Things We Love: Floating Lenses in Cappadocia
We’re always inspired by design that responds to place. One project currently capturing our attention is Floating Lenses by Vincent Leroy, a poetic installation in Cappadocia that transforms the landscape into shifting, kaleidoscopic views.
Formed from Fresnel lenses within a carbon and 3D-printed frame, the piece shifts with the breeze, refracting the landscape into layers of distortion. Hot-air balloons rise across the horizon only to appear multiplied, dissolved, and reimagined — a panorama in constant flux.
Known for his explorations of perception and pace, Leroy reimagines the utilitarian Fresnel lens as a tool of poetic expression. Each ring acts as its own micro-universe, refracting the surroundings into shifting patterns in real time. Activated by the wind, the installation becomes an open-air performance — technology not as a force of dominance, but as a quiet partner to the rhythms of the landscape.
The connection between Floating Lenses and Cappadocia’s hot-air balloons is compelling. Both move lightly, carried by invisible forces — wind for the sculpture, heat for the balloons. But while the balloons rise into the sky, Leroy’s work invites viewers to pause and observe how those forces shape what they see. It becomes a quiet, reflective moment within a constantly changing landscape.
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