PROJECT CONTEXT

YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD announce their selected entry, among five others, inside the Louvre Abu Dhabi for the Richard Mille Art Prize.

Inaugurated under the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s iconic dome on October 10th and running until December 28th for the Art Here 2025, Richard Mille Art Prize launched an international competition that attracted more than 400 projects, to design and build five art installations and/or architectural pavilions reflecting on this year’s theme of “shadows”.

Conceptualized by guest curator Sophie Mayuko Arni, architects and artists were invited to respond to the theme of ‘Shadows' between the Arab and Japanese cultures, a concept exploring the interplay between light and absence, visibility and concealment, and the layered dimensions of memory, identity, and transformation.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Choreography of a Cloud, Dancing Shadows

In a similar way to nature, we aimed to create an architectural space that embodies ever-shifting light and shadow.

The constantly changing shadows cast by clouds, trees, and leaves rustling in the wind within nature are profoundly beautiful and can move people's hearts. We wondered if we could express such ever-evolving landscapes and spaces within the architectural environment, and aimed for a state that exists precisely between nature and architecture—like being beneath a great tree, or under a vast roof.

For Art Here 2025, we created an architecture that can only exist in its environment - the Louvre Abu Dhabi and its large roof- and contrast with it at the same time. As the museum’s spherical dome is still and filters the light through its multi-layered geometrically patterned roof, our pavilion moves with the wind, casting shifting shadows beneath it. Our pavilions is not spherical either, but a free-form roof whose appearance changes depending on the viewing angle.

Swaying in Abu Dhabi's gentle breeze, the pavilion's ultra-lightweight woven stainless steel mesh roof and the 152 ultra-thin columns (of diameters between 6φ to 12φ mm) supporting it create ever-changing forms, patterns, gradations of transparency, and resolutions.

By applying the concept of the “Okiagari Koboshi” (a traditional Japanese self balancing toy) to each column's foundation, we shaped the base concrete into a spherical form. This creates a structure that moves slowly from the column's base, resembling a natural behavior.

We named this pavilion, where shadows seem to dance and choreograph collectively their own movements : Choreography of a Cloud, Dancing Shadows.

DATA SHEET

Project title: Choreography of a Cloud, Dancing Shadows
Client: Louvre Abu Dhabi and the Richard Mille Art Prize
Site: Louvre Abu Dhabi, UAE
Floor area: 130.9 m2
Architect: YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD
Project team: Takuma Yokomae, Ghali Bouayad
Structural design: Nobuyuki Takimoto
Structure: woven stainless-steel mesh, stainless steel and concrete
Construction contractor: Sun & Sea Advertising L.L.C.
Louvre Abu Dhabi guest curator: Sophie Mayuko Arni
Material sponsorship: ASADA MESH CO., LTD.