Throughout 2025, Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, brought his design vision to the pages of Domus as guest editor for the entire year, as part of the 10x10x10 project — an initiative launched in 2017 which entrusts the magazine to ten architects, each for ten issues.

Ingels' year was 2025, and he built his editorial path around a clear idea: above all, architecture is matter. Each issue of the magazine was devoted to a material—stone, earth, concrete, metal, glass, wood, fabric and plastic, plant-based material, recycled material, and finally, the immaterial. Each was explored not only as a technical element, but also as a cultural tool. Thus, the title 'Materialism' becomes a way to overturn the common meaning of the term, shifting the focus from accumulation and consumption to an exploration of what constructs the physical and social worlds.

This approach finds a spatial translation in the exhibition to be held at the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by BIG on the shores of Jinji Lake in China’s Jiangsu province. The project, developed in collaboration with Arts Group and Front Inc, is not yet complete, but its opening is expected by 2026.

The structure covers 60,000 square meters, composed of twelve pavilions connected by a continuous ribbon-like roof. According to the Danish studio, inspiration came from Suzhou’s traditional gardens and the element of the lang, a covered corridor that guides visitors through the landscape. Here, the lang links the individual pavilions, which house exhibition spaces interspersed with courtyards, along with service areas such as a foyer, theater, restaurant, and multipurpose rooms. The result is reminiscent of a small contemporary village, where the high-tech language of glass and steel speaks to an age-old tradition.

There are two distinct circulation routes: some are above ground and some are below, allowing paths to vary according to the season and the exhibitions — a concept previously explored by BIG, especially in the design of the Danish National Maritime Museum in Helsingør.The connections unfold in two different ways: they are designed both above and below ground, allowing the routes to vary according to the season and the exhibitions set up, a theme already encountered in Big's design, especially in the galleries of the Danish National Maritime Museum in Helsingør. 

Even the roof, with its gentle undulations, recalls the ceramic eaves of temple roofs, but reinterpreted in an industrial style with reflective surfaces that amplify the surrounding landscape. The area around the museum gradually transitions from built to natural: paved areas dissolve into gardens, which then blend into aquatic plantings along the lake’s edge. This transition of matter is akin to a physical translation of Ingels’ Domus manifesto: a "material odyssey" made space.

Even before its official opening, the museum will host the exhibition Materialism, curated by BIG. This will feature twenty projects selected by the studio, including the aforementioned Danish Maritime Museum, Google Bay View and The Plus. These projects will be organised into sections devoted to each material. BIG promises an immersive experience where everything, including the seating and signage, will be made from the materials explored.

With the Suzhou MoCA and this exhibition dedicated to matter, Ingels brings his theoretical reflections on matter as a form of thought to life in a spatial experience.