Rio Kobayashi, off the shelf pavillion

London Design Festival, Kensington Olympia

Off the Shelf Pavilion” marked Rio Kobayashi’s first large-scale installation. Developed in collaboration with Web Yates Engineers, the project draws inspiration from the architectural language of Kobayashi’s childhood home in rural Japan, exploring the intersection of cultural tradition and contemporary design. Referencing the form of a Torii gate, the pavilion is embellished with wind chimes and gilded details that respond to the surrounding elements, transforming wind, rain, and light into an immersive sensory experience. Grounded in principles of sustainability, the structure is constructed entirely from unmodified off-the-shelf materials, carefully wedged and tied to enable complete disassembly and reuse.

Our lighting design followed a simlar principle of not using attachments that could not be be easliy removed and reused. The entire lighting system used gravity as a primary attachment and the fittings we used have gone on to light multiple other installations since then.