Lexus to present world premiere of five installations exploring new definitions of space at Milan Design Week
- Immersive installations explore new values in luxury and mobility, focusing on how we experience and interact with the space around us
- Lexus envisions space as a defining quality for the luxury cars of the future and mobility that seamlessly connects land, sea and air
- SPACE, a 360-degree experience that draws inspiration from the new Lexus flagship LS Concept
- Discover Your Space, four works from international co-creators and Lexus craftspeople, under the banner Discover Together 2026
- Lexus presentation on public view at the Superstudio Più through to 26 April
Lexus is presenting five works at the 2026 Milan Design Week, including the world premiere of the installation SPACE, together with four original contributions from Discover Together 2026, a co-creation project with emerging talents. The exhibition, hosted at Superstudio Più in Milan’s Tortona district, will continue through to Sunday 26 April.
Chief Branding Officer Simon Humphries said: “All five works presented this year explore the potential of space. Last year, Lexus unveiled the LS Concept as its new flagship, While the ‘S’ in LS once stood for ‘Sedan,’ it will come to represent ‘Space’. This reflects the belief that luxury cars will no longer be defined solely by body type, but by the value of the space within. As human beings, we live with space every day and the way we move through it and give it meaning is fundamental to our lives. Through this exhibition, we hope visitors will experience the untapped potential of space.”
“SPACE” installation
Ever since the brand was founded, Lexus has constantly explored how it can give customers new values and experiences, both from the cars it makes and the services it provides. With this commitment to pursuing innovation, it has always been ready to challenge traditional conventions of what luxury means.
The search to discover new rewards and opportunities that mobility might offer in the future is the driving force behind this year’s installation at Milan Design Week – “SPACE”. Inspired by the new Lexus flagship LS Concept, it places visitors at the centre of an immersive vision that combines 360-degree visuals with sound and light.
The installation interprets how mobility is evolving from simple transportation to become a platform to give people new experiences and greater freedom. As land, sea and air become seamlessly connected, movement changes from being about reaching a destination to become a life-enriching experience.
Official website: https://discoverlexus.com/stories/milan-design-week-2026
“Discover Together”
Launched in 2025, Discover Together brings together emerging talent to produce work that interprets Lexus’s brand philosophy from their own perspectives. This year’s theme, Discover Your Space, also inspired by the Lexus LS Concept, focuses on the idea and meaning of personal space. The creative teams engaged in dialogues with Lexus and drew on their own expertise to bring their interpretations to life.
This year’s participants are Kyotaro Hayashi & Yumi Kurotani (Japan), Guardini Ciuffreda Studio (Italy), Random Studio (Netherlands) and a collaborative team bringing together Lexus in-house designers with master artisans of Japanese craftsmanship (Japan). Through dialogue across diverse cultures and disciplines, new perspectives and inspirations have emerged.
Official website: https://discoverlexus.com/stories/discover-together
Creator comments
VISIBLE INVISIBLE Kyotaro Hayashi & Yumi Kurotani
“We believe that the invisible movements of emotion bring richness to life. In Japan, there is a culture and philosophy that values what cannot be seen. We envisioned this space as a tearoom, where the passage of time and the presence of space are felt through the shifting of light. The tearoom transcends status and race, bringing people together as equals, and in its intimate scale, creates a space where spirits can truly connect. The nijiri-guchi, a low entrance that requires one to bow, momentarily resets the field of vision and physically marks the transition into the tearoom as a separate world. The tokonoma alcove and garden express the seasons and the passage of time, evoking scenes that resonate with memory and stir the emotions. By rendering this transition through moving images, we expand light and space to create an experience like a miniature universe.”
WEARABLE SPACE Guardini Ciuffreda Studio
“WEARABLE SPACE is based on the idea that the body is not only something that inhabits space, but something that can generate it. Through a coat embroidered with fibre optics, light emerges from the human gesture and expands into the surrounding space, transforming the act of wearing into an experience that connects matter, energy and presence.
Technology and sartorial tradition meet in a delicate balance, where innovation does not replace craftsmanship but amplifies it. Within this dialogue, fashion becomes both language and sensory experience: a threshold between intimacy and architecture, between body and environment.
WEARABLE SPACE invites us to imagine a personal, sensitive, and dynamic space, one that belongs to the body that inhabits it and ultimately reveals it.”
A Moving Sanctuary Random Studio
“A Moving Sanctuary reimagines the car as a space for stillness and reflection. The installation invites visitors to enter a padded, cocoon-like pod inspired by the quiet intimacy of the back seat of a chauffeur-driven vehicle.
Once inside, guests lie down as a thermal sensing system detects the rhythm of their breath. This data activates a responsive choreography of light and sound that unfolds across the interior. Each experience is unique, gently guiding the body toward slower breathing and calm, transforming the vehicle into a sanctuary for the mind.”
The Crafted Cosmos Japanese craftsmen with Lexus In-House Designers
“This installation focuses on the extraordinary craftsmanship created by Japanese artisans. From microscopic precision refined to within 0.1 mm to an infinitely expanding, cosmic scale, the delicate details shaped by artisans’ hands, together with light, unfold new expressions within the space. Through this work, the infinite potential of Japanese craftsmanship is revealed on a cosmic scale. Within this beautiful, handcrafted universe, a singular ‘Cosmos’, long sought deep within emerges, offering a moment of quiet fulfilment.”
