invisible bar distorts reality using heated, transparent acrylic glass panels

"Ichio Matsuzawa Office creates an almost invisible bar that distorts reality through a series of heated, transparent acrylic glass panels around the open space. Named Awtbar, the installative social space during the Art Week Tokyo 2025 is the office's study on the possibility of constructing an open environment that can appear not from walls or fixed shapes, but from how a material reacts to light, people, and movement."

"To realize this, the team turns to thick acrylic sheets with over 90 percent transparency, heated to form organic, flowing shapes that divide the room. The team says that the results offer three-dimensional shapes that curve in different directions. As soon as the acrylic panels have cooled, they become firm and can stand without support, turning into the panels that make the pathways of the invisible Awtbar."

"These transparent acrylic glass panels are then placed in the space, mirroring what is around them. They also transmit light through their surfaces and change the way the environment looks by bending and distorting what is behind or in front of them. Because the acrylic is almost invisible, people mainly see the environment it reflects. In this way, the material is not the main focus. Instead, the reflections of people, plants, and objects become the main visible elements."

Awtbar is an installative social space composed of thick acrylic sheets with over 90 percent transparency, heated and formed into organic, flowing panels that divide an open room. The panels cool into rigid, self-supporting, three-dimensional shapes that curve in different directions and create pathways. Placed in the space, the transparent panels mirror and transmit surrounding light, bending and distorting views of what is behind or in front of them. Because the acrylic is nearly invisible, reflections of people, plants, and objects become the primary visible elements. Changing light, movement, and wind produce layered, time-based 'momentary scenes' that shift as visitors interact with the space.

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine