OPPO collaborates with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma for Milan Design Week 2021

World's leading smart device manufacturer and innovator, OPPO has partnered with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to create a multisensory installation for Milan Design Week 2021. 'Bamboo (竹) Ring :|| Weaving a Symphony of Lightness and Form' works to the theme 'Creative Connections' by fusing architecture with music, design innovation, technological prowess, and user experience to create a sense of time and space, and will be on display in Milan’s Cortile dei Bagni courtyard for the duration of the design week, until 19 September.

This landmark project is an evolution of the Japanese architect and OPPO’s Bamboo Ring exhibition which debuted at the 2019 edition of the London Design Festival and explored the harmonious relationship between humans and nature through the envisioning of lightweight yet strong structures made with bamboo and carbon fibre. This year, OPPO’s experiential installation uses pioneering technology to engage all the senses through a series of orchestral scores composed by Japanese violinist Midori Komachi with Musicity.

The composition is based on the cycle of seasons and moves through the structure encouraging the public to walk around and be captured by its aural narrative. The changing soundscapes integrate the sound of Midori's violin (built in Milan in 1920 and enhanced with carbon fibre itself) from O Relax, OPPO's digital wellbeing application that offers comforting nature and city sounds to relax your mind taken from locations around the globe including Reykjavik, Beijing, and Tokyo.

The installation’s woven structure – crafted from rings of bamboo and carbon fibre – becomes a musical instrument as music travels through it via structural sound technologies originating from OPPO London Design Centre's research. Innovative technology including new haptic motors, MEMS speaker strips, and exciters work together to produce an immersive base and higher frequencies that reverberate the bamboo with Violin's vibrato and the effect of a percussion instrument.

“When I design, I’m interested in designing the rhythm and the tone rather than the silhouette, and contemporary music gives us many lessons about how to create new rhythms and tones in architecture. This pavilion is one of the explorations into the new rhythms and tones in architecture combining visual and acoustic experiences of the visitors," says architect Kengo Kuma.

After Milan Design Week, OPPO will donate Bamboo Ring to Arte Sella Park in Trentino, Italy, a contemporary art museum with outdoor exhibits made from natural materials and backdropped by the mountainous Sella Valley, where it will find its permanent home.