Koko interior designer Pirajean Lees looked to the sultry, saturated colours of director Wong Kar Wai's films when renovating Hong Kong's Dragon-i nightclub.

Founded in 2002 by Gilbert Yeung, Dragon-i is one of Hong Kong's most famous nightlife venues.

London studio Pirajean Lees worked closely with Yeung to transform the venue's interior, which included the addition of a members' club, fitting out the spaces with bespoke furniture designed by the studio and crafted by Chinese artisans.

"Our goal from the beginning was to re-spark the sexiness and excitement, the ruggedness and roughness of the 1990s and early noughties," said studio co-founder James Lees. "For us, this was the idea of the rebirth of the romantic side of Hong Kong."

When visualising the interior, Lees and co-founder Clémence Pirajean were informed by the vivid cinematography of movies by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong, whose credits include the 2000 colour-drenched romance-drama In the Mood for Love.

The duo reconfigured the nightclub layout, which is anchored by a central marble-topped bar bejewelled with a pair of glittering glass-brick drinks cabinets.

Swirly timber panels frame the DJ booth, providing a textured backdrop for the sound system's handcrafted speakers, while banquettes were finished in silver leather.

Meticulous architectural framing features throughout the low-lit interior design, in a move the designers described as mimicking individual snapshotted "memories of amazing evenings".

"Everything was very cinematic," Pirajean told Dezeen. "We wanted to guide people's experiences."

The bathrooms are characterised by more framing, clad with purposefully disorienting floor-to-ceiling mirrored panels. Large cubicles were finished entirely in stainless steel and illuminated by singular pink lights.

"We're still working on putting a DJ in that toilet," joked Lees.

Decadent materials were selected for their intense sensory appeal, which the designers saw as fitting for a venue centred around music, including a selection of striking Chinese marbles that the duo had not worked with before.

"Some of them are pink, some of them are acid green, some of them have these amazing chunks like eggs," Pirajean said.

The members' club sits adjacent to the nightclub on the site of a former restaurant and was designed to balance the nightclub's sense of theatrics with intimate, homely touches.

This space includes a listening bar where guests can enjoy a wide selection of Yeung's personal records, which are stored in oversized shelving constructed behind the perforated DJ booth.

A central "library" was placed in the middle of the bar, defined by built-in, back-to-back sofas upholstered in plush velvet. Green-hued banquettes snake around the corners of the room, amplifying the textile-clad walls that soften the acoustics.

A games room is located next to the listening bar and was created to be as immersive as the rest of the venue, while outdoor terraces provide moments of respite.

Dragon-i is typical of the Dezeen Awards-nominated studio's "hyper-detailed", narrative-led approach.

"The spirit of the project was freedom, fun, something that is not taking itself too seriously," Pirajean said.

"It's a club where so many interesting, quirky creatives go," she added. "We didn't restrict ourselves in terms of, where does this wild character stop?"

"It's a bit of a mishmash," added Lees. "Just the bonkersness and craziness of Hong Kong city."

Known for their interior design of the members' space at north London nightclub Koko, Pirajean Lees has also worked on restaurants in the city, including central sushi spot Kioku and 20 Berkeley in Mayfair.

The photography is by Edmon Leong.

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Pink rubber, slanted timber and colourful micro-algae are among the materials that make up these eight standout pieces of furniture and lighting, spotted by Dezeen's design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield over the past month.

La Corbeille by Hauvette & Madani

Paris interiors studio Hauvette & Madani has redesigned its formerly timber La Corbeille wall lamps in strikingly veiny alabaster.

When attached to this sleek wooden wardrobe, also by the studio, the sculptural sconces create a clever two-in-one piece of furniture and lighting.

Blue Chair by Completedworks

Expanded polystyrene, polyurethane rubber and clay come together in Blue Chair, a rough-hewn piece of furniture that London brand Completedworks debuted at Paris's Matter and Shape fair earlier this month.

The armchair is characterised by large hunks of the materials, pleasingly arranged to create the impression of thick slabs of bright-blue butter.

4D Coffee Table by Kutarq Studio

No welding or screws were involved in the making of this coffee table, which was hand-bent by designer Jordi Lopez of Valencian studio Kutarq.

The low-slung, stainless steel table is a smart example of minimalist furniture that still makes a big impact with its craftsmanship.

Soof Chair by Hawa Al-Najjar

Rising Iraqi-British star Hawa Al-Najjar is one to watch for her narrative-led furniture and thoughtful application of materials.

For her Soof Chair, the emerging designer crafted a seat from wet and dry felted wool, silk and dyed waxed linen thread, which is supported by a mild steel frame and embellished with a duo of porcelain bells.

Al-Najjar designed the chair to pay homage to the ancient Kepenek, Faranji and Kulagir cloaks worn by generations of shepherds herding sheep across the Caucasus and Kurdistan.

"It is a celebration of wool as a living, renewable material that can be returned to the soil at the end of its life," she told Dezeen.

SO-Colored lighting by We+

SO-Colored is an ongoing project by Japanese design studio We+, which involves the amalgamation of powered micro-algae with naturally derived resins to create impressively vivid finishes for furniture and lighting.

Also presented at Matter and Shape, these geometric lamps are a unique interpretation of regular strip lighting that showcases a natural material that is billions of years old and not only looks good, but absorbs carbon dioxide at the same time.

X'Y'Z' by In Seoungsik

Emerging Japanese designer In Seoungsik is offering people alternative ways to sit with his trompe l'oeil X'Y'Z chair series.

The timber seating is slanted at unexpected angles, prompting instant visual intrigue and a handful of different ways to recline.

Pink Rubber Shifting by Brian Thoreen

Cascading folds of pink rubber make up this unusual sconce by Mexico City-based designer Brian Thoreen, who is known for his playful material experiments.

Thoreen created the lighting as a permanent installation for local restaurant Rosetta, where guests can enjoy the soft glow emitted through the wall lamp's generous curves.

Underground Vol III by Kirkby and Transport for London

Underground Vol III is the third collaboration between textiles brand Kirkby and Transport for London (TfL).

The duo upholstered pieces of furniture, including this armchair, with patterns informed by iconic moquette designs used across the London Underground since the 1910s.

Pictured here, this chair is covered with a simplified velvet version of Eden, a 1930s art deco houndstooth design that originally clad seating on trams and trolley buses across the city.

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Brussels gallery Objects with Narratives is presenting Lima Charlie, an exhibition by Austrian designer Laurids Gallée featuring a constellation of polished resin lights.

Called Lima Charlie in reference to the radio shorthand for "loud and clear", the show is anchored by five colourful, sculptural lamps arranged across the White Cube gallery at Objects with Narratives's expansive exhibition space in Brussels.

"The compositions are fairly simple geometric shapes, loosely inspired by infrastructure, antennas and satellite dishes," said Gallée, who is based in Rotterdam.

To create the pink, purple and orange lights, Gallée worked with resin – a material he has used to conceive past projects, including a translucent geometric console table and lamps with a liquid-like finish.

First, the designer used digital processes to determine each composition.

"Most of the early work happens in 3D, both on the computer and in VR," he told Dezeen.

Gallée then cast solid blocks of the material before colouring, cutting and sculpting them into shape. Each piece was meticulously sanded and polished to arrive at the desired smooth surface.

