OPPO partners with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma for Milan Design Week 2021 to create multisensory landmark installation Bamboo (竹) Ring :|| Weaving a Symphony of Lightness and Form

MILAN, ITALY – Media OutReach – 6 September 2021 – OPPO the smart device
manufacturer and innovator has partnered with Japanese architect Kengo Kuma
to create Bamboo (竹) Ring :|| Weaving a
Symphony of Lightness and Form. The multi-sensory installation
works to the theme “Creative Connections” by fusing Architecture with Music,
design innovation, technological prowess, and user experience to create a sense
of time and space, and will be on display in Milan’s Cortile dei Bagni
courtyard for the duration of Milan Design Week, until 19 September.

Bamboo (竹) Ring :|| 
Weaving a Symphony of Lightness and Form by OPPO x Kengo Kuma

This landmark project
is an evolution of Kengo Kuma and OPPO’s Bamboo Ring exhibition which debuted
at the 2019 edition of the London Design Festival and explored the harmonious
relationship between humans and nature through the envisioning of lightweight yet
strong structures made with bamboo and carbon fiber. This year, OPPO’s
experiential installation uses pioneering technology to engage all the senses
through a series of orchestral scores composed by Japanese violinist Midori
Komachi with Musicity.

The composition is
based on the cycle of seasons and moves through the structure encouraging the
public to walk around and be captured by its aural narrative. The changing
soundscapes integrate the sound of Midori’s violin (built in Milan in 1920 and
enhanced with carbon fiber itself) from O Relax, OPPO’s digital
wellbeing application that offers comforting nature and city sounds to relax
your mind taken from locations around the globe including Reykjavik, Beijing,
and Tokyo. 

“OPPO is a
human-centric brand, our focus is on innovating for the people. We are
delighted to partner with Kengo Kuma again, an architect who is known for
seamlessly integrating nature and culture. Together, we demonstrate how we can
use technology and design to add value to our daily lives drawing on our
philosophy principles of “Technology as an Art Form” and  our
brand mission “Technology for Mankind, Being Kind to the World.” – Jintong Zhu, Head of
OPPO London Design Centre

The installation’s
woven structure – crafted from rings of bamboo and carbon fiber – becomes a
musical instrument as music travels through it via structural sound
technologies originating from OPPO London Design Centre’s research. Innovative
technology including new haptic motors, MEMS speaker strips, and exciters work
together to produce an immersive base and higher frequencies which reverberate
the bamboo with Violin’s vibrato and the effect of a percussion instrument.

“When I design
architecture, I’m interested in designing the rhythm and the tone rather than
the silhouette, and contemporary music gives us many lessons about how to
create new rhythms and tones in architecture. This pavilion is one of the
explorations into the new rhythms and tones in architecture combining visual
and acoustic experiences of the visitors.” – Kengo Kuma,
architect

After Milan Design
Week, OPPO will donate Bamboo Ring to Arte Sella Park in Trentino, Italy, a
contemporary art museum with outdoor exhibits made from natural materials and
backdropped by the mountainous Sella Valley, where it will find its permanent
home.