What’s Happening: Instead of tearing down the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts’ scattershot buildings, the award-winning firm flexes its reuse muscle by devising a swooping, stem-like structure that unites the campus and creates a new architectural landmark.

The Download: Until 2019, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts occupied a scattershot structure that, according to executive director Victoria Ramirez, “was a combination of eight different renovations and additions” across its eight-decade history. When museum leadership found themselves sitting on extra funding thanks to a city bond and a capital campaign, they decided an all-encompassing renovation was in order. They hired Studio Gang—the Chicago firm founded by Surface cover star Jeanne Gang and known for deftly combining engineering and ecology—to create a bold architectural identity using the building’s existing skeleton.

Gang’s overhaul, which was unveiled this past weekend after three years, checks all the boxes. The firm devised an organic, swooping structure that snakes from one end of the museum to the other and gracefully unifies the campus. While it may sound like a simple intervention, it was no small feat. The firm spent six months liaising with structural engineers about which of the museum’s buildings should remain intact and which could be removed to support the new central spine, whose stem-like form that expands at the perimeter sparked the nickname “blossom” during the design process.

Visitors still enter through the original 1937 limestone structure’s distinct Art Deco entrance, which opens into a grand staircase leading to the second-floor galleries, where they have clear visibility all the way through to the art school, children’s theater, research lab, and cafe. “That was the great thing about chasing a shape that’s somewhat organic,” Juliane Wolf, a partner and design principal at Studio Gang, tells Fast Company. “That blossom could really take on the shape that it needed around the elements that we couldn’t touch.”

The overhaul’s most notable component comes courtesy of the jagged concrete roof resembling origami from afar. Gang used thin cast-in-place panels arranged at angles that not only redirect natural light, but divert rainwater to nearby gardens during Little Rock’s spring and autumn seasons. When it’s sunny out, visitors can enjoy 11 acres of the surrounding landscape, redesigned by Scape to foster biodiversity and extend the museum outside with newly created sculpture gardens. There they can marvel at the blossoming structure above—the Natural State’s reborn landmark that speaks to the potential of adaptive reuse.

In Their Own Words: “I recognized right away that the building wasn’t organized in a functional way,” Gang said at the museum’s opening. “We wanted to hang on to the core aspects, but fix the functionality. I immediately saw this line that went north to south. Sure enough, when we were able to get that as the primary axis, everything fell into place.”

Surface Says: Not bad for Studio Gang’s first cultural project. We forecast good things to come once the firm’s work on the American Museum of Natural History wraps up.

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There’s much to glean about in-the-moment furniture trends at Salone del Mobile, but one section in particular sheds light on what to expect tomorrow. SaloneSatellite, the furniture fair’s closely watched section dedicated to designers under the age of 35, brought together work by more than 550 rising talents hailing from 34 countries. Each took a stab at answering longtime curator Marva Griffin’s chosen theme, this year being: “Design: Dove vai?” (“Design: Where are you going?). It’s an important question—and one not so easily answered—that plumbs our era’s sweeping economic, social, and environmental shifts.

The annual SaloneSatellite Award nods to the designers who best answered that question. This year’s first prize went to Honoka, a Japanese design collective that used 3D printing techniques to recycle old tatami mats into a contemporary furniture collection spanning a water basin and stools to pendant lighting. Made from sewn-together igusa grass, tatami mats are often a defining feature in ryokans and traditional Japanese-style rooms. Despite their calming aroma and natural resistance to mold, their usage has declined as modern consumers opt for more contemporary living choices.

Instead of discarding the tatami mats, Honoka shows how they can receive a new lease on life. Their process involves pulverizing old mats, combining them with biodegradable plastics, and using that material for 3-D printing. Though they appear distinctly contemporary, the resulting pieces are woven with traditional Japanese symbolism. The body of James Kaoru Bury’s self-standing basin features multiple stripes inspired by the tachiwaki pattern often used in kimonos. A leaning accent light designed by Shinnosuke Harada resembles bundled igusa grass before it becomes tatami. Japanese architecture inspired a lattice-like vase, which allows plants to be inserted at any angle like ikebana.