The designer said he develops the lighting's electronics and hardware alongside this process to ensure "the light behaves the way I want it to".

"Quite early on, I think about the electronic side of things, because that really drives a lot of decisions later," explained Gallée. "I do small 3D prints to check the scale and presence of the light, and from there, each piece slowly becomes more precise."

"The details take quite some time to tune properly," he added.

Four of the five lights hang suspended from custom ceiling anchors and wires made of steel. Transparent silicon electricity cables, also made bespoke for the project, connect them to slim aluminium switches. The fifth light is half wall-mounted with the same materials.

"I guess I would classify the lights as pendants and a sconce, but I didn't really create these pieces with an interior application in mind," explained Gallée, who said that Lima Charlie is his studio's largest light installation to date.

"What I'm interested in here is how light travels through a material and how it holds colour, how soft or sharp it becomes, how deep it feels," he said. "Resin just gives me a lot of control over that."

Alongside the lighting, Gallée is presenting a series of aluminium sculptures on plinths with disc-like protrusions informed by satellite dishes.

"Aluminium came in more naturally through the making process," explained the designer.

"It's useful as a heat sink, and has good mechanical properties, so we had already used it in the studio to make the [lighting's] machine parts."

"It felt like a natural counterpart – more rigid, more defined, sitting next to the softer behaviour of the resin," he added.

Objects with Narratives began as a nomadic gallery in 2022. In 2024, the group opened its first bricks-and-mortar gallery at a landmark beaux-arts building on Brussels's Place du Grand Sablon, originally constructed as the sales room and workshop of Belgian furrier Raymond Mallien.

The photography is by Mathijs Labadie.

Lima Charlie takes place from 11 March to the end of May 2026 at Objects with Narratives, Place du Grand Sablon 40, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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Local studio Bruzkus Greenberg has designed a community co-working space in Berlin, filled with bespoke furniture created to shake off the impression of a branded showroom.

Bruzkus Greenberg, formerly known as Ester Bruzkus Architekten, designed the co-working space on the ground and first floors at the central office building C1 Alexanderplatz Berlin.

The duo of levels contains a range of shared amenities for the office workers above, from meeting rooms and informal workspaces to a cafe, a cinema and a gym.

Bruzkus Greenberg filled various rooms with custom furniture designed for the project, including the ground floor library, which features a floor-to-ceiling timber shelving unit and a large communal table illuminated by a continuous brass downlight.

"We didn't want it to feel like a showroom for a particular brand of furniture, so we designed our own," said studio co-founders Ester Bruzkus and Peter Greenberg.

"A good place to work should offer more than a boring desk," they told Dezeen.

Also on the ground floor, the "leopard room" is one of a handful of comfortable meeting spaces designed with domesticity in mind.

A bespoke sofa upholstered in salmon boucle was paired with a low-slung timber coffee table topped with veiny stone.

Designed by Austrian creative Laudris Gallée, a handwoven wall tapestry was suspended above the furniture, depicting an illustrative pink leopard.

Bruzkus and Greenberg explained that they wanted to create domestic-style rooms to help colleagues feel at home, and encourage them to return to the workplace by conceiving "zones that feel like living rooms or comfy corners".

"People like choices," said the designers. "Sometimes you want a desk to spread stuff out, and sometimes you want to type on your laptop on a sofa."

The duo selected vintage pieces to blend with their bespoke furniture to create a sense of eclecticism.

"We want to invite in quirky moments, not just to be foolishly consistent," they said. "Great rooms are made with contrast, not just uniformity. Combining old and new creates unique character."

The first floor includes the "arena", a built-in, stepped seating area finished with smooth stone flooring. A pair of swivelled Bruzkus Greenberg armchairs features in this space, clad with tiger-stripe-patterned fabric.

On the same level, a large conference room was clad with dark timber and filled with a mix of bespoke and vintage pieces, like the rest of the co-working space.

Ester Bruzkus Architekten was founded by Ester Bruzkus in 2002. In 2016, she joined forces with Peter Greenberg to create Bruzkus Greenberg.

The studio has completed other projects in Berlin ranging from a colourful poke restaurant designed to reference David Hockney paintings and another restaurant defined by cherry-red joinery.

The photography is by Robert Rieger.

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A hotel in a former military barracks and an urban apartment created on a budget feature in our latest lookbook of intricate interiors that use reclaimed materials.

Reclaimed materials encompass anything salvaged from buildings, products or other structures that are repurposed by architects and designers.

While these materials are often used to cut the financial or carbon cost of a project, sometimes, they are simply applied to interiors to create visually interesting spaces.

From Spain to India, the following eight interiors highlight just some of the many ways that practitioners are using reclaimed materials around the world.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring home saunas, Mexico City restaurants and living rooms with blockwork walls.

La Casita, UK, by Juli Bolaños-Durman

La Casita is the Edinburgh flat of Costa Rican artist Juli Bolaños-Durman, which she renovated with local studio Architecture Office.

The flat is characterised by reused, reclaimed and offcut materials that were transformed into bespoke architectural elements, including a unique timber kitchen.

Find out more about La Casita ›

Sancal showroom, Spain, by Lucas Muñoz

The aluminium undersides of existing flooring plates were turned into wall panels at this Madrid showroom, created for furniture brand Sancal within the city's 1966 O'Donnell 34 building.

When converting the office, Spanish designer Lucas Muñoz reused all the materials from the original space that could not be recycled.

"The office's modular material approach allowed us to dismantle and re-consider each piece as a potential intervention element," Muñoz told Dezeen.

"Very little demolition was required, meaning recovered pieces could be evaluated according to their impact."

Find out more about this Sancal showroom ›

Salt, UK, by THISS Studio

Local architecture practice THISS Studio avoided contract furniture when designing this London office, which was created from reclaimed materials found on the site or sourced second-hand.

Conceived for independent PR studio Salt, the space includes a duo of tables created us using old steel catering surfaces purchased on eBay and crowned with tops made from leftover cork edged with white American oak.

Jam Hotel Ghent, Belgium, Studio Lionel Jadot

Brussels firm Studio Lionel Jadot transformed a former military barracks in Ghent, Belgium, into a hotel for the Jam Hotels brand.

The studio worked with local artisans to craft contextually specific furniture solutions using found materials, including the blue flooring in the hotel bar made from old roof timber.

Find out more about Jam Hotel Ghent ›

The Wendy House, India, by Earthscape Studio

Aiming to draw from the surrounding nature of this home in Kerala, Earthscape Studio used locally sourced materials throughout the building, including recycled rods, broken tiles and earth from the site.

The Bengaluru practice used the recycled rods alongside waste wood to create the frames for built-in furniture, including a bed, sofa, and kitchen counter.

Find out more about The Wendy House ›

10K House, Spain, by Takk

This Barcelona apartment was completed by local studio Takk using a material budget of 10,000 euros, with the aim of updating the home to be as sustainable as possible.

The studio took cues from snugly stacked Russian dolls for the interior renovation, which features rooms nestled inside each other to maximise insulation.

Recycled white table legs were used to lift interior spaces, creating room for water pipes and electrical fittings without the extra cost of adding wall grooves.

Find out more about 10K House ›

Office interior, Germany, by Urselmann Interior 

Glueless joinery and a cellulose-based wall cladding feature in the Düsseldorf studio of interior design company Urselmann Interior, which was renovated using biodegradable, recycled or upcycled materials.

