist ideology.

Brutalism is a study in contrasts—heaviness juxtaposed with balance; concrete set into the natural landscape. Eastern Blocks II, Navarro and Sobecka’s new book, captures some of these stark scenes, with expansive residential units rising above bucolic meadows or framed by nothing but snow. Functionality takes precedence over aesthetics.

Navarro and Sobecka have traveled the width and breadth of Eastern Europe, photographing the region’s unique architecture and expanding on the first volume published in 2019. Along with local photographers Alexander Veryovkin and Kseniya Lokotko, who captured views of Kaliningrad and Minsk, the authors chronicle a total of ten cities from Chișinău to Riga to Prague in more than 180 photos.

Find your copy on the publisher’s website. You might also enjoy Zupagrafika’s Kiosk, a survey of Eastern Europe’s disappearing tiny shops.

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In early 2025, designer Svea Tisell founded Kryss, a studio that takes an expansive approach to a single material and experimental processes. From lengths of rope sometimes measuring thousands of meters, she creates unique furniture objects in which craft traditions and contemporary design converge.

Kryss is named after a sailboat that belonged to Tisell’s great-grandfather, intertwining notions of tradition, function, and innovation. The artist is currently focused on creating furniture objects using a technique called MultiWeave, developed by Estonian textile artist and teacher Kadi Pajupuu. Using reclaimed climbing ropes or surplus from the production of shoelaces, Tisell incorporates a rigid framework of warp supports around which weft threads—or sturdy rope—are guided.

The grid, consisting of conduits for threading the material, offers structure and support during the weaving process but is removed once the piece is finished, allowing it to be reused. Whether a seat or small table, the knotted rope then adjusts to weight and movement and subtly adapts to use over time.

For Kryss, Tisell is fascinated by the possibilities of translating textiles into three-dimensional forms that interact and provide different functions. She tells Colossal that the project concentrates on the fundamental characteristics of the material, “where textile is the main character, keeping its soft and receiving qualities,” while also supporting itself independently.

Find more on Tisell’s Instagram.

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Although recycling paper uses less water than manufacturing the material from wood pulp, the process still requires significant energy and resources. The team behind Resketch has found a way to skip that step altogether.

Founded by Chicago-based artist Shawn Smith and now helmed by Skaaren Design, the company makes notebooks and sketchpads of unused architectural diagrams, maps, logs, sheet music, and more. The resulting designs offer users the opportunity to creatively engage with the original markings and add their own additions to the printed pages. Flipping through a notebook also becomes an act of discovery as old calendars or bureaucratic forms are tucked between graphs and lines.

“Through partnerships with the creative community and local and national businesses, we rescue 8 to 10 tons of high-quality, unused paper every year that would otherwise prematurely enter the waste stream,” Resketch says. The company currently collaborates with schools, businesses, architectural firms, and creatives across the U.S. to source materials with just enough blank space for a doodle or to-do list.

Shop notebooks and pads in Resketch’s store, and keep an eye on Instagram for their latest products. (via Core77)

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For 16 days this spring, an international kite festival will soar above the beaches of Cervia. Artenvento returns to northern Italy from April 19 to May 4 with more than 200 participants from 50 countries and five continents.

In its 45th year, the 2025 festival welcomes artist Kadek Armika, who’s known for incorporating Balinese kite-making traditions into his modern, flying sculptures. This iteration also marks the 80th anniversary of the city’s liberation in WWII and revolves around a theme of solidarity and peace.

Find more about the festival and its broad programming, including workshops, music, and acrobatic performances, on its website.

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In Nahuatl, an Aztec language indigenous to Mesoamerica still spoken by more than a million people throughout Mexico, kauani means “to flourish.” Inés Llasera, co-founder of Tornasol Studio, and textile designer Inés Quezada conceived of a series of luminaires inspired by native flora in celebration of the region’s rich botanic diversity.

The ongoing series, KAUANI, emulates details of endemic species, drawing on textures found on cacti, geometric agaves, and the rhythmic patterns of corn. The duo also find inspiration in the unique seeds of mamey and guanabana fruits or the pigmentation of cacao and chili peppers.

“Cacti symbolize resilience,” Quezada and Llasera say in a statement, sharing how the plants’ adaptations to extreme environments mean they can endure long droughts and high temperatures. The pair adds:

For instance, their spines not only serve as a defense mechanism but also condense water and create a protective layer. Their pale pigmentation, resulting from waxes that insulate their tissues and their water-retention capabilities grant them unique volumetric forms. Unlike most plants, cacti perform photosynthesis at night, closing their stomata during the day to conserve water and nutrients. It is in darkness that they truly “breathe.”

Merging natural forms of fruit and botanicals with textiles, the lanterns incorporate knitted skins with delicate spikes, ruffles, or tentacles that tread the line between representation and abstraction. Melon-like orbs and oblong shapes reminiscent of seed pods are suspended from the ceiling or propped up on surfaces with spindly feet.

If you’re in Mexico City, you can see KAUANI in Noches Árides through May 15 at AGO Projects. Explore more on the designers’ website, and follow updates on Instagram.

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Within southwest Arkansas’s Garvan Woodland Gardens, a four-story communal treehouse welcomes visitors to the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden. Designed by modus studio and constructed in 2018, the whimsical yet contemporary structure is embraced by pine and oak trees, connecting visitors to the surrounding woods via elevated walkways and lookouts.

“This unique structure is a defining small project for modus,” the team says, sharing that the work draws on their own childhood experiences in the region. They add that “it is easy to take for granted our strong connection to the creeks, forests, insects, and animals of Arkansas. However, many children in the modern world are unfortunately disconnected from this type of play.”

The studio took dendrology, the study of trees and wooded plants, as a starting point for the overall form and the way people interact with the space as they move along its passageways and stairwells.

The curving screen encasing the structure is composed of 113 fins made from locally sourced Southern yellow pine. Airy slats and metal screens redolent of branches let the light and breeze filter through, maintaining visitors’ connection to the surrounding Ouachita Forest from numerous vantage points.

Designers conceived of a space that would refocus people’s attention on the natural wonders of the canopy and allow visitors to climb higher and see farther. “The tree house uses a rich visual and tactile environment to stimulate the mind and body and strengthen connections back to the natural world while accommodating the needs of all users,” the firm says.

modus studio was recently selected to exhibit in the U.S. Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. If you’re in Arkansas, you can also see Coler Mountain Bike Preserve, where the team designed a series of pavilions and dynamic bridges. Find more on the studio’s website. (via Plain Magazine)

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