A twelve-metre (39 ft) net of suspended steel mesh turns something nobody can see — the line between self and other — into something visitors can physically push through. Japanese architect Yurika Takemura, of the Nara-based studio Yurica Design & Architecture, built Liminality in Motion – As Boundaries Begin to Move for one of Montpellier’s historic courtyards during the 2026 edition of the Festival des Architectures Vives, treating the invisible boundaries between people and places as something to be felt through the body rather than explained. The installation went on to win the Premier Prix du Jury Spécial 20 ans, awarded for the first time to mark the event’s twentieth anniversary.
A courtyard read anew. The project grew out of a wish to redirect attention to the beauty already present in Montpellier’s historic centre — the limestone paving cut from the quarries of Castries, the warmth of the Mediterranean sun, the breeze that moves through the courtyards, the sky crossed occasionally by birds and planes. Conceived as a site-specific installation rather than an added object, the piece was designed as a spatial device meant to reveal and amplify qualities the courtyard already held.
Set in motion by wind. That device takes the form of a suspended steel mesh net, roughly twelve metres (39 ft) tall, hung from a frame above the courtyard floor. Visitors aren’t asked to observe it from a distance — they’re invited to walk through it, set it moving with their own bodies, and feel what it means to physically cross a boundary. Responding to the wind that moves through the courtyard, the net sways quietly, like something alive, making visible a movement of air that would otherwise go unnoticed.
A constellation at the centre. Passing through the net — not unlike walking beneath a traditional Japanese noren curtain — visitors arrive at a circular constellation of transparent resin medallions suspended at the courtyard’s centre. Each medallion holds a texture cast directly from Montpellier’s own streets and courtyards, lit by shifting daylight until they read like fragments of the city’s memory, lifted gently off the ground and left floating in the air.
A performance built into the piece. Takemura also developed an immersive performance for the installation, working with interdisciplinary artist Yui Takeshima and performer Haruna Kawamura. Drawing on the physicality of traditional Japanese Noh theatre, the performance interlaced with the net and medallions, guiding visitors into a state the project calls awai — an in-between condition in which the line between self and other, inside and outside, is felt through movement and presence rather than seen.
An architecture of relationships. Liminality in Motion reflects Takemura’s wider approach to architecture as a way of cultivating relationships rather than drawing separations. Yurica Design & Architecture works from a philosophy the studio calls Open Nostalgia, treating buildings and installations less as fixed objects and more as ongoing relationships between people, place, time, and nature — pairing traditional craft and materials with contemporary technology and construction methods.
Twenty years, thirteen courtyards. The installation was one of thirteen commissioned for the festival’s 2026 edition, staged under the theme of Transmission and pairing architects from earlier editions with newly formed teams — a format that placed Liminality in Motion alongside other courtyard installations across Montpellier’s historic centre, including Panache de Lumière, Ateliers A+’s suspended canopy of coloured elements, winner of the festival’s Public Prize the same year.
A mentor’s guidance. Takemura developed the project under the mentorship of Prof. Tohru Horiguchi, with support from the POLA Art Foundation, Asada Mesh, SFA Japan, and Arts Council Tokyo — backing that allowed a temporary courtyard installation to carry the technical weight of a twelve-metre (39 ft) suspended structure and a resin-casting process built specifically around the textures of Montpellier’s own streets.
What stays behind. Once the twelve-metre (39 ft) net comes down, the boundary it made visible doesn’t disappear — it settles into the resin medallions left circling the courtyard’s centre, each one holding a piece of pavement or wall that visitors had once walked past without a second look, now suspended in mid-air until it catches the light differently than the ground ever did.
Liminality in Motion – As Boundaries Begin to Move by Yurika Takemura (Yurica Design & Architecture) | Where: Cour Hortoles, Montpellier, France — When: 9–14 June 2026