The Subtle Beauty of Japanese Design: A Nendo Collaboration

In Japan, there are more than forty words to describe rain. From the soft mist of kiri to the sudden downpour of niwaka ame, each term carries with it an atmosphere, an emotion, a fleeting state of the natural world. By contrast, English offers only a handful of expressions, proof of how deeply the Japanese language, and by extension its design sensibility, is attuned to nature’s shifting moods. This attentiveness to detail defines Japanese design, where simplicity is never empty but always imbued with intention. Every element is considered, every gesture honours nuance, transience, and the beauty of the in-between.

In the hands of Nendo, this philosophy becomes a language of form. Minimal yet expressive, refined yet flexible, their designs unfold like a whimsical and poetic story. From this shared empathy emerges our new textile collection, Sky Drops. Inspired by the shifting moods of rainfall, the collection translates the rhythm of nature into five distinctive textile designs, each a meditation on atmosphere, movement, and detail. For Michal and Nina, our Design Director, the sheer weaves for drapery, a single upholstery fabric, and a wallpaper printed onto rice paper felt the perfect way to embody this brief and design ethos, translating the moods of rain and the sensitivity of Japanese design culture into textiles and surfaces of classic beauty.

Nendo’s philosophy is best understood not only in words but in the way their works take shape. In Escher × Nendo: Between Two Worlds, an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, visitors were invited into a labyrinth where the boundaries between two-dimensional and three-dimensional dissolved. A simple house-shaped motif repeated and shifted, multiplied and transformed through mirrored surfaces and shadows. What at first seemed familiar revealed itself as strange, and what was strange grew familiar, embodying Nendo’s belief that by repeating the same thing, something new can always be discovered.

In Hana-Arashi, a collaboration with Paola Lenti, the studio turned offcuts of mesh fabric into something astonishing. Through thermocompression, layers of material were bonded, their translucency and texture shifting under controlled heat and pressure. The result was an installation where colours and forms billowed like petals in a storm, embodying both fragility and strength. Waste became wonder, and material process itself became storytelling.

Some of Nendo’s recent projects include the Japan Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka, which opened in April. Constructed from cross-laminated timber, the pavilion functions as both a waste disposal facility and a recycling space for the Expo. These world Fairs features over 160 countries and organisations, each presenting unique pavilions that showcase cutting-edge technology, culture, and sustainability initiatives. Taking place every 5 years in a different country.

Other notable projects include the Olympic cauldron and a redesign of interiors for the French TGV trains.

Nendo’s work is both methodical and playful, beginning with a concept that evolves through sketches, models, and prototypes, each stage generating endless variations. Their process is a quiet pursuit of possibility, where discovery emerges not in grand gestures but in subtle shifts, the in-between spaces, the details that reveal themselves to those who take the time to look more closely.

From the outset, we were drawn to weaving as the medium. It allowed us to express rain in its most delicate form, through movement, texture, and subtlety. We first developed patterns with our Belgium supplier, but the fabrics felt too heavy, rustic, and too similar previous Cloth collections. That’s when we discovered a small, artisanal factory in Turin, Italy. Starting anew, we created textiles that were lighter, more nuanced, and exquisitely crafted which were closer in spirit to Nendo’s works and the brief we had been given.