Exhibition information
| Dates | Media day: Monday 20 April Public opening: Tuesday 21 April to Sunday 26 April |
| Venue | Superstudio Più Daylight (Superstudio Più), Via Tortona, 27, 20144 Milan, Italy |
| Exhibits | Installation SPACE Four works from Discover Together 2026 Kyotaro Hayashi & Yumi Kurotani (Japan)Guardini Ciuffreda Studio (Italy)Random Studio (Netherlands)Japanese craftsmen with LEXUS in-house designers (Japan) |
| Organiser | Lexus International |
Discover Together creator profiles
Kyotaro Hayashi & Yumi Kurotani
Kyotaro Hayashi (left) and Yumi Kurotani
Filmmaker Kyotaro Hayashi and art director Yumi Kurotani are a creative duo exploring light and sound, space and imagery and the distinctive textures inherent in physical materials. By delicately weaving together these diverse elements, they seek to create experiences centered on beauty and human sensibility.
Kyotaro Hayashi is a filmmaker and photographer who graduated from Tama Art University and went on to build his career at DRAWING AND MANUAL. His work has been recognised with numerous honours in Japan and internationally, including a Special Prize at the Venice Biennale and an iF DESIGN AWARD Gold. He is currently a part-time lecturer at Tama Art University. Yumi Kurotani works as an art director, photographer and ceramic artist. She graduated from the Department of Environmental Design at Tama Art University and studied at Aalto University in Finland, where she was exposed to Nordic design philosophy. After joining Shiseido’s Creative Division as a new graduate, she established her independent practice in 2023. Her work has received multiple awards, including the Gold Prize at the Japan Spatial Design Awards, a finalist selection for the FRAME Awards 2020 Window Display of the Year Grand Prix and an ACC Gold Award.
Their work together transforms light into a language that stirs emotion, while layers of space are elevated into narratives that speak to human memory. Rather than positioning their works as objects for quiet observation alone, they are conceived as immersive installations that invite visitors to sharpen their senses and venture deeply into the experience themselves. By fusing thoughtful design with intuitive aesthetics, they continue to pursue experiences that leave a profound sense of wonder and an unforgettable impression in the minds of those who encounter them.
Guardini Ciuffreda Studio
From left: Giulia Giavatto, Riccardo Stufano, Ananya Jain, Luigi Ciuffreda and Tiziano Guardini
The Guardini Ciuffreda Studio is a team formed through collaboration with emerging designers. It centres on the studio’s founders, designer Tiziano Guardini and architect Luigi Ciuffreda, alongside Ananya Jain (architecture), Giulia Giavatto (interior design), and Riccardo Stufano (visual design).
The studio’s philosophy is deeply rooted in sustainability, material intelligence and natural systems, expressed through a design language defined by organic forms, tactile surfaces and aesthetics inspired by nature. Bridging fashion, architecture, interior and visual design, the studio places fashion and space at the core of its pursuit of a research-driven practice that dissolves the boundaries between space and material. Materials become a language and form is transformed into narrative. The work invites surprise and engagement, unfolding as experiential installations that are meant not only to be observed, but also to be felt, both physically and emotionally.
https://guardiniciuffredastudio.it
Random Studio
Members Daan Lucas (left) and Dominique Rokebrand. Not pictured: Morgan Maccari, Jeremy Faivre, Sander Plug, Sebastian Price, Andrew Hill, Victor Roussel.
Random Studio is an independent spatial experience design studio based in Amsterdam and Paris. Its practice centres on creating innovative spaces that inspire surprise and invite interaction.
Specialising in creative strategy, experience design, spatial design and interactive technology, the studio advances projects through a multidisciplinary team. They have collaborated across a wide range of fields, including exhibition spaces, retail experiences and applied innovation programmes.
Always exploring new ways to combine disciplines and drive innovation, the studio develops projects that translate ideas into environments people can step into, experience and remember.
Japanese craftsmen with LEXUS in-house designers
Members (clockwise from top left): Yuji Kuroda, Shikan Tategu Kogei Co. Ltd., Yuri Tamura, Lexus in-house designer, Shingo Yamashita, Lexus in-house wooden model craftsman, Kazuhiro Nakata, Tendo Mokko Co. Ltd., Moto Takabatake, Lexus in-house designer, Ryota Inagaki, Inagaki Sekizai-ten Co. Ltd.
In this collaborative team Lexus in-house designers join forces with master artisans of Japanese craftsmanship to take on the challenge of creating original Japanese art.
Their experience covers a rich and diverse array of skills and creativity: Kumiko craftsmanship from Shikan Tategu Kogei, passed down and continually refined over three generations in the foothills of the Suzuka Mountains in Mie; stone from Inagaki Sekizai-ten, which has pursued the beauty and potential of stone for more than a century; the tradition and innovation of Tendo Mokko’s bentwood, revealing new possibilities for wood through moulded plywood; and the handiwork of a WorldSkills Olympics champion wooden model craftsman whose skills have long supported Toyota’s car making. Through Lexus’s imagination, these elements are brought together and elevated into a form of art that transcends time.
Shingo Yamashita, LEXUS in-house wooden model craftsman: https://toyotatimes.jp/series/masters/049.html
Yuji Kuroda, Sashikan Tategu Kogei Co., Ltd.: https://www.sashikan.com/
Ryota Inagaki, Inagaki Sekizai-ten Co., Ltd.: https://inase-utsuwa.com/
Kazuhiro Nakada, Tendo Mokko Co., Ltd.: https://www.tendo-mokko.co.jp/
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