Lexus has unveiled Liminal Cycles installation at Miami Art & Design Week, designed in collaboration with Crafting Plastics

Lexus has unveiled Liminal Cycles at Miami Art & Design Week, a multisensory and responsive installation created in collaboration with research and design studio, Crafting Plastics. Presented in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami the installation draws inspiration from the Lexus LF-ZC (Lexus Future Zero Catalyst) battery electric vehicle concept car and embodies Lexus’s exploration of material innovation, responsive technology and personalisation.

In addition to the installation, Lexus also launches a limited-edition capsule collection, featuring 26 collectible objects created by renowned designers Germane Barnes, Michael Bennett (Studio Kër), Suchi Reddy, and Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI) alongside Crafting Plastics. The collection expands the concepts explored in Liminal Cycles, inviting viewers to consider the objects as manifestations of Lexus’s ethos of materiality, innovation, performance, sustainability, and technology.

Liminal Cycles, situated in the ICA Miami sculpture garden, realises the adaptability and responsive technology that are central to the developing concept of Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) and their potential customisation as a key element of personalised luxury design. By engaging a global art and design audience in its exploration of the SDV concept, Lexus continues to champion bold and uncompromised luxury experiences for the next generation.

Tasked with bringing the SDV concept to life, Crafting Plastics co-founders Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král and their team have created a dynamic, fragmented central car sculpture referencing the Lexus LF-ZC at scale. The foundation of the central sculpture is 3D-printed bioplastic Nuatan^®– a bio-based material series that is biodegradable, based on 100 per cent renewable resources, that leaves no microplastics behind. Coated with a UV-responsive material skin, the sculpture reacts to environmental stimuli, such as UV radiation and a viewer’s proximity, by changing colour and expanding and contracting with breath-like movements, symbolising the potential harmonies between nature and technology.

Liminal Cycles also features three complementary satellite installations, each incorporating design elements of the LF-ZC concept car to showcase sensory reactions, ranging from audio and visual to olfactory. A flower-like sculpture references the shape of the LF-ZC’s steering wheel and entices viewers to interact with its rugged, earthy texture.  It responds to human touch with fluctuations in the volume and intensity of the installation’s site-specific sound composition. A second sculpture reimagines the LF-ZC’s headrest as a section of lounge seating, which emanates a Lexus-inspired scent in response to visitors’ interaction. Anchoring the four-part installation is a wind-activated, lattice-like sculpture that uses UV-reactive bioplastic material to detect shifts in UV radiation, responding with a subtle reveal of the Lexus logo across the delicate structure. Each installation response is an expression of the expansive possibilities of material innovation and software-enabled reactive design.

On view until 15 December, Liminal Cycles marks Lexus’s third year partnering with ICA Miami and the brand’s ninth year participating in Miami Art & Design Week, as part of their joint commitment to building inspiring experiences that encourage dialogue on creativity and design.

Founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král, Bratislava-based Crafting Plastics is recognised as a global advocate for the adoption of biobased materials within mainstream creative industries, from fashion and product design to interior homewares. With the groundbreaking development of their proprietary Nuatan^® material series, Crafting Plastics challenges a design landscape where planned obsolescence and significant environmental waste is the norm. Through this collaboration, Lexus and Crafting Plastics employ an elevated approach to responsible design that combines beauty, utility and endurance, with an emphasis on reuse and reintegration.

Vlasta Kubušová comments: “This installation presents a rare opportunity to explore an ambitious creative project demonstrating the extensive capabilities of biomaterials with minimal compromises. We are proud to showcase our vision alongside Lexus, a brand that shares the same values of sustainability and innovation in design. We hope that visitors will be inspired by the possibilities of bio-based materials and begin to view them as an asset of our shared future.”

Lexus in Design capsule collection

The Lexus in Design capsule collection of 26 collectible design objects has been crafted by five visionary designers – Crafting Plastics, Germane Barnes, Michael Bennett (Studio Kër), Suchi Reddy, and Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI). Selected for their individual explorations of sustainability, sensory design, and material innovation, they each created an edition of bespoke objects inspired by key elements of Lexus’s brand ethos of personalisation, sustainability, materiality, technology, and performance, which serve as a holder for a specially crafted Lexus fragrance in candle or diffuser form.

The designers have used materials ranging from amber glass, gold leaf, fired clay and ceramic to biodegradable plastic, interlocking slit paper, and recycled aluminium from a Lexus car bonnet.

Each designer’s creations unite Lexus’s design ethos with their existing practice.

