SHSH invited to World Stage Design Sharjah 2025

Founded by Shizuka Hariu and Shin Hagiwara, SHSH Architecture + Scenography continues to explore the intricate relationship between space, light and movement.
Three of their projects were selected for the World Stage Design 2025 Exhibition, held from 18 to 25 October 2025 at the Sharjah Performing Arts Academy in the United Arab Emirates.

A global platform for performance designers

Held every four years, World Stage Design (WSD) is the only international exhibition dedicated exclusively to scenography and performance design.

For its sixth edition—and the first ever organised in the Arab world—over 1,000 professional and emerging designers submitted their work. An international jury of 16 experts selected around one hundred projects, including three by SHSH / HARIU & HAGIWARA.

This distinction continues a trajectory of international recognition: Shizuka Hariu previously received Bronze Medals at the 2017 (Taipei) and 2022 (Calgary) editions.

Three projects, three ways of thinking space

The three selected works reflect a distinctive spatial language in which architecture becomes lived scenography.

Dark with Excessive Bright (The Royal Ballet, London)
An immersive experience that brings the audience into the heart of the ballet, within a darkness punctuated by subtle glows and suspended reflections.
The scenography blurs the boundaries between spectator and performer, between perceived and inhabited space.

Giortes Rokka Festival (Crete, Greece)
A temporary architectural structure designed for the archaeological site of the village of Rokka.
Each summer, more than 6,000 spectators gather there for a full moon concert. SHSH conceived an open-air stage where topography becomes architecture, merging landscape and performance.

Opera Super Angels (New National Theatre Tokyo)
A hybrid work where opera, artificial intelligence and light converge.
SHSH designed the scenography, costumes, lighting and video direction, creating a dynamic “matrix-like” environment that constantly transforms throughout the performance.

Presented in the categories “Space Design” and “Performance Design”, these projects explore the porosity between architecture and performance, where space becomes both narrative instrument and sensory medium.

With the support of Wallonie-Bruxelles International’s mobility and promotional creation grant.