The studio completed the renovation project itself, salvaging existing wooden and terrazzo flooring from the building.

"The office serves us as a laboratory in that we can [use it to] test new qualities, materials and construction methods," project manager Liz Theißen told Dezeen.

Find out more about Urselmann Interior's office ›

Traid store, UK, by Hemingway Design and James Shaw

Local designer James Shaw created furniture for this store interior for London charity retailer Traid, using leftover second-hand clothes that Traid deemed unsellable.

Known for repurposing waste materials, Shaw also created curved pendant lighting from the old clothes, which were shredded back to fibres and combined with a plant-based binder.

Find out more about this Traid store ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring home saunas, Mexico City restaurants and living rooms with blockwork walls.

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American interior designer Kelly Wearstler has made her first foray into musical instruments with Timbra, a rimless piano informed by the fluidity of sand dunes.

Los Angeles-based Wearstler designed the sculptural instrument for British bespoke piano brand and longterm collaborator Edelweiss. It is her interpretation of a traditional grand piano.

The interior designer told Dezeen that the focus for her first piano was "learning to design with the instrument rather than around it".

"The piano has its own logic, its own non-negotiables," she said. "The sound has to be protected."

Wearstler chose wood, which is typically used to construct pianos thanks to its acoustic qualities, for Timbra. She selected birch, a material often found in the multi-layered residential and hospitality projects that have put her on the map.

The piano's exterior is characterised by undulating edges, including its strikingly curvaceous lid formed from a slab of birchwood veneer that was CNC-milled to precision.

The instrument's CNC-milled birchwood veneer body and legs are equally rounded and rimless, as is its accompanying curved timber piano stool.

"Natural forms were always the starting point," explained the designer, who layered the wood to create an instrument designed to echo wild landscapes.

"Water, sand dunes, the way things move organically," she added. "I was thinking a lot about fluidity, and how sound itself moves through space."

"Curves do something very specific to a design," continued Wearstler. "They're sensual, they're unexpected, and they force you to think completely differently about grain, about light, about how someone moves around an object."

The designer said that she was drawn to the way birch responds to carving, and how "the grain reveals itself in the most unexpected and beautiful ways".

Timbra is available in six translucent finishes called verdigris, fawn, syrah, dune, ink and ash. Sitka spruce was selected for the soundboard, while inside, the piano is supported by a patented welded steel frame.

While this is Wearstler's first musical instrument, she said the idea was informed by her previous collaborations with Edelweiss, as she has placed the brand's pianos in many of her interior spaces.

"Every single time, I found myself wanting to push further, not just placing a piano in a space but really questioning what it could be," reflected Wearstler.

"A piano isn't just an instrument, it's a presence in a room," she added. "It changes everything around it."

Wearstler recently applied her love of wood to Kappo, a charred-cypress-clad French and Japanese restaurant at the Austin Proper Hotel in Texas.

The photography is by Giulio Ghirardi.

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Brazilian design exhibition Aberto is hosting its fifth edition in Casa Bola, architect Eduardo Longo's globular self-built 1970s São Paulo home.

Aberto/05 is the fifth iteration of the platform's art and design show, which has been staged in a range of modernist buildings, including Le Corbusier's Maison La Roche in Paris.

This year, the exhibition features installations, sculpture and painting by 50 creatives housed within the 1979 Casa Bola, which demonstrated Longo's utopian architectural vision for an urban community, where residents would live in pods suspended above the street.

The building stands out on São Paulo's bustling Faria Lima for its spherical ferrocement facade, positioned above three floors of separate gallery-style subterranean spaces that still serve as Longo's home and office today. A bright-yellow slide snakes around the sphere as an alternative to the winding staircase.

Among the pieces is a striking aluminium curtain by Spanish artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, positioned at the entrance of one of the floors.

Characterised by a playfully cut-out coated-steel frame, the curtain was one of many works created specifically for Casa Bola.

"The pieces developed for the exhibition establish a direct dialogue not only with the spherical form of the house, but also with its materiality, its lightness of tone and the sense of humour that is so characteristic of Eduardo's architecture," Aberto founder and curator Filipe Assis told Dezeen.

Brazilian artist Sandra Cinto painted two works for the home, which Assis described as perfectly complementary to Casa Bola's "spaceship vibes", while German-Brazilian artist Janaina Tschape also produced a large-scale mural for the exhibition.

While most of the pieces are displayed below the building's spherical volume, works are also on show in this space.

Multimedia paintings by artists Laís Amaral, Paloma Bosquê, and Tatiana Chalhoub were hung to "engage in the building's curves and angles".

"These works, among others, demonstrate how the artists engaged thoughtfully with both the physical and symbolic dimensions of Casa Bola, creating pieces that feel intrinsically connected to its identity," said Assis.

Except for last year's show at Maison La Roche, the first three editions of Aberto were held at other Brazilian architectural landmarks, including Oscar Niemeyer's Casa Oscar – the architect's only residential project in São Paulo.

"Having explored several landmarks of modernist architecture, I felt it was the ideal moment to innovate once again and to present the singular, disruptive universe of Eduardo Longo," reflected Assis. "He's an architect I consider a true genius."

Aberto/05 is the first of the Aberto shows where the curatorial team and the participating designers had the opportunity to work with a living architect, which Assis said proved "invaluable".

"It has allowed us to delve far deeper into the conceptual foundations of the building, to hear first-hand accounts of its creation, and to understand the intentions behind each decision," he said.

São Paulo features many examples of Brazilian modernism, with architects working adaptively with the structures.

Last year, Brazilian design practice Estúdio BRA reconfigured an apartment in the city's Niemeyer-designed Copan building to make the most of its iconic facade.

The photography is by Ruy Teixeira.

Aberto/05 takes place from 7 March to 31 May 2026 at Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 2889, Itaim Bibi, São Paulo, 01452-000, Brazil. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Koko designer Archer Humphryes Architects has renovated the upstairs bar at London's iconic Ronnie Scott's jazz club to balance old-school glamour with the space's contemporary musical offering.

Upstairs at Ronnie's is an eclectic music venue at Ronnie Scott's, the famous jazz club on Soho's Frith Street, which was founded by saxophonists Ronnie Scott and Pete King in 1959.

Local studio Archer Humphryes Architects renovated the 140-seater bar to be a fully immersive setting for its two regular shows a night, as well as extra late shows hosted four nights a week.

"Our ambition is that the space acts as a kind of time machine, so that guests enjoying the early show lose their sense of time and orientation once lost in the music," said studio founders David Archer and Julie Humphryes, who previously led the renovation of music venue Koko in Camden.

This intimacy was achieved through a reworked floor plan. Subtly tiered cabaret seating was arranged around the central stage, which is framed by plush red velvet curtains and hosts a striking grand piano.

"In Upstairs, the relationship between the stage and the dance floor/circle is immediate," the duo told Dezeen. "So guests are within touching distance of the singer and performers, and the relationship of on stage and off stage is virtually dissolved."

Among the features designed to maximise the venue's acoustics is a large domed ceiling clad in richly patterned Zimbabwean textiles finished in red and orange hues.

Overhead tilted panels, also covered in textiles, allow natural light to filter in during the day and can be sealed to provide a more cocooned atmosphere in the evening.

