SO – IL’s Anima pavilion design for Art Omi Pavilions at Chatham, Art Omi's brand new satellite pavilions offshoot in New York’s Hudson Valley, has been released ahead of its anticipated 2026 debut.

Forming as a "shifting presence" on the undulating meadows at the site, the pavilion offers visitors five interconnected gallery spaces defined by their own distinct lighting and proportions and serviced by unidirectional (e.g. one way in and out) entrances. 

Set against its surroundings with monochromatic dark gray cladding and a conical stacked wooden block roof structure, the design is equal to about 1,860 square feet and oscillates between 7 and 35 feet in height at its pinnacle.

The roof itself is composed of thousands of small wood blocks stacked to crate a "gauze-like" illusion and discrete filigreed texture. Back inside, the gallery spaces are reserved for the presentation of individual artworks. This is meant to afford a sense of solemnity to viewers, whose experience is broken apart by intermittent glimpses of nature while moving in between each of the five stations.

"What we create is not just what you see—it is what you feel, what you cannot escape encountering," the studio's co-founders Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu said. "This pavilion invites stillness, where architecture becomes a reflection of your own experience, unfolding with each light and shadow."

Art Omi, which was founded by Francis J. Greenburger in 1992, announced its new architecturally-focused pavilions venture earlier summer with the intent of attracting 18 designers to a scenic 190-acre tract in the town of Chatham. 

Co-executive director Natalie Diaz joined Greenburger in saying finally: "The Mini Pavilions will offer visitors a unique, durational viewing experience that cultivates privacy and intimacy with a singular work of art. We aim to counter the false urgency of our culture by encouraging viewers to pause and sit with a piece, fostering meaningful encounters with a work of art that allows its properties to be revealed and studied beyond a glance, drive-by, or a crowded view."

SO – IL is also recently behind designs for the new Williams College Museum of Art expansion not too far away from the Art Omi campus in Massachusetts' Hoosic Valley.