Designer Julia Lohmann's Department of Seaweed is showing a pavilion made of kelp and rattan at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, where world leaders have met this week.
Called Hidaka Ohmu, the organically shaped pavilion is formed from semi-translucent panels of a large seaweed ? or macroalgae ? called kelp, laid over a rattan frame.

The kelp is treated to remain flexible so that it can be stretched like leather.
It is installed against a window in the conference centre, and is designed to appears like it is growing out of it. A series of nodules protrude from its roof, with others attached further along the glass window.

The Davos pavilion draws on the sinuous Oki Naganode work that Lohmann installed at London's V&A Museum in 2013, which was also made from seaweed panels stretched over a rattan structure. Visitors can enter the Davos pavilion through an opening in its side, to sit on a bench inside that has views of the snowy Swiss landscape outside.

Lohmann's pavilion aims to bring a multi-sensory experience of nature into the otherwise sterile conference building.
The colour of the kelp panels change from yellow to orange to brown, depending on the light and the time of day. It also gives off a salty scent of the sea.

The designer, who has previously designed laser-cut kelp lampshades, hopes that the structure will engage conference delegates with the issues facing the natural world, in particular the challenges of climate change.

"We need an e...