Each of the venue's gleaming circular tables is topped with a traditional, jazz club-style lamp as a subtle reminder of the main auditorium downstairs.

"It is important to remember that Upstairs at Ronnie's has its own specific identity," Archer and Humphryes said, noting the venue's diverse musical billing that has ranged from gospel to Cuban salsa.

"The management team has launched the venue with a combination of R&B, jazz and classical music, giving depth, breadth and variety to the overall venue without in any way cannibalising the 'jazz Mecca' that is downstairs."

Smooth marble was selected for the drinks bar, positioned in front of dark timber cabinetry and lined with wooden slats.

Vibrant floral carpets and bar stools add to the liveliness of the space, while tasselled pendant lamps bring gentle illumination to the low-lit venue.

"What is important is that within the whole, each part sits within a hierarchy that informs an overall guest experience of anticipation, excitement and seduction, creating a memorable night out," Archer and Humphreyes said.

Upstairs at Ronnie's reopened last month following a year-long closure for the renovation.

Over in east London, designer Nicola Weetch recently expanded the Hackney listening bar Bambi with an updated interior and a bespoke stainless-steel-and-wood wall cabinet for vinyl records.

The photography is by Taran Wilkhu.

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An office chair, a lighter and a close-up of a PDF on a laptop are among the everyday scenes hand-painted on canvases by design studio Formafantasma for the set of Marni's Autumn Winter 2026 show at Milan Fashion Week.

The set provided the backdrop for Belgian designer Meryll Rogge's debut show as the creative director of the Italian fashion brand.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of Formafantasma constructed the scenography from floor-to-ceiling dark wooden frames and mirrored panels spread across a brightly lit room at Marni's headquarters in Milan.

Various rectilinear canvases were attached to the walls and mirrors, hand-painted with quotidien motifs, including orange peel, a bar of soap, house keys and a comb.

Among the other scenes were the legs of an office chair, a bright-yellow lighter placed upright on a table and a depiction of a PDF on an Apple computer screen, with its recognisable ellipsis menu.

Speaking to Dezeen, Trimarchi explained that the intention was to root the set in familiarity, "grounding the runway in elements that feel completely ordinary".

"We were trying to bring fashion closer to the environments clothing actually exists in," he said.

"The images we painted are intentionally banal. They are the kinds of things you barely register in daily life."

Formafantasma wanted to create a distinctly domestic interior, but one that looked fragmented – "almost like a room that has been taken apart and reassembled slightly out of order", Trimarchi explained.

Despite their banality, the paintings were created to draw in show guests and invite them to slow down and pay attention to their surroundings.

"Fashion today moves at a very high speed, especially in terms of images," considered Trimarchi.

"We liked the idea of introducing a medium that requires time and attention."

Guests were seated on a series of benches covered in pleated grey fabric, placed across carpeted flooring that was "conceived as a monumental doormat".

"We liked the idea of enlarging something humble and transitional," said Trimarchi.

"A doormat marks a threshold between outside and inside, which felt aligned with the idea of a runway as a space between daily life and staged presentation."

Considering what Formafantasma hoped guests would take away from the show, Trimarchi said, "ideally, people would leave thinking about clothing as something that lives in real environments, not just as an image".

"The set was there to support the garments and to frame them in a way that feels closer to how we actually encounter clothes, in passing, in reflection, and in movement, rather than only frontally and perfectly composed."

Formafantasma is known for its research-heavy projects, which have unpacked everything from a critical perspective on modernism and its legacy to the global impact of the forestry industry and the history of wool production.

The photography is courtesy of Formafantasma.

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Springy silicone, candy-coloured resin and second-hand cat figurines are among the materials used to create these shining examples of lamps spotted by Dezeen's design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield over the past month.

Lineair by Baptiste Vandaele for YSM

Belgian designer Baptiste Vandaele looked to the primary colours and understated geometry of the Bauhaus when constructing this dimmable table lamp.

Created in collaboration with Japanese manufacturer YSM, the hooded lighting is made up of only a handful of linear planes in an artful display of understated design.

Boxing Ring Lamp 081 by Matthieu Doucet for KØGE

There is something delightfully playful about this table lamp, wrapped in springy silicone strings to mimic a cordoned-off boxing ring.

Belgian designer Matthieu Doucet created the lamp's lightweight inner structure out of delicate washi paper, which diffuses soft light through its translucent surface and is supported by a stainless steel frame.

For all its credentials as a functioning lamp, half the fun of the product lies in running your fingers along its silicone strands and watching them bounce away from you like the tensioned ropes in a real boxing match.

Flora Lamp II by Marcin Rusak

Polish designer Marcin Rusak has a masterful knack for suspending real flowers in resin, which he forms into tables, vases and cabinets.

At this year's Collect craft fair, currently on show at Somerset House in London, Rusak is presenting one of a series of unique table lamps finished in this trademark style.

An integrated LED light with a dimmable switch illuminates the flowers and leaves encased in matte resin to create truly beautiful lighting that I would kill to own, or, even better, to have made myself.

Trishelf by Place in Place

Trishelf is a collection of stackable wall lamps influenced by the look of architectural partition walls and sunlight seeping through building windows.

Emerging Chinese studio Place in Place created the pieces from sculptural blocks of candy-coloured resin, with E-shaped gaps that allow glowing light to emerge from within.

The blocks can be mounted to the wall vertically or horizontally, stacked in multiples on surfaces or used as bookends. Aside from the eternal visual pull of resin, especially illuminated resin, Trishelf is impressively modular.

Fluid by Nao Tamura for WonderGlass

Japanese designer Nao Tamura has captured the beauty of light passing through liquid with Fluid, a glass pendant filled with water.

Created for Italian brand WonderGlass, the pendant looks a bit like a weighty wine decanter, poised to be poured.

Donut by HAHA Studio

The pleasingly chubby form of doughnuts seems to have universal appeal in lighting design, highlighted by recent popular designs like Sabine Marcelis's bloated Varmblixt lights for IKEA.

Swedish practice HAHA Studio has jumped on this enduring trend with Donut, a compact lamp composed of two stacked solid aluminium rings that can be used as a table, pendant or wall-mounted light thanks to the integrated keyhole fittings on its base.

Buké Lamps by Simon Skinner

Swedish designer Simon Skinner's Buké Lamps were an undeniable star at this month's Stockholm Creative Edition for their brilliant use of unwanted glassware.

Skinner scoured charity shops and flea markets for second-hand bowls, ashtrays and tiny cat figurines, which he stacked on top of each other to create 20 deliciously kitschy table lamps.

Each piece of glassware was sandblasted to create a unified whole, resulting in lamps that look as if they are made of objects suspended in ice. It's a fitting visual metaphor for the pieces, created to freeze the previously discarded homeware in time.

Orbita by Pleto Studio

Ukrainian practice Pleto Studio handcrafted Orbita, a floor lamp with a lumpy base made from a bespoke mixture of clay, hemp fibres, cellulose, wood shavings and mineral powders. The tall, boucle shade was created from 100 per cent natural wool.

Orbita is a smart celebration of the understated beauty of natural materials and raw textures.

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Patchwork timber, frosted glass and fine horsehair are among the materials used to create the furniture displayed in the Max Radford Gallery debut exhibition at London's Collect fair.