At Milan Design Week, Gaetano Pesce cut through the noise of fashion houses clamoring for their handbags’ cultural relevance. In fact, we might say the Italian multihyphenate ended the conversation by debuting two bags designed with Bottega Veneta and creative director Matthieu Blazy. True to their names, the bags’ textures and colors recall picturesque landscapes: My Dear Mountains draws from Pesce’s 2022 exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum and utilizes the house’s intrecciato leather weaving technique. Prairies, meanwhile, uses crocheted fringe and leather to nod to the grassy hills of its namesake.

A sophisticated stay is debuting in Ibiza just in time for the season. The brainchild of French interior designer Dorothée Meilichzon, The Montesol is a sight to behold. Located in the UNESCO-listed old town, the 1930s neo-colonial property is considered to be the island’s first hotel and has hosted a range of bold-faced names over the years such as Pink Floyd and Orson Welles. Now, it has been restored to its former glory thanks to new-owner Experimental Group’s vision that blends traditional Ibizan architecture and contemporary design.

Inside, Meilichzon’s signature playful and bold style is on full display. Each of the 33 rooms features a distinctive aesthetic, with vintage finds and custom pieces coming together to forge a bohemian vibe. Think Diego Faivre’s Playdough Stools, minibars encased in Moroccan zellige tiles, and whimsical jigsaw-shaped furniture pieces. At the ground-floor restaurant, chef Alex Larrea turns out tapas-style dishes paired with some of Spain’s tastiest small-batch wines. Or head to the rooftop bar for artfully crafted cocktails, views of the ancient landscape, and a chiller vibe than Ibiza’s world-famous clubs.

A founding member of London’s environmentally minded Studio Bark, architect Nick Newman champions high-quality construction that prioritizes the planet over profit and targets systemic problems within the built environment. Besides devising open-source infrastructure for Extinction Rebellion members to take shelter during protests, he recently introduced U-Build, a fully recyclable self-build system that makes designing and realizing customizable structures a far more inclusive, sustainable, and accessible activity.

Last week, Tortuga Forma celebrated designer Farrah Sit’s Kaolin Collection of porcelain tableware with an intimate dinner that honored the heritage of Asian home cooking. Guests enjoyed a laid-back aperitivo before being welcomed into a quaint Chinese restaurant helmed by an Italian-Chinese family that’s been in business for nearly 50 years. Once they were seated according to their Lunar Zodiac animals, guests enjoyed a family-style dinner of handmade dumplings paired with sauces presented in modular dishes; sleek solid brass utensil holders balanced chopsticks, knives, and forks.

When was it? April 19

Where was it? Milan, Italy

Who was there? Sophie Lou Jacobsen, Jenny Nguyen, Eric Petschek, Rafael Prieto, Stine Aas, Lora Appleton, Steven Learner, Kouros Maghsoudi, Felicia Hung, Nick Ozemba, and more.

Cj Hendry doesn’t do the white cube. After abandoning her studies in architecture and finance, her big break came from a series of lifelike black-and-white drawings of Chanel bags from her time working at one of the label’s boutiques. The drawings were a hit on Instagram, helping launch her debut exhibition of them in 2014 and ultimately kicking off her now-established tradition of creating experiential art shows that captivate the imagination.

Hendry recently created a vast indoor playground that brings her hyperrealistic drawings to life. “Plaid” pushes the envelope by going bigger and more conceptual than her previous shows. Here, she takes inspiration from the linguistic similarities between the show title and the word “play,” encouraging visitors to tap into their inner child. To navigate the setup, they meander through a two-story, warehouse-sized playground equipped with swings, a foam pit, slides, and a merry-go-round—elements that mirror Hendry’s drawings.

Menu is a source for high-end design furniture, lighting, and accessories reflecting Danish heritage and a global outlook. The brand works with the world’s best designers and craftsmen as well as reputable retail stores, architects, and interior designers, all of whom have helped to manifest Menu as one of the world’s leading décor brands.

Surface Says: Menu’s Scandinavian heritage is a point of endless inspiration for the brand, which has enlisted a roster of global creative talents to chart its irrefutably sleek present and future.

Simon Skinner creates new sculptural afro combs for all types of Black hair.

Take a painting class with the great-great-granddaughter of Camille Pissarro.

This breathtaking Portuguese chapel is lined with 15,947 vivid illustrated tiles.

Courtroom artists have long captured pivotal moments, but it’s a dying field.