Japanese studio Nendo has contributed to a virtual design show organised by Vogue Italia, showing its Hyouri collection of reversible traditional paper lanterns that "seem to swallow parts of themselves".
The collection, made by traditional Kyoto paper lantern manufacturer Kojima Shouten, will be on show at the Life in Vogue exhibition that takes place online from 13 to 18 April.
The Hyouri collection is shown at Life in Vogue
The event, which first took place in 2018, showcases works by six international designers and is held in a specially-designed digital space this year as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect real-world events.
Vogue Italia invited the designers to create one room each inside a virtual replica of Condé Nast's Milan headquarters at Piazza Cadorna 5. The collection is a take on traditional Kyoto paper lanterns
The Kyoto lanterns that inform Nendo's contribution usually have a structure made from a bamboo frame that consists of ring-shaped bamboo strips with ends fixed with washi paper.
For the Hyouri collection, rather than binding the ends tightly to each other, multiple bamboo strips were bound with washi paper but some slack was left to create joints, which enabled the lanterns to be turned inside out.
Bamboo strips are tied together loosely
"A total of 10 designs were produced, including lanterns seeming to swallow parts of themselves, some triply nested, and some even reaching inward to peak through the other side," Nen...