Designing for Deep Time: London Studio Nebbia Unveils ‘Interlude’ for New Zealand’s 1,000-Year Initiative

Main Facts: A Monumental Challenge in Aotearoa’s Dramatic Landscape

When London-based architecture and design studio Nebbia was approached to contribute to Paererewā—an ambitious New Zealand national initiative seeking to curate 1,000 permanent works designed to endure for a millennium—founders Madhav Kidao and Brando Posocco faced a philosophical and structural paradigm shift. Known globally for their striking, large-scale temporary interventions, such as the cathedral-like stacking block installation for Coachella 2024 or the shimmering aluminium pavilion suspended over the V&A’s John Madejski Garden during the London Design Festival, the studio had to pivot from ephemeral spectacle to deep-time permanence.

The result of this commission is ‘Interlude’, the second completed work under the Paererewā banner. Installed dramatically on a rugged cliff edge at Jardine Park in the South Island of Aotearoa (New Zealand), the sculpture commands sweeping views across Lake Whakatipu and the jagged peaks of The Remarkables mountain range.

Crafted entirely from locally sourced basalt bluestone quarried in nearby Timaru, Interlude functions simultaneously as a sculpture, a viewing portal, and public seating. It is engineered not as a static monument frozen in time, but as an interactive threshold intended to foster human connection, contemplation, and a tangible dialogue with a future spanning a thousand years.

Chronology: From Ephemeral Spectacle to Millennial Reflection

The Evolution of Nebbia’s Practice

To understand the significance of Interlude, one must trace the trajectory of Nebbia. Founded by Madhav Kidao and Brando Posocco, the London studio built its reputation on monumental, temporal architecture. Their work typically investigated the interplay between temporary structures and heavy spatial impact.

• 2021: Nebbia captured international attention at the London Design Festival by floating an intricate aluminium pavilion over the tranquil waters of the V&A’s John Madejski Garden.
• 2024: The studio pushed structural boundaries further with a towering, cathedral-like installation composed of stacking geometric blocks for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California.
• Late 2024–2025: Commissioned by Paererewā, the studio embarked on a profound intellectual and design journey to conceptualise a work built to last a millennium. This required a complete rethinking of materiality, structural engineering, and ecological responsibility.

The Realisation of ‘Interlude’ at Jardine Park

Sited on a wind-swept cliff overlooking Lake Whakatipu, the installation process of Interlude demanded meticulous logistical planning and geological sensitivity. By selecting locally quarried Timaru basalt bluestone, Nebbia ensured that the structure’s DNA was fundamentally tied to the New Zealand landscape. The final piece was carefully positioned at Jardine Park to frame specific sightlines of The Remarkables, creating an immersive nexus where the raw forces of geology meet thoughtful human intervention.

Supporting Data & Context: What is Paererewā?

The Paererewā initiative is the brainchild of Hideaki Fukutake, a visionary Japanese entrepreneur and leader of the company Still. Fukutake has long championed community-building through arts, culture, and long-term ecological planning—philosophy famously embodied in his transformative cultural projects on Naoshima Island in Japan.

Paererewā gathers a collective of like-minded international and local enterprises committed to a century-spanning roadmap designed to enrich New Zealand communities. Key parameters of the initiative include:

• Scope: 1,000 distinct artistic and architectural interventions scattered across the landscape.
• Longevity: Designed to endure structurally and culturally for 1,000 years.
• Function: Every commissioned piece must double as a sculpture and a form of public seating.
• Purpose: To act as physical and psychological "thresholds" interrupting the mundanity of modern life, offering spaces for quiet reflection, community gathering, and deep temporal awareness.

Interlude proudly stands as only the second completed milestone in this massive, multi-generational endeavor.

Official Responses and Philosophical Insights

When Kidao and Posocco were handed the brief, the sheer weight of a thousand-year timeline forced them to confront fundamental anthropological questions.

"Our first thought was to comprehend what 1,000 years means, both anthropologically and ecologically," the founders recalled in a joint statement.

This inquiry led to a striking historical realization about Aotearoa:

"New Zealand was uninhabited by humans 1,000 years ago, with the first people arriving only around 800 years ago. Would it still be inhabited in the next 1,000 years? If not, who or what are we designing for?"

Faced with these profound unknowns, the designers shifted their vision away from a rigid, museum-like preservation of a static object. Instead, they embraced the inevitability of change, weathering, and geological time.

"We were never tied to the idea that it needed to exist in the same state for 1,000 years," they observed. "It could grow, degrade, or fragment. This led us to research growing something, but we discovered that no native plant species lives for 1,000 years. Stone taps into a conception of time beyond the human-centred viewpoint."

Rather than resisting nature, Nebbia leaned into it. The studio noted that their broader portfolio frequently explores the transient nature of existence: "Everything came from somewhere and will become something else, and our interaction with it is fleeting, be it one day or 1,000 years."

Implications: Redefining Monumentality for the Anthropocene

The completion of Interlude carries profound implications for contemporary architecture, landscape design, and public art in the era of climate change and rapid urbanization.

1. Challenging the Human-Centric Paradigm

Traditional architectural monuments are engineered to defy nature, asserting human dominance over the environment through rigid geometry and artificial preservation. Nebbia’s Interlude flips this script. By utilizing Timaru basalt bluestone and acknowledging seismic activity—which the studio describes as "forces beyond our control"—the sculpture accepts that nature will eventually reshape it. In doing so, the project moves past the human-centric ego, offering a humbling reminder of deep geological time.

2. Architecture as Social Catalyst

In an age increasingly dominated by digital isolation, the physical architecture of Paererewā insists on analogue, face-to-face encounters. Interlude is meticulously dimensioned as a portal where two strangers might serendipitously cross paths, sit down, and exchange knowledge, wisdom, or emotional resonance. It proves that public seating can transcend mere utility to become a vessel for social cohesion that survives across generations.

3. A New Blueprint for Long-Term Planning

As cities grapple with sustainability, the Paererewā initiative—bolstered by contributions like Nebbia’s Interlude—presents a radical alternative to short-term urban development. By anchoring cultural investments across a millennial horizon, it challenges corporate and governmental institutions to think beyond quarterly profits or political election cycles, fostering a legacy of cultural stewardship that values enduring beauty, communal reflection, and environmental harmony.