20 modules. Fabrics hanging from the air. All spinning into intricate choreographies rooted in culture, suspended mid-flight – and written in code.
Soon, we’ll be unveiling our latest permanent kinetic installation: a project born out of a close co-creation process with Tamschick Studio and proudly displayed inside the spectacular NAVI Mumbai Airport (designed by Zaha Hadid Architects).
But before the final reveal, we’ll make a stop behind the scenes.
From Dance to Code
We started with the movement. We immersed ourselves in the traditional dances of Maharashtra: their rhythm, their symbolism, their relationship to space. Starting from the choreographies provided by Vitthal Patil and TAMSCHICK, we translated dance moves into programmable logic, turning gestures into motion curves, pauses into timing sequences, cultural cadence into mechanical behavior. We managed to lock tradition and software in a dance of colorful fabrics, suspended mid-air.
Engineering freedom of movement
How do you make strips of fabric move with grace, constance and precision in a public place, for years to come? Research, testing and impossible engineering. The fabrics needed to meet multiple standards: cultural, aesthetic, mechanical, and public safety, too. So we tried, stress-tested and optimised until we found the solution that ticked all the boxes – and added sets of interchangeable fabrics for evolving celebrations and special events.
Every detail was engineered for long-term performance: from the motion controllers designed for both grace and reliability to the optimized maintenance access. The installation moves between control and flow, between tradition and innovation, transforming inanimate strips of fabric through engineered dance – time and time again, with grace or wonder.
The result? A permanent kinetic installation set to welcome millions of travelers each year – soon to be revealed here, as well.
As one of our subscribers, you will be the first to see the full installation: expect a short, separate note from us with exclusive access to the final film where you’ll see the fabrics breathe, rotate and dance – just like they do now in Mumbai.
POV: On the freedom of dance
This installation, to me, is not just a beautiful machine in motion. It is a manifesto for two principles.
The kind of critical thinking we practice is a form of intellectual dance: engineers, designers and artists orbiting the same question from different angles, challenging and provoking one another, building on ideas not to win or dominate, but to discover new synthesis together. It is a celebration of freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of interpretation, a way of thinking that does not need judgment.
And then there is the other dance, the physical one that inspired us from Maharashtra. Rooted in cultural richness and embodied in rhythm and gesture, it will now live forever at the Mumbai airport as a permanent reminder to travelers from around the world that expression is not optional. It is essential.
News
We started the year winning: The Kinetic Face, our permanent installation at Puy du Fou, received both the Blooloop Innovation Award and the iF Design Award - two of the industry’s most coveted honors. Onward and upward!
Leva Travels
Last month, we were in Barcelona for the ISE tech show. Now spring is shaping up to be a busy one: we’ll be at GACEP Connect in Amsterdam and the SEGD Branded Environments conference in Los Angeles. If you’re attending, be sure to say hi!
