SAOTA

Sonyaka, White River, South Africa   Given the building’s orientation, the design incorporates a considered approach to environmental performance. Overhangs, recessed openings, and screening devices are strategically positioned to optimise daylight penetration, frame key views, and mitigate solar heat gain. This passive design strategy enhances comfort while reinforcing the architectural expression.   SAOTA Project Team: Dani Reimers, Sean Mash, Fundokuhle Kubheka, Annerica Venter, Sameeya Moola, Luca Truen AOR: Co-Lab Architects

SAOTA’s Design Fridays series is now open to the public. Bringing together voices from across architecture, design, and creative practice, Design Fridays offers a space for conversations around design thinking, research, projects, and the cultural and environmental influences shaping the built environment. This week, we welcome Senthil Kumar Doss from Play Architecture for a talk titled Contextual Tectonics: Architecture Rooted in Place; exploring an architectural approach shaped by context, materiality, and a strong connection to place. Friday, 08 May 15:00–16:00 (Online) Registration link in bio.

Island Villa, Dubai, UAE On Dubai’s Jumeirah Bay Island, Island Villa explores a more restrained approach to waterfront living, where architecture, interiors, landscape, and climate response are conceived as a single spatial experience. “It shifts the focus from opulence to quality, comfort and an intentional way of living,” says SAOTA Principal Philip Olmesdahl. Designed by SAOTA with interiors by ARRCC, the residence balances crisp architectural forms with layered materiality and a softer, lived-in atmosphere. “It’s a design language rooted in restraint, authenticity and laid-back luxury,” says ARRCC Principal Nina Sierra Rubia on the Scandinavian-inspired interior approach. SAOTA Project Team: Philip Olmesdahl, Joe Schutzer-Weissmann, Nasreen Larney, Bobby Labrou ARRCC Interior Décor Team: Mark Rielly, Nina Sierra Rubia, Amy King, Amy Kidger, Kelly Fischer, Ariane Bissict, Nicola Dicey AOR: Architectural Corner under High Performance Directive (HPD) Landscape Design: NLME Photographer: @chrisgoldstraw

Looking back at Milan Design Week 2026, reflections from the SAOTA team who were there: The week unfolded as a series of layered experiences rather than a singular narrative. Across the city, from reimagined showrooms to temporary installations and informal encounters, there was a clear shift towards more immersive, spatially driven presentations. Materiality, atmosphere, and sequence were used not just to display objects, but to frame how they are lived with.   At the same time, the global nature of the event felt more present than ever, with a growing diversity of voices and perspectives shaping the conversation. These moments, both considered and unexpected, offered a broader reflection on how design continues to evolve across contexts.

Sonyaka, White River, South Africa   This project is located within the Sonyaka Estate on a sloping lakeside site overlooking the Longmere Dam in White River, Mpumalanga. The design aims to form a strong connection between the architecture and the natural landscape, allowing the building to sit comfortably within its natural environment and reading as a natural extension of the site.   SAOTA Project Team: Dani Reimers, Sean Mash, Fundokuhle Kubheka, Annerica Venter, Sameeya Moola, Luca Truen AOR: Co-Lab Architects

Presented during Salone del Mobile 2026 at Milan Design Week, a pavilion by SAOTA in collaboration with YARDCOM rethinks the idea of the “outdoor room.” Conceived as a spatial experience rather than a traditional stand, the project placed outdoor living at the centre, proposing a quieter, more intentional way of inhabiting space. At its core, a central pavilion acted as a calm anchor, balancing openness and shelter while framing moments of pause, gathering, and exchange. The installation also featured Forma Lenta, an outdoor collection developed with OKHA, reinforcing a slower approach to design and everyday life. Alongside the spatial experience, a roundtable with Stefan Antoni, Greg Truen, Peter Pichler, Claudia Afshar, and Damon Ma explored the evolving relationship between architecture, environment, and design, expanding the project beyond space into dialogue. @yardcomofficial @_saota @__okha @scape_magazine In collaboration with @yardcomofficial

