Lexus explores human-machine connection at Milan Design Week

As I wandered the marvellous neoclassical streets of Milan, making my way from one design exhibit to the next during the recent Milan Design Week 2025, I caught tantalising glimpses of the hidden lives and majestic gardens that flourish behind the high walls and gated enclaves of the urbane metropolis.

Nothing could have prepared me, however, for the sighting of a flock of pink flamingos taking their morning constitutional in a glorious pond in a private garden as I turned a corner and found myself transported to a tropical daydream.

It transpires the exotic creatures live at the Palazza Invernizzi in the Quadliratero del Silenzio, a silent district of glorious Palladian villas not far from the hustle of the main shopping district.

Later that day, as I found myself immersed in a dark womb-like room that appeared to be breathing and beating in synchrony with my heartbeat at the Lexus “Black Butterfly” immersive experience, I suddenly remembered the flamingos and felt the serendipitous sighting had been a visual foretaste of the themes Lexus was exploring in its design ethos and bringing to life in the installation. 

“Black Butterfly” refers to Lexus’ next-generation cockpit interface for electric vehicles.

How to integrate nature into sustainable design for our collective future is the vital question that should be exercising all of us. The answers Lexus provided felt as unexpectedly delightful as the pink flamingos in the silent quarter and served as a thoughtful and humane entry point to the challenge. 

Like a cross between a 1970s sports car, all angular sexiness and a sci-fi flying vehicle, the Lexus LF-ZC concept car emerged from the gloaming in the first room of the experience like a wonderfully sexy retort to a certain electric car manufacturers’ tanking kudos. 

Unveiled at the Japan Mobility Show in 2023, the Lexus LF-ZC (Lexus Future Zero-emission Catalyst) is a visionary all-electric sedan that embodies the brand’s commitment to sustainable luxury and advanced technology. Its sleek, low-slung silhouette emphasises aerodynamic efficiency, targeting a drag coefficient of less than 0.2, which contributes to its impressive range capabilities. 

However, it is its next-generation prismatic battery technology which aims to deliver about twice the range of conventional battery electric vehicles, with top-spec versions targeting up to 1,000km on a single charge, that elevates the offering. 

The LF-ZC features Lexus’s Direct4 all-wheel-drive system and steer-by-wire technology for enhanced driving dynamic and introduces an Intelligent Cockpit with a yoke-style steering wheel and touch-sensitive controls. The cabin is designed for personalisation, using the Arene OS platform to learn and adapt to the driver’s preferences over time. The “Black Butterfly” cockpit interface was the starting point for the immersive experience I was about to step into.   

“A-Un” was a collaboration many months in the making between Tokyo-based creative agency Six and design studio Studeo, and the Lexus creative team. They drew from the ancient Japanese concept of “A-Un no Kokyū”, which speaks to synchronised breathing and harmony, the idea that humans attune to nature and each other through our breath. 

A monumental Black Butterfly-shaped screen, handcrafted over three months using about 35km of carbon neutral bamboo fibre, woven meticulously over three months by hand, appeared to be attuning to my heartbeat and aligning it with natural rhythms to create my own unique personalised, immersive experience that embodied Lexus’s vision of intuitive, anticipatory mobility. 

It was magical and compelling and crafted to symbolise the fusion of traditional Japanese aesthetics with technology. 

The blend of organic material and the avant-garde form embodies the Lexus commitment to takumi craftsmanship, where precision, sensitivity and intuition guide the creation of beautiful, functional design. 

I sat down with Lexus global GM of design Koichi Suga, who explained this is integral to the Lexus ethos.

“When Lexus started in 1989, we were very much human-orientated — we don’t think about the car as a machine but rather about the human relationship with the car. Therefore when people ask what is Lexus, it’s hard to describe because other brands may be about performance, or driving fast, but for Lexus it’s very much based on the human relationship.

“It is the traditional Japanese way. Whether we are eating or going to mountain to pray, we honour every experience. The exhibition reflects this attitude,” he said.

The installation was more than a sculpture — it felt alive. The screen was engineered to respond to each visitor’s heartbeat. As guests approached, the installation would subtly synchronise with their unique rhythm, creating a feedback loop that fostered a profound sense of connection between human and machine.

The result was an almost meditative experience: the butterfly’s flutter and glow adjusting in real time, echoing each person’s inner state.

The reactive quality exemplified Lexus’s broader design ethos: a car interior, or any technology, should be so attuned to the user’s needs that it feels like an extension of the self. The Black Butterfly screen is a metaphor for the future of a technology that is fluid, intuitive, empathetic and deeply personal.

As Suga explained, nature is his greatest design inspiration: “I am always walking and running in my neighbourhood. I live next to a small mountain, so I watch every season as it changes — the spring coming in green, and autumn the red.

“But it’s not only the colours but also the passage of time — everything constantly changing, so continuous and timeless, changing but also always returning — so that is what has very much influenced my work. I don’t like trends; I want to create something timeless.”

The “Black Butterfly” appears to be reaching towards that timeless design ethos. Like my flamingos, the installation was a moment of stillness in a fast-moving world that promises intelligent attuned design.