• Crafting Plastics’ Ephemerables series marries the core ethos of personalisation with their use of bioplastics in modular, customisable and biodegradable forms.
• Germane Barnes’ ceramic vessels in his series, The Beauty of Labor, echo his award-winning research to reflect the value of high-quality performance in all aspects of design.
• Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI)’s Memory series encounters sustainability as an expressive representation of material evolution, resulting in exceptional luxury design achieved through the fusion of recyclable material.
• Michael Bennett presents a series of amber glass vessels, titled Synesthesia, as an exercise in materiality and repetition inspired by Lexus’s meticulous design process.
• Suchi Reddy’s Bloom, is a tabletop centrepiece for flowers and scents, employing interlocking slit paper to explore the intersection of technology-enabled intelligent design.

Lexus in Design x dilo candle

Alongside the capsule collection, Lexus also launches a custom scent developed in collaboration with clean fragrance brand dilo and created specifically for integration into the capsule collection and Liminal Cycles installation. The fragrance will also be available as a limited-edition candle. It features prominent top notes of blood orange and bergamot, paired with nature-inspired hints of cedar and moss and a base of amber and fir. Renowned for its innovative scents and clean formulas, dilo uses 100 per cent soy wax, non-phthalate fragrances, and clean burning cotton wicks.

Heather Updegraff, ​​General Manager of Lexus International Strategic Communications comments: “We are honoured to collaborate with some of the world’s leading designers to bring Lexus’s vision of holistic luxury and personalised experience to life through this year’s installation and launch of our capsule collection. These works embody the potential of responsive technology, sustainable materials, and sensory-driven design, offering a tangible glimpse into the future while inspiring viewers to contemplate these concepts in their everyday lives.”

The Lexus in Design capsule collection will be on view at ICA Miami and Alcova Miami during Miami Art & Design Week 2024. Pieces from the collection will be available for purchase at the ICA Miami gift shop and online at HBX.com, with sales profits going toward the support of ICA Miami’s sustainability initiatives.

Lexus will also present Lexus Art Series: Art and Innovation Talks with Whitewall in the ICA Miami sculpture garden, alongside the Liminal Cycles installation. On Wednesday 4 December, two panels will engage the public in inspiring discussions centring on materiality and sustainability in luxury and automotive design. Moderators Katy Donoghue (Whitewall Editor-in-Chief) and Tamara Warren (Co-founder & CEO of LE CAR) will be joined on stage by designers Vlasta Kubušová (Crafting Plastics), Suchi Reddy, Germane Barnes, Michael Bennett (Studio Kër) and Tara Sakhi (T SAKHI) as well as Sellene Lee, Chief Designer at Calty Design Research.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

About Crafting Plastics

Crafting Plastics is an award-winning interdisciplinary design and research studio founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král in 2016. The studio’s practice focuses on the research, development and implementation of a new generation of advanced ecological bio-based materials, both currently and in the future. Operating at the intersection of science and design, Crafting Plastics revolutionises the properties and aesthetics of ephemeral materials, such as naturally derived bioplastics, to offer durable design solutions across diverse industries. At the forefront of its practice, Crafting Plastics works to develop natural and scalable bioplastics to elevate the application and uses of the material within design and architecture. Nuatan®, the material brand developed by Crafting Plastics, is an ecological alternative to fossil-fuel-based plastic, created using 100% biobased and biodegradable biopolymer blends. Additionally, the studio is conducting innovative research on advanced environmentally responsive materials that act as sensing systems and enhance the relationship between humans and nature.

Crafting Plastics has worked with renowned brands such as Dior, Nike and Lexus, and presented projects at distinguished institutions worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, ALCOVA, MAK Vienna and Salon de Mobile. The studio has earned international acclaim, receiving nominations for the Slovak National Design Award, German Design Award (2018, 2021) and Beazley Designs of the Year at the London Design Museum. In 2022 Crafting Plastics was recognised by Dezeen as one of the world’s top emerging studios and in 2018 co-founder Vlasta Kubušová was featured in Forbes Slovakia’s 30 Under 30 List, underscoring Crafting Plastic’s pioneering role in circular design and sustainable material innovation.

About Dilo

Founded in 2017 in Philadelphia, dilo launched as a product designer and manufacturer of comfort goods – candles, room sprays, reed diffusers – all telling a story beyond their typical use. In the years to follow dilo filled out collections with eau de parfum, clothing, incense, and other home and personal care products, all designed and created carefully to ensure that they the cleanest in the industry. The products are largely sold through independent retailers in the United States and in several countries within Europe, Asia, and Australia.

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