The Circle

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The Circle – Designing New Realities

How can rethinking design support flourishing life on planet Earth?

The exhibition invites visitors to reconsider the systems that shape our everyday lives and to explore how we might produce, build, consume and live differently. It presents nature as a source of knowledge, inspiration and innovation, and design as a tool for creating sustainable, regenerative and flourishing systems.

Spanning five exhibition spaces, the exhibition transforms Design Museum Holon into a living, dynamic and evolving environment. It brings together dozens of projects from the local and international design scenes, across a range of fields including industrial design, fashion design, visual communication and architecture. The exhibition also features developments by climate-tech start-ups and original projects created especially for the exhibition, including works developed in collaboration with leading Israeli research and academic institutions: the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Technion and Shenkar.

Yulia Smilansky, Beauty as a Byproduct, 2026

The Awe Gallery, named after Shulamit Katzman, examines the relationship between humans and the living environment and explores how we can design in collaboration with natural systems and learn from them. Among the works on display are an architectural pavilion 3D-printed from earth, a root system transformed into a garment, algae-based textiles and a light installation that simulates sunlight filtering through the foliage of trees.

Circular Living shifts from nature to everyday life at home, on the street and in the city. It demonstrates how circularity can be embedded in products, services and spaces: harnessing existing spaces and infrastructure to produce food and renewable energy, extending the lifespan of products and returning materials to further cycles of use. Alongside solutions already being implemented, the gallery presents proposals from the fields of critical and speculative design.

The Sea–Land Design Lab explores the connection between life on land and ocean pollution. Alongside waste retrieved from the Red Sea, it presents plastic alternatives and initiatives aimed at reducing pollution. At its center stands an eight-meter-long wooden whale shark sculpture designed by Amnon Zilber. Surrounding it is an interactive installation inviting children and adults to sift and sort particles that simulate microplastics.

The Museum’s peripheral corridor presents the exhibition Disposable Lives, which examines the gap between the short span of use of disposable products and their prolonged existence as waste, tracing the transition from reusable vessels to take-away culture. The exhibits include traditional and contemporary solutions, ranging from biodegradable clay cups to reusable systems for coffee cups.

The Dr. Abraham Margalit Gallery presents Olga Stadnuk’s Pulse Now. The interactive installation measures the visitor’s heart rate and combines it with astronomical and geophysical data collected in real time. Computational models integrate the different data sources and generate a dynamic projection and sound environment, inviting visitors to experience themselves as part of a broader system.

Circular principles are also embedded in the design of the exhibition itself. The display structures, stands, accompanying texts and exhibition catalogue were planned with these principles in mind. The exhibition changes over time: some of the works on display grow, disintegrate or respond to their environment. In this way, visitors encounter design as part of a dynamic, evolving living system.

Designers and creators participating in the exhibition:
Agustin Otegui, Diego Mata, Axel Gomez-Ortigoza (NOS Design), Ori Shany, Aya Letzter, Elon Satat Kombor, Itai Raveh, Álvaro Catalán de Ocón in collaboration with GAN Rugs, Alon Segal, Amnon Zilber, Angelika Seeschaaf-Veres, Anna Kochergina, Asaf Yuz (Ginato), Erez Nevi Pana, Meydan Levy and Esti Brantz (ANINA – Culinary Art), Bettina Schwalm, Bill Anders, Gilad Rozenkoff, Dana Cohen, Daniela Rojas Levy, Daniel Daam-Rossi, Dror Tamir (Holy Locust, Hargol Food Tech), Studio Ba'alot Melacha (Anat Glazer and Doron Shay), Zena Holloway, Jorge Álvarez, Yuval Ivri, Yulia Smilansky, Yoni Pushett, Yelena Belyaeva, Lauren DiCioccio, Lila Agozi, Maya Arazi, Muhammad Shareef, Mitchell Joachim (Terreform ONE), Merav Gazit, Mika Enriquez, Naoto Fukasawa, Nivi Tamir, Nir Meiri, Nimrod Jack Eliezer, Oki Sato (Nendo), Mischer Traxler Studio, Steve Evans, Oded Friedland, Ofer Assaf (MTRL Lab), Ezri Tarazi (Tarazi Studio), Atar Brosh, Idan Borulya, Amit Giladi, Inbar Erez, Eran Ivri, Peter Opsvik for Stokke, Peng Xiao-Xian, Koby Barhad, Carolyn Raff Studio, Ramon Zerem, Renana Krebs, Shaul Cohen, Shahar Kedem, Shira Orr, Shiri Algor, Shelly Boneh, Shelly Satat Kombor, Tair Elmor, Tamara Efrat

PADLab: Michal Pauzner, Oded Kutok, Olga Stadnuk, Efrat Duchan, Maria Merfeld, Nir Jacob Younessi, Nirit Binyamini Ben-Meir, Atalya Ben-Haim, Roni Yeheskel, Nofar Toren. 

Companies and organizations participating in the exhibition:
Ajax & Aero, AllMatters, Algaeing, Aromashoppe Products, Axiology, Baby Koala, Balena, Bite, Blueland, City Transformer, Cookplay, Dixie Cup, ecoBirdy, EcoTensil, Einhorn, Ethique Beauty, Fairphone, Fiberdom, Frederick Weeks Wilcox, Good Start Packaging, Half Magic, HiBAR, HIRO, Huppy, Huskee, Incredible Eats, Kai, KitePride, Litter 4 Tokens, Majoriti, McDonald’s, MVRDV, Notpla, OGT – ONE GOOD THING, OrganiCup, P. Lorillard Company, Petit Pli, POLYBION, SodaStream, Spare Eat, Stanley, Takeaway Packaging, Tapari, The Ocean Cleanup, The Original New York Coffee Cup, The Sustainable Agave Company, TOMGROW TECH, Tony’s Chocolonely, Vegaware, Vollebak, WASARA, Watergen, Wild, World Centric, Zero Waste Store, Zalul Environmental Association, the Society for the Protection of Nature and the Nature Reserves Authority, Shachar Group Ltd.