Lexus A-Un, Milan Design Week
Butterfly animations for an immersive installation created for Lexus at Milan Design Week 2025, where biometric signals were translated into spatial light, colour and sound across a translucent projection surface. Commissioned by Aircord, Refractiv designed, animated and programmed the butterfly’s real-time visual layer within the wider installation.
Project Details
Year:2025
End client:Lexus
Commissioner:Aircord Inc.
Event:Milan Design Week, Milan
Media layer:Real-time projected visuals across a translucent butterfly structure
Input:Biometric signals supplied through Aircord’s wider system
Refractiv role:Design, animation and programming of the butterfly visual layer
Creative direction:Tatsuki Ikezawa, STUDEO
Brief and spatial context
For Lexus at Milan Design Week 2025, Refractiv collaborated on the real-time visual layer of a spatial installation developed with Aircord Inc. Guests were surrounded by a butterfly form woven from 35 kilometres of translucent thread. Across the installation, the work moved through spring, summer, autumn and winter, echoing the rhythmic expansion and contraction of shared heartbeats.
Biometric sensing and real-time projection
Biometric sensors captured heartbeat and motion, feeding a real-time projection mapping layer across the butterfly surface. The visual state shifted from sakura pink in spring to silent white in winter, while spatial audio reinforced the sense of a room responsive to its audience. Aircord developed the installation’s biometric, projection and control framework and integrated Refractiv’s visuals into the complete spatial experience.
Within Aircord’s Unity-based system, Refractiv’s role focused on the real-time visual behaviour of the butterfly animation in TouchDesigner. Biometric input became a controlled projection language that could register change while the atmosphere of the room held. The guiding concept came from the A-Un framework, which describes two people in such harmony that they communicate without words and act in perfect sync.
Credits
Refractiv
Design, animation and programming of the real-time butterfly visual layer.
Aircord Inc.
Commissioning, technical direction, biometric system, projection framework and integration.
Tatsuki Ikezawa, STUDEO
Creative direction.
Images and videos courtesy of Lexus Europe.
Awards
The complete Lexus A-Un installation received second place in the Fuorisalone Audience Award 2025 and a special mention in the Design Schools category.
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