Architect Sou Fujimoto creates a haunting ‘Forest of Light’ in Milan’s Cinema Arti for COS

Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has designed a haunting light installation inside a 1930s former theatre in Milan.

‘Forest of Light’ – commissioned by fashion brand COS for Milan Design Week – responds to visitors’ movement within the Cinema Arti building, originally designed by architect Mario Cereghini.

It becomes an ethereal, seemingly infinite landscape because of the ambient sounds, fog and mirrored surfaces accompanying the interplay of lights and shadows.

‘The COS pavilion is the purest realisation of the forest concept,’ says Fujimoto. ‘The forest is not static, but light and people interact with one another – this interaction connects fashion, space and forest as a form of architecture.’

COS commissioned the architect because of his past experiments with negative space, such as for House NA – a home with hardly any walls – and his 2013 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.

It’s not the first time a fashion brand has been drawn to Fujimoto’s designs. Akris recently teamed up with the architect for its S/S 2016 collection, taking cues from his buildings, while the set design of its runway show in Paris was also inspired by House NA.

‘Forest of Light’ at Cinema Arti in Milan’s San Babila district runs from today until 17 April.