London Design Festival: hundreds of intricate models by emerging Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata are pinned onto the looping walls of this installation at the Architecture Foundation in London (+ slideshow).

Named Tangling, the entire exhibition is contained within an installation of knotted walls, which curve around one another to create arched openings.

The exhibition is Hirata's first solo show outside of Japan and follows his recent collaboration with Toyo Ito, Sou Fujimoto and Kumiko Inui at the the Golden Lion-winning Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

The clustered model collections on display show how the architect develops the spaces of his buildings from complex geometric and organic forms.

Hirata explains his idea of tangling as a concept for "linking the architecture of the future to the nature of living things."

Films documenting the interiors of Hirata's completed buildings are projected onto the curving walls of the exhibition, alongside a series of concept sketches.

Past exhibitions organised by the Architecture Fundation include an indoor terrain of moss arches and a city orchard.

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Photography is by Daniel Hewitt, apart from where otherwise stated.

Above: photograph is by Yukata Endo / Luftzug Co. Ltd

Above: photograph is by Yukata Endo / Luftzug Co. Ltd

Above: photograph is by Yukata Endo / Luftzug Co. Ltd

Above: photograph is by Dezeen

Above: photograph is by Dezeen

Dezeen's London Design Festival map

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