The presentation is part of Collect, the annual craft and design fair at Somerset House, which opens today.

East London-based Max Radford Gallery brought together eclectic pieces by 11 emerging UK and European designers to highlight the breadth of materials that up-and-coming practitioners are experimenting with.

"For our first display at Collect with its relationship with the Crafts Council, we were very keen to bring a roster of British based designers whose work aligns with craft or has some sort of commentary on it," Radford told Dezeen.

Among the furniture is a chunky dining chair by local designer Lewis Kemmenoe. The timber seating is a melange of walnut, cherry, oak, elm, brown oak and plywood, arranged in a patchwork like a pair of jeans.

Kemmenoe applied the same patchwork technique to a plywood cabinet clad in painted pieces of copper.

British-Brazilian designer Tessa Silva is showing a statement Smock Lounge Chair upholstered with coconut fibres, horsehair, wool, hessian, cotton and calico.

Silva is known for her tactile creations, which are made over hours spent pleating and smocking deadstock textiles. A wool-clad floor lamp and stool, also part of the Smock series, feature in the show.

Self-taught London creative EJR Barnes is another exhibitor who has made a name for himself with his humour-inflected designs.

Barnes is presenting one wooden and one frosted glass table alongside a pearwood armchair, which is supported by playful croissant-shaped feet made from sandcast aluminium.

A striking floor lamp by Austrian designer Flora Lechner is also on display. Lechner used anodised aluminium and stainless steel to create the lighting, which features a shade shaped like a flower despite its harsh materials.

London designer Georgia Merritt is also showing metallic lighting in the form of a sculptural table lamp formed from pieces of stainless steel and nickel.

The lamp is on display alongside Merritt's equally sculptural table, rendered in stainless steel and glazed fibreboard.

Among the smaller-scale pieces is a spindly wall-mounted candelabra by local furniture maker Barnaby Lewis, whose steel creations recently formed the debut rotating gallery show at London's APOC Store.

Called Seven Fingers, the asymmetric candelabra features alongside another gothic-style mirror by Lewis, also formed from steel.

Since Max Radford launched his eponymous collectible design platform in 2021, the gallerist has hosted a series of exhibitions celebrating the work of emerging designers.

For last year's London Design Festival (LDF), Radford collaborated with British furniture maker Ercol to create a show in an old fire station featuring fresh takes on wooden furniture from six designers.

The photography is courtesy of Max Radford Gallery.

Collect 2026 takes place from 26 February to 1 March 2026 at Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA, UK. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

Project credits:

Curator: Max Radford
Participating designers: EJR Barnes, Tom Bull, Samuel Collins, Carsten in der Elst, Lewis Kemmenoe, Flora Lechner, Barnaby Lewis, Georgia Merritt, Eddie Olin, Freddy Tuppen and Tessa Silva

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Materials ranging from wood and coiled metal to old tripods and motorcycle headlights were used to craft the pieces on display in the Peso y Presencia exhibition at Madrid Design Festival.

Peso y Presencia, which is Spanish for Weight and Presence, brought together furniture and objects from a group of architects, designers and artists who work with diverse materials.

The exhibition was curated by architect Yaiza Camacho of local studio Moneo Brock and is on display at Space to Be, the firm's Madrid gallery space.

"At a time defined by overproduction, the exhibition advocates for a slower, more conscious way of making, offering a critical perspective on how ideas are produced, represented, and perceived," said Camacho.

Among the pieces is a lighting and table series by architects Marta Ochoa and Elena Rocabert, characterised by lacquered pieces of wood arranged in abstract formations influenced by wild animals.

The two lights were crowned with handmade lampshades made of white linen, while the table was topped with a circular sheet of transparent glass.

Jesús Meseguer is another architect whose work features in the show.

Using music stands, tripods and second-hand parts including old motorcycle headlights and car radios, Meseguer designed a spindly speaker and floor lamp called Tuning.

"In English, 'tuning' refers to adjustment – a term commonly used to describe the modification and customisation of vehicles," explained Camacho.

"From this idea of readjustment, previously used stage structures were reassembled, detached from their original function," she added.

Designer Inés Miño Izquierdo presented her delicate "chimney" table lamp carved from Japanese walnut, alongside a shard-like shoehorn made from a thin sliver of the same wood.

Various other applications of timber feature throughout the exhibition, including an asymmetric bench by architect Ismael López made of pieces of pine wood constructed using "artisanal techniques".

Informed by rocking chairs, the furniture tilts to one side so that only four of its six legs are touching the ground at one time.

"Its silhouette invites movement and play, gently oscillating between the functional and the sculptural," noted Camacho.

Two works by designer Miguel Leiro are also on show. Spring Bench is a seat formed from a strikingly coiled piece of metal, which Leiro created as both a public bench and a bike rack.

Contrastingly, the designer is presenting a subtle coat rack made from ash wood, arranged to mimic a real tree.

Smaller-scale pieces are among the various other offerings in the exhibition, from artist Andrea Moreno's lumpy ceramic water fountain to a textile-draped table lamp by jewellery designer Rubén Gómez and interior designer Omar Miranda.

"Peso y Presencia invites us to think about design through both material and gaze," said Camacho.

"Through the weight with which an idea takes form and the presence with which that form asks us to pause."

Madrid Design Festival will take place across Spain's capital until 8 March.

Previous iterations of the city-wide event include an exhibition by Jorge Penadés showing how the discarded roots of olive trees could be turned into design objects, and an installation of woven lamps made from discarded plastic bottles by Álvaro Catalán de Ocón.

The photography is by Pablo Gómez-Ogando.

Peso y Presencia takes place from 3 to 24 February 2026 at Space to Be, Calle de Benigno Soto, 14 28002 Madrid, Spain. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

Project credits:

Curator: Yaiza Camacho
Participating designers: Marta Ochoa and Elena Rocabert, Jesús Meseguer and Reparto, Eric Primo, Inés Miño Izquierdo, Ismael López, ESTO Estudio, Fun Furniture for Friends, Miguel Leiro, Sudor, Sofía Milans, Miguel Lantero, Clara Álvarez, Guille del Paso, Andrea Moreno, Guillermo Gutiérrez and La Cuarta Piel

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Architecture is the discipline at the core of creative Simone Brewster's multidisciplinary projects, she tells Dezeen in this interview following the opening of her debut exhibition at London's Design Museum.

North Londoner Brewster has a meandering portfolio that spans architecture, furniture, jewellery, clothing and painting.

A varied selection of these works is currently on show at the Design Museum in a free display. Speaking to Dezeen, Brewster explained that the starting point for almost every project in the collection, from totemic planters to a faux fur jacket, was her architectural training.

Architecture is "the thing that makes you understand"

"Architecture has informed all the ways I approach design," said the creative, who studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture before completing a master's in design products at the Royal College of Art.

"It's the thing that makes you understand how to approach it," she told Dezeen. "It might not even be the thing that defines the outcome."

Brewster said that the architecture discipline established her understanding of scale and proportion, which can be applied to "objects as much as jewellery and designing clothes".

She explained how her broad creative education expanded her horizons and led to her eclectic practice, including a pavilion designed to mimic ancient architecture and wooden combs influenced by the hairstyles of members of different African tribes.

