Five Unmissable Pavilions from the 2025 London Design Biennale

Now in its fifth edition, the London Design Biennale 2025 returns to Somerset House with a bold new energy — thanks in no small part to Samuel Ross, this year’s Artistic Director. The British designer and artist has curated an ambitious programme that brings together 40 participants from across the globe, each responding to Ross’s thematic provocation: "Surface Reflections."

Visualista attended the press preview to experience the Biennale's strikingly conceptual – and often emotional – installations. While every room has its own story, five pavilions stood out for their visual power, material innovation and philosophical depth.

1. Oman: Memory Grid by Zawraq

A poetic take on preservation in the digital age

Oman’s debut at the Biennale leaves a lasting impression with a conceptual installation that reimagines ancient vessels through a contemporary, tech-inflected lens. Transparent plastic versions of traditional Omani pottery – historically used to preserve water as far back as the third millennium BC – are lit from beneath, reminding the flicker of a server room.

Created by Zawraq, in collaboration with architect Haitham Al-Busafi, the pavilion provocatively parallels ancient preservation methods with today’s data storage, questioning what it means to "save" something — and who owns that memory. More than an aesthetic experience, Memory Grid is a digital-age meditation on heritage, impermanence, and control.

2. Japan: Paper Clouds – Materiality in Empty Space

A suspended symphony of lightness, sound and Washi paper

Japan’s Paper Clouds is a breathtaking blend of design and performance. Developed by SEKISUI HOUSE – KUMA LAB, with sound by violinist-composer Midori Komachi, and curated by Clare Farrow Studio, the work examines the structural and poetic power of Washi paper.

Softly glowing paper clouds drift above visitors’ heads, animated by ambient music and occasional live performances. At its heart is a paper costume — fragile yet resilient — reinforcing the idea that strength can exist in the lightest of materials. A profound study in restraint, Paper Clouds evokes both awe and serenity.

3. Argentina: SUR ANDINA by Madre Tierra Designers

An immersive tapestry of textiles, mythology, and sonic memory

In SUR ANDINA, textile designer Cindy Lilen and sound artist Iliana Díaz López guide visitors on a sensory journey across the Argentinian Andes. The installation is part spiritual landscape, part textile laboratory — with woven fibres, sculpted light, and a haunting soundscape inspired by Andean mythology, combining music and realistic sound design.

Tactile surfaces and sounds create an otherworldly beauty, inviting visitors to slow down and listen — not just with their ears, but with their entire bodies. The result is a living, breathing space where memory, myth, and matter converge. A sublime homage to the land and its ancestral rhythms.

4. Chile: Minerasophia by Mále Uribe & Constanza Gaggero

Turning mining waste into a new aesthetic language

As one of the world’s largest exporters of copper and lithium, Chile grapples with a complex legacy of extraction. In Minerasophia, designers Mále Uribe and Constanza Gaggero reinterpret this legacy through a poetic, material-led installation.

By transforming mining byproducts—often discarded as waste—into custom concrete mixes, the designers propose a radical shift: waste not as residue, but as resource. The resulting collection of slabs, pigments, and textures reveals not only the functional potential of these overlooked materials but also their aesthetic value. These recycled materials are not only eco-friendly but also elegant enough to be used in luxury design.

5. The Recursion Project by Melek Zeynep Bulut

Terracotta cubes, fourth dimensions, and the metaphysics of form

The Recursion Project by Melek Zeynep Bulut is a thoughtful, immersive installation that feels both intellectual and intimate. A suspended structure made of handcrafted terracotta cubes with mirrored surfaces forms a larger cube — a quiet reference to the Tesseract, a mathematical symbol of higher dimensions.

Drawing inspiration from Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Bulut uses this repeating geometry to blur the boundaries between form and space. The result is more than sculpture; it’s a meditative portal that gently shifts the viewer from the physical world into a metaphysical experience. 

The 2025 London Design Biennale runs at Somerset House until 29 June.

Book your ticket now to explore over 40 pavilions that challenge, comfort, and inspire.