Bola Olusanya

‘THE RED HAT’ LEVITATING DISPLAY CASE for @ugonna.xyz designed by Bola Olusanya engineered at theDesigning Worlds Lab

Africa’s largest airport in history is now under development in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects @zahahadidarchitects . Opening projected for 2030. Backed by a 12.5 billion dollar investment and aligned with Ethiopian Airlines’ Vision 2035 strategy, the project responds to passenger demand in East Africa projected to more than triple within the next decade. Large airports emerge when traffic permanently outgrows its container. Phase one delivers a 660,000 square metre terminal serving 60 million passengers annually, roughly 164,000 people per day. At full build out, capacity reaches 110 million passengers per year, nearly 300,000 passengers a day. A moving city operating continuously at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. From a design standpoint, the terminal is organized around a central spine modeled on the Great Rift Valley, turning geography into circulation logic. Branching piers reduce transfer distances, and nearly 80 percent of passengers are expected to transit, meaning 8 out of 10 people inside the building will never leave the airport. Scale here regulates movement and dwell time. From a technological standpoint, long span structural systems, modular fabrication, automated baggage networks, and digital passenger management operate as one coordinated organism. Designed for LEED Gold, the building integrates natural ventilation, solar shading, photovoltaic arrays, and stormwater wetlands. Performance over decades will matter more than visual impact in year one. From a cultural standpoint, airports function as national thresholds. When hundreds of thousands pass through daily, architecture becomes perception. Interior palettes reflecting Ethiopia’s diverse regions. From an economic standpoint, increased mobility reduces friction between markets. A high speed rail link to Addis Ababa integrates the airport into a broader regional network, reinforcing Ethiopia’s role within global logistics flows. Airports are long term bets on movement. This one is calibrated to the inevitability of continental circulation. Image credits Zaha Hadid Architects #architecture #zahahadid #zahahadidarchitects #africa #design

@apple has opened a new 15,000 square foot “Apple Music” studio (@applemusic ) in Culver City, designed by Eric Owen Moss Architects (@ericowenmoss ) inside Los Angeles’ Hayden Tract. On paper, that reads like expansion. In systems terms, it reads like infrastructure maturing. Since the late 2000s, Apple has steadily reorganized how music moves. iTunes stabilized digital ownership. Apple Music accelerated streaming access. Over the past decade, the platform has evolved from distribution layer to cultural operator. What this new studio represents is the physical convergence of that evolution. The facility includes two advanced radio studios built for Spatial Audio playback, a dedicated Spatial Audio mixing room, a 4,000 square foot live soundstage for multi camera performance capture, isolation booths for songwriting and podcasting, edit suites, and social content labs. That program list tells you everything about the moment we are in. Music is no longer audio only. It is performed, filmed, clipped, streamed, archived, and redistributed in parallel. The architecture has to support that simultaneity. The circular ceiling geometry diffuses sound evenly across the broadcast room while anchoring lighting. Curved seating removes acoustic dead zones and allows uninterrupted camera movement. Programmable lighting recalibrates the emotional temperature of the room within seconds. Spatial Audio capability ensures that immersive sound is not an afterthought but integrated at the capture stage. Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s co head, described the studio as a space for artists to create, connect, and share their vision. That statement is straightforward, but structurally important. Apple is positioning itself not just as a platform, but as a production ecosystem. Los Angeles carries the mythology of film and recorded music. By embedding a broadcast hub inside that geography, Apple reconnects digital circulation to physical place. Streaming abstracts culture from location. Architecture restores context. #applemusic #architecture #design #music

a deep dive into one of my favorite artists & thinkers @marikomori full debrief on my substack now, link in bio #marikomori #art #design #architecture #buddhism

it was japan that started my love for design as a young boy & it’s japan that’s going to help me master it as a young man. full circle

the books are closed

@we.are.ona staged a culinary presentation inside @espaceniemeyer , the former headquarters of the French Communist Party designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The evening read as spatial harmony. WE ARE ONA, founded by @luca.pronzato , operates as a mobile culinary studio, building site-specific environments where food becomes part of architecture and brand narrative. Having worked with the likes of CHANEL, Vogue Arabia, Jacquemus, and countless other high profile organizations, they’ve truly solidified themselves in a world of their own. For this activation with @adidasoriginals and @another_man , under the spatial mediation of @caspermuellerkneer , the dome became the governing force. Niemeyer’s curvature compresses vertical dominance. The textured acoustic walls soften hierarchy. The uninterrupted green floor flattens orientation. The room regulates posture and volume before anything is served. Thomas Coupeau’s (@thomas__coupeau ) cuisine followed that logic. Plating stayed low and centered. Surface area replaced height. Greens echoed the floor. Negative space allowed breath. Nothing pushed upward. Everything felt proportionate to the space. There was a period in the late 90s and early 2000s when brands treated space seriously. Early Abercrombie stores functioned almost like nightclubs. Lighting, scent, music, compression. You walked into a controlled environment, not just a retail floor. Nike was dropping giant footballs onto cars for their Euro 2004 campaign. Space carried narrative. Much of that energy moved online. This felt more IRL focused than URL and makes me excited for the spatial fun that is returning especially with the new technology at our fingertips. @adidasoriginals approached atmosphere with the same seriousness usually reserved for product design. Architecture, lighting, choreography, authorship operating within one system. For the full breakdown go check out my substack. Link in bio. Image credits: @lfvrobin / @espaceniemeyer #architecture #design #adidas #culinaryarts #oscarniemeyer

the little hand says it’s time to rock n roll ⌚️ #fieldtrip

“Virgil isn’t a real designer” “Ye isn’t a real designer” “Pharrell isn’t a real designer” is just crazy These days, technical skills, whether in fashion or any other field, isn’t enough, the world belongs to the storytellers, which i believe those 3 above do really well, designing worlds and cultures within it. Steve Jobs’ technical skills isn’t what brought Apple to what it is today, it was his ability to communicate for the majority about what they wanted through intensive listening & giving them just that through product and story. I always refer back to this video when i want a reminder of where design starts. #design #architecture #fyp #ralphlauren