"I ended up going on a very unconventional path because after I did my Part 1 and I worked in architecture for a bit, I did my master's in design products," she said.

"So then I wasn't technically a Part 2, but I had much more knowledge and experience than a Part 1, and then architecture practices didn't know how to deal with that," continued Brewster.

"In the end it meant that I ended up working more with designers, because designers don't get so scared of you having an architectural background and doing design."

Brewster's curiosity for architecture was ignited at an early age. At six years old, she visited her father's family in Trinidad and asked him how the temperature of the house they were staying in was so cool despite the hot weather. Her dad explained that his architect cousin had specifically designed it that way.

"I look back and I feel grateful for the moment when I was first understanding that space could make me and other people feel something," reflected Brewster.

"That design could help people feel comfortable, present, and at ease."

Design is "very grounding"

Brewster's fascination with space has led her to explore the body and deconstruct how it is represented in culture – themes that are integral to her portfolio.

Among her works on display at the Design Museum are three pieces of furniture created to examine historical objectifications of the Black female body, which she named after racist and obsolete stereotypes.

"The Negrita bench is a new piece, which follows on from one of the most important bodies of work that I've created – the Negress Chaise and the Mammy side table," explained Brewster.

Brewster crafted the bench from ebonised repurposed sapele wood. Like the chaise longue and the side table, the furniture is characterised by abstract shapes that represent fragmented body parts, including thighs and a breast with a gilded nipple.

"[The pieces] deal with really difficult subjects," she continued. "And it's very grounding, this idea of filling the void and talking about design and what it can offer, the barriers it can break down and the conversations it can open up."

Elsewhere, a selection of Brewster's "heritage necklaces" is on show. Finished in materials ranging from brass and aluminium to coloured paper and synthetic hair, the designer's jewellery was influenced by breastplates historically worn by warriors across Hawaii and Fiji.

As well as tracing back through time, Brewster remains keenly interested in the state of contemporary design, which she has partly explored through various educator roles.

"When I was teaching, I had a lot of students who weren't from the UK," she reflected.

"I was trying to get them to understand that their perspective on what design could be was valuable. And to enter our education system, they didn't have to lose that part of themselves."

Brewster said that students' preconceptions of what architecture should be often led them to limit their own ideas – something she always invited them to confront and question.

"We'd break it down first with drawings and paintings and collages," she explained of her teaching style.

"The moment the project became creating a space, [their work] became a white cube. That's what architecture is in their brain. It's nothing to do with the colours of their heritage, or the shapes from where they come from."

"It became a serious thing," she continued. "And the amount of conversations I had to have, asking them, why have you done that? Can't you see what you've done here? You've erased yourself."

"There was a lot of that, getting them to bring more of themselves into the spaces and objects that they were creating."

A creative career is "not a straight line"

One of Brewster's aims for her first museum exhibition is to "demystify" what architecture and design are, and vouch for the wide-ranging potential of both disciplines.

"One of the things I try and instil in students and people who want a creative career is that it's not a straight line," she said.

"So many visitors to the Design Museum are young," acknowledged Brewster. "So many teenagers visit who are really thinking about a career in design."

"And often what we see when we look at design is this idea that it's very straightforward, or that someone was always going to be an amazing designer," she continued.

"No, let's be real. It's that we like this thing, and we're going to explore it and see where it takes us."

"If we continue to ask good questions, we might make interesting things and continue to make products, objects and spaces that people engage with and find valuable and can become part of culture and society," she added.

This sentiment is echoed in a quote from the designer placed at the beginning of the show, which reads, "institutions never knew what to do with me... where to put me. I realised I would have to carve my own path to get anywhere".

"For me, I was filling my void, which was looking at the design world and thinking, where am I? I don't see it. I'm going to start making something," reflected Brewster.

"But your void is totally different from mine. So there's space for you and me."

Brewster's show is the second edition of Platform, an annual display series at the Design Museum dedicated to showcasing contemporary creativity. Last year's inaugural edition presented the work of British designer Bethan Laura Wood.

The photography is by Charles Emerson.

Platform: Simone Brewster takes place from 13 February 2026 to 25 January 2027 at the Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG, UK. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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The late mid-century modern designer Verner Panton was born 100 years ago today. To mark the occasion, we have rounded up 10 of his most enduring pieces of furniture and lighting.

Born in Brahesborg-Gamtofte in Denmark on 13 February 1926, Panton left an indelible mark on the design industry and is remembered as a household name who dared to experiment with swathes of colour, shapes and materials.

His career spanned furniture, lighting and product design as well as interiors and architecture – a common feature among many of Panton's mid-century peers, who were considered polymaths for their multidisciplinary capabilities.

To mark 100 years since Panton's birth, we have collected 10 of the designer's most iconic pieces of furniture and lighting.

Panton Chair, 1967

Characterised by its distinctive S-shape, Panton's eponymous chair is widely considered to be not only his most famous piece of furniture, but one of the most recognisable pieces of furniture ever created.

The seat made design history in the 1960s as the first cantilevered chair to be manufactured completely out of a single piece of plastic.

The Panton Chair has been enshrined in popular culture ever since, referenced in settings from Barbie Dreamhouses to an iconic Vogue magazine cover that depicts model Kate Moss sitting nude in the chair.

Flowerpot lamp, 1968

Panton designed his brightly-coloured Flowerpot lighting range in 1968 to embody the period's flower-power movement, which promoted peace, love and free thinking.

The original collection featured a duo of table lamps and a trio of pendant lamps. Each was made of two lacquered metal hemispheres, positioned at opposite angles to create a glare-free, ambient glow.

Heart Cone Chair, 1958

The Heart Cone Chair made waves in the late 1950s for its distinctively heart-shaped upholstered seat supported by a satin stainless steel base.

Manufacturer Vitra described the chair as a clear example of Panton's fascination with geometry, and his desire to create emotional impact despite the functionality of his furniture. The brand has marked the designer's centenary by producing a two-tone blue version.

Panton created the heart-shaped furniture as a playful follow-up to the Cone Chair, conceived for the Kom-Igen inn restaurant on Denmark's Funen island. He was responsible for both the design and interiors of the restaurant.

Panthella lamp, 1971

Designed three years after the Flowerpot lamp, the Panthella is another example of Panton's experimentations with glare-free lighting.

The first Panthella was produced in 1971 in five vibrant colours. Light is reflected from the oversized, mushroomy shade onto the lamp's trumpet-shaped chrome base. For Panton's centenary, Panthella manufacturer Louis Poulsen has reissued the lamp in its original bold hues, including red and orange.

Barboy trolley, 1963

Barboy is a flexible, mobile piece of furniture that has served as a side table or a drinks trolley since the early 1960s.

Panton crafted Barboy from four cylindrical wooden parts, which are supported by chrome-plated castors. The project is a classic example of the designer's penchant for combining blocky and colourful shapes with shinier accents.

Living Tower, 1969

Perhaps Panton's most unusual design, Living Tower is a sculptural piece of furniture fitted with interior niches for reclining.

The upholstered tower was crafted from polyurethane foam, a staple of the 1960s furniture industry, with a birch plywood frame. It measures over two metres in height and can accommodate up to three people in seated positions.

Cloverleaf sofa, 1969

Cloverleaf broke with the modernist tradition of rectilinear sofas, reimagining the couch as a modular structure of alternating inward and outward-facing niches.