SAOTA turns 40 this month, and we marked the start of our celebrations in Milan during Design Week at the iconic Terrazza Martini, set high above the city with views across to the Duomo. The evening brought together peers, collaborators, and friends of the studio for a vibrant night of conversation, reconnection, and a shared excitement for what’s ahead. Thank you to everyone who joined us to start the celebrations. #SAOTA40

A considered roundtable during Milan Design Week at the Salone del Mobile.Milano brought together voices across architecture, interiors, and design to reflect on outdoor living as an evolving approach. A clear theme emerged: the boundary between inside and outside is no longer something to define, but something to dissolve, shaped by climate, context, and material. As Stefan Antoni noted, “Architecture is about cultivating a sense of soul, created through how a building mediates between people and their environment. Our long-standing exploration of indoor and outdoor continuity is not an aesthetic preference, but a way of organising space, climate, and movement to support how life is actually lived.” The conversation brought together SAOTA Principals Stefan Antoni and Greg Truen, OKHA Creative Director Adam Court, YARDCOM General Manager Damon Ma, Claudia Afshar, Founder and Creative Director of Claudia Afshar Design, and Peter Pichler, Founder of Peter Pichler Architecture, reflecting a shared shift toward more integrated, responsive environments. Accompanying the architectural framework, OKHA debuted FORMA LENTA, a bespoke furniture collection for YARDCOM. Defined by grounded forms and quiet material refinement, the pieces reinforce the pavilion’s emphasis on cohesion and tactility, allowing furniture and architecture to read as a continuous whole.

Some quieter, more intimate moments from behind the scenes of the SAOTA × YARDCOM × OKHA stand at Milan Design Week. And some behind-the-scenes chats around the thinking, the tension, the small decisions that shape this incredible space.  Here are the early walk-throughs before doors open. Conversations around the thinking and moments that shape the space.  There’s a particular kind of energy in these meetings, when all is about to be revealed… What emerges here is alignment.
Between architecture, object, and environment.
Between SAOTA, YARDCOM and OKHA. A reminder that the most considered spaces are rarely accidental. @scape_magazine @yardcomofficial @_saota @__okha

𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 – 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗻 The Yardcom x SAOTA pavilion at Milan Design Week is officially open. It offers a compelling spatial experience, conceived as a meeting point between architecture, design, and material sensitivity. Designed by SAOTA ( @_saota ) for luxury outdoor brand YARDCOM ( @yardcomofficial ), the pavilion balances sculptural presence with restraint, creating an immersive backdrop for OKHA’s ( @__okha ) Forma Lenta collection by Adam Court. This collaboration foregrounds tactility, time, and fluidity between indoor and outdoor living, inviting visitors to slow down and engage more deliberately. Together, Yardcom, SAOTA, and OKHA present a considered design that reveals itself through detail, atmosphere, and a shared commitment to refined contemporary living. The future of outdoor living, defined. 𝗙𝗜𝗘𝗥𝗔 𝗠𝗜𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗢 𝗥𝗛𝗢 𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝟭𝟴.𝗙𝟭𝟰/𝗙𝟭𝟴 @scape_magazine @yardcomofficial @_saota @__okha

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia The design began with the groundscape. Referencing the dry sand and clustered formations of desert rose crystals, the architecture emerges from a fractured, layered base condition that informs both massing and spatial organisation. Formal tension between mass and void shapes the internal planning, establishing a clear hierarchy between servant and served spaces. Along the road-facing edge, the façade mediates privacy, solar control and openness through a carefully articulated envelope.   Earth-toned materials and varied textures anchor the building within its context, expressing a contemporary architectural response shaped by regional climate and cultural landscape.   SAOTA project Team: Greg Truen, Danny Bester, Hannah Mullins, Scott Pornss

Villa Lylá and Island Villa, featured in HOOM 1/26. Villa Lylá, on the cover, opens the issue with a considered response to its tropical setting in Nassau, where light, landscape, and movement shape the experience of the home. It is followed by Island Villa, where a more restrained architectural language engages with the coastal conditions of Dubai through material, shadow, and form. Two distinct projects, each defined by a precise understanding of place. In collaboration with ARRCC.