This radical new form, resembling a many-leaf clover, was designed to encourage socialising and interaction, as well as allowing the sofa to be endlessly extended and reconfigured.

Globe lamp, 1969

Many of Panton's lighting designs stack several reflectors on top of each other to completely obscure the bulb, but none does it more impressively than the gravity-defying Globe pendant.

Here, five polished aluminium reflectors, accented in red and blue, are suspended inside a transparent acrylic sphere, emanating a soft ambient glow that seems to come from nowhere.

System 1-2-3 chair, 1973

It took Panton three years to develop the System 1-2-3 chair with its S-shaped cantilever seat that allows for next-level customisation.

Customers are able to pick between two backrest heights, four seat heights and six base types – including legs, runners, casters or plates – yielding around 20 different versions of the same design.

Fun lighting, 1963

Panton crafted his affectionately-named Fun lighting series from translucent discs of seashells, flexibly connected to each other using metal rings.

The heat that is emitted by each of the lights' central bulbs causes the discs to move and reflect patterns of light. Chains of varying lengths can be arranged to create lighting of various sizes.

The series offers an alternative to a traditional chandelier, and highlights the breadth of materials Panton used over his career.

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"Intimacy was non-negotiable" for Kelly Wearstler when interior designing Kappo Kappo, a charred-wood-clad French and Japanese restaurant at the Austin Proper Hotel in Texas.

Kappo Kappo is a single-room, 25-cover restaurant at the Austin Proper Hotel, which features interiors by Los Angeles-based Wearstler throughout.

The French-Japanese fusion restaurant is centred around "kappo" dining, the Japanese term for "to cut and cook", where each course is prepared in front of the diner and served directly to them by the chef.

"Understanding kappo dining – really understanding it – was essential before I touched a single material decision," Wearstler told Dezeen.

"It's about the relationship between chef and guest, so we designed around that," she added, nodding to the central, 15-cover chef's counter that anchors the space. "That intimacy was non-negotiable."

Wearstler clad the small eatery in floor-to-ceiling slats of charred cypress, blackened using the traditional Japanese timber preservation technique known as shou sugi ban.

Produced locally in Austin, the cypress was stained in a deep green hue to imbue it with an "unexpected twist".

"It has this subtle warmth, this organic quality that reflects the sensibility of Japanese design without being literal about it," explained Wearstler.

The designer crafted gridded millwork screens for the space. Illuminated with a warm glow, they store and conceal the restaurant's glassware and handmade ceramic plates.

The screens are a playful take on shoji screens, traditional Japanese room dividers made from translucent sheets on a lattice frame.

Kappo Kappo's standalone dining tables were designed bespoke for the project using leathered stone, while the chairs were made from ebonised, sandblasted pine.

"We wanted to showcase the natural beauty of stone and balance all the wood," said Wearstler. "The chairs also have this raw, tactile quality that feels right in the space."

One of the walls was decorated with a trio of oversized, quilted fibreglass sconce lights by Korean artist Minjae Kim.

"The lights are these abstract forms that flirt between organic and geometric," considered Wearstler. "Kim understands how to make something feel both considered and alive."

While most of the furniture was custom-made for the restaurant, Wearstler incorporated a handful of vintage pieces – a practice she applies to every project, which has earned the designer her reputation for creating distinctly eclectic interiors.

Among the curated accents is a sculptural ceramic lamp from the 1970s and a painting by American artist Ever Baldwin displayed in a hand-carved, charred-wood frame.

"Those vintage touches add depth, history, personality," said Wearstler. "They make the space feel layered and collected, not just designed."

Considering how she wants diners to experience Kappo Kappo, Wearstler hoped that they "feel completely present" in the space.

"The open kitchen and the counter seating dissolve any barrier between the chefs and the guests," she added. "You're part of the experience, not just observing it."

Kappo Kappo was founded by twin chefs Gohei Kishi and Haru Kishi, who were born in Paris to Japanese parents.

The photography is by Giulio Girardi.

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Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis has created Roll, a rug with a wood-and-resin arm that transforms the product into a sofa, which she is debuting at a modernist house during Mexico City art week.

Roll takes its form and name from the act of unrolling a rug.

"With subtle irony, Roll suspends the rug mid-action, transforming it simultaneously into a rug and a seat," said Marcelis.

The designer created three limited-edition pieces for Italian carpet manufacturer CC-Tapis, in burgundy, baby pink and a reddish brown colour called rust.

Each piece of furniture was made from a flat textile of 100 per cent, robot-tufted wool. A curved, wool-clad arm was connected to one end of each of the textiles, to give the impression of a rug being rolled out on the floor.

Marcelis crafted the base of each arm from wood and finished them with glossy accents of resin – a staple material of the colourful but minimalist works the designer is known for.

When combined with their respective arms, the textiles transform from rugs into seats.

"The work draws on a familiar, everyday gesture typical of living spaces," explained Marcelis.

"Sitting on the rug and leaning against another element for support, making it explicit and fixing it into a singular form, suspended between use and sculpture."

Roll marks the first non-rug product produced by CC-Tapis, which Marcelis and the manufacturer unveiled during this week's Mexico City art week.

The trio of products is on display as part of a site-specific installation at the modernist Valner Residence, an early-1970s house in Mexico City designed by architect Agustín Hernández.

Elsewhere in the city this week, Davidpompa studio is showing lighting made from discarded seafood shells salvaged from local restaurant Contramar.

See Dezeen's curated list of 15 of the festival's must-see architecture and design events taking place across the Mexican capital.

Mexico City Art Week 2026 takes place from 1 to 9 February 2026 at various locations across Mexico City, Mexico. For more architecture and design talks, exhibitions and fairs visit Dezeen Events Guide.

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Crocodile-shaped furniture and shrine-like water features characterise Tonana, a rooftop bar in San Miguel de Allende designed by Mexican firm AG Studio to pay homage to ancient goddesses.

Tonana is located on the rooftop of Casa Hoyos, a boutique hotel also interior designed by AG Studio, which belongs to the Hoyos family.

When creating the bar, studio founder Andrés Gutiérrez was influenced by the family's "matriarchal history" that was first celebrated in the hotel design. This included a tile-clad mural of the Virgin of Loreto, the patron saint of San Miguel de Allende, in a hallway.

"From the very beginning of the conceptual stage for the bar, it was clear that we wanted to continue exploring matriarchal energy," said Gutiérrez. "This time, however, I proposed approaching it through a pre-Hispanic worldview."

Gutiérrez focussed on mythological female figures, including Tonantzin, an Aztec mother goddess, when designing the colour-drenched rooftop bar, which he described as a "matriarchal universe".

The flooring was crafted from tezontle – red volcanic stone that has been used in Mexican architecture for centuries.

Sculptural chunks of the stone delineate various seating areas featuring eclectic furniture pieces custom-made for the project, from chubby pink chairs to hand-carved crocodile benches by artisans from Oaxaca.

Decorated with spherical feet, the pink chairs are prototypes from Gutiérrez's Licha outdoor furniture collection, designed in collaboration with Monterrey-based studio Los Patrones and debuting tomorrow as part of Mexico City art week.

A duo of water features was fitted on either side of a small staircase to represent Chalchiuhtlicue, an Aztec goddess of water and rivers.

"Over the past few years, I have devoted myself to exploring it through Mexican cosmogony, where I have found an immense source of inspiration," said Gutiérrez.

The bar was placed at one end of the rooftop, crafted from tezontle and topped with a slab of veiny crimson marble.

Boxy stainless-steel stools were positioned in front of it, which echo the geometric shelving behind the bar that houses artefacts, including a decorative sculpture of Tonantzin.

"Stone evokes memories of the earth and its origins, while the shine of metal suggests the lunar realm, a mystical, intangible, protective feminine force," explained Gutiérrez.

"Representations of Tonantzin placed throughout the space serve as symbols of the balance between the sacred and the fearsome," he added.

"This project became something very special for everyone involved," continued the designer.

"I feel that we not only paid homage to Tonantzin, but also expressed our gratitude toward the women who gave us life."

Ahead of Mexico City art week, which kicked off in the Mexican capital this week, Dezeen rounded up 15 of the festival's must-see architecture and design events.

Among the projects on display is lighting by Davidpompa studio made from discarded seafood shells salvaged from Mexico City restaurant Contramar.

The photography is by Leandro Bulzzano.

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Milan's Salone del Mobile furniture fair has announced Salone Contract, a programme led by OMA partners Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, dedicated to showcasing contract furniture.

Salone del Mobile, the world's most significant furniture fair, takes place every spring in Milan, Italy.

During its 2026 edition in April, OMA partners and architects Koolhaas and Gianotten will lead a forum dedicated to contract furniture – pieces specifically created for public settings, including workplaces, restaurants or healthcare facilities.

The forum will act as the soft-launch event for Salone Contract, a multi-year programme that will debut at Salone del Mobile 2027 and will explore the expanding global role of contract furniture.

As part of the forum, Koolhaas will host a dedicated lecture to introduce fair-goers to the concept.

A thematic itinerary among various exhibitors' work will also take place, highlighting the key qualities of contract furniture today.

From September of this year, the project will continue as an "international road tour of key markets, gradually building an informed and profiled international audience," said Salone del Mobile.

In 2027, Salone Contract will be launched with an exhibition featuring furniture from brands selected for their design quality, industrial capacity and operational reliability, according to the organisers.

The fair explained why it selected international studio OMA to helm the project.

"The Salone chose OMA, an international architecture and urbanism firm, because it combines design practice with a strong research dimension, and an approach that spans scales and disciplines," said Salone del Mobile.

"It is precisely this visionary and methodological approach that is driving the construction of Salone Contract," added the furniture fair.

This is not the first innovation that Salone del Mobile has announced in recent months. At the end of last year, the fair unveiled plans for Salone Raritas, its first-ever exhibition dedicated to unique and limited-edition design, which will debut as part of this year's edition.

Set to take place in the final quarter of 2026 is the first edition of Salone del Mobile in Saudi Arabia, a satellite fair in Riyadh established to "create a cultural and commercial bridge between Italy and Saudi Arabia".

The photography is by Diego Ravier unless stated otherwise.

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Design duo Axel and Mélissa Chay set out to bring "charm, humour and a sense of place" to Dévo, a Marseille restaurant characterised by glossy lacquer, smoked glass and a swooping seagull stuck to the wall.

Dévo is a restaurant and wine bar in Marseille's Préfecture neighbourhood, created by furniture maker Axel Chay and art director Mélissa Chay.

The husband-and-wife duo designed a textured, open-plan interior to reference the southern French city's culinary reputation.

"Marseille's food scene today is instinctive, generous and deeply rooted in sharing, while remaining open to influences from elsewhere," said Axel Chay. "That attitude was central to the design approach."

"[Dévo] reflects a Marseille that is confident and Mediterranean, unpretentious yet expressive, where food is taken seriously, but never stiffly," he told Dezeen.

Cavernous stone walls envelope the single dining room, which is anchored by clusters of Axel Chay's bespoke tubular stainless steel chairs topped with dark green cushions.

The duo was influenced by the high gloss and bold glamour of 1970s Italian bars, opting for a zinc and timber bar positioned in front of round-edged smoked glass shelves.

"The 1970s Italian bar felt like a natural point of reference because it represents a very particular balance," Mélissa Chay said. "Warmth, elegance and a strong sense of social ritual."

"These were spaces designed for everyday life: to share a real conversation, a coffee, an aperitivo, rather than for 'spectacle' and 'only design'," she continued.

"Details such as the proportions of the bar, the choice of finishes and the overall atmosphere subtly echo that era, without becoming literal or nostalgic."

Flooring was crafted from burgundy-hued resin, which is reflected in the gleaming lacquered ceiling and illuminated by chunky red sconce lights.

Local artist Aurélien Ciller created custom mirrors for the walls, printed with old photographs of the mountainous landscape that surrounds Marseille.

A playful sculpture of a seagull in flight features on the wall at the entrance of the restaurant, chosen as an ode to the Mediterranean.

"These elements reference the port, the horizon and the everyday poetry of a coastal city," said Axel Chay.

"They bring charm, humour and a sense of place, something very Marseille!" he added, referencing more seaside ephemera that features in the space, including a scale model of an old-fashioned ship.

Accessed via steps, the black-and-white-tile-clad kitchen is concealed behind floor-to-ceiling satin curtains.

Marseille is home to well over 3,000 eateries, which have earned the city its gastronomic reputation.

Last year, architecture studio Neri&Hu designed the Gros Bao restaurant in Marseille, created with a full-height void selected to reference Shanghai's traditional alleyways.

The city is also known for Le Corbusier's iconic Cité Radieuse housing block, built between 1947 and 1952.

The photography is by Mathilde Hiley.

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Hand-carved lamps and NM3's debut timber furniture are among the striking woodwork pieces spotted by Dezeen's design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield over the past month.

When Dezeen spoke to interior designers about their trend predictions for 2026, creatives were united in forecasting less processed and more honest materials – chief among them wood.

The following pieces are a selection of recently designed furniture, lighting and accessories that demonstrate the versatility of timber, which continues to stand the test of time.

NMNG by NM3

Since its founding in 2020, Milan studio NM3 has been causing a stir with its distinctly utilitarian furniture made from slabs of stainless steel.

NMNG is the studio's latest collection of two tables and a chair, made for using the same meticulous methodology that the designers normally apply to steel but crafted entirely from solid oak.

The collection is produced by Stockholm's Nordiska Galleriet and will launch as part of an unofficial design festival taking place in the Swedish capital next week.

Acid Lamps by Josh Page

From a distance, these teak veneered plywood lamps look as if they have been stained with acid to create ink blot-style marks on their surfaces.

In fact, British designer Josh Page created the patterns by carving into the teak veneer to reveal the layers of plywood beneath. When carved in this way, each lamp is characterised by a unique "acid" design.

Page chose delicate poplin for the lampshades, which feature electric blue stitching to match the braided blue cables. The result is beautifully layered lighting that demonstrates the decorative potential of timber.

Shelf by Ralph Parks

This wall-mounted shelf was handcrafted by British designer Ralph Parks from unidentified, reclaimed wood that he has resolved is "possibly yew".

Characterised by all the meandering lumps and bumps that feature on an untreated tree branch, the shelf was created as a place to toss keys or small trinkets.

It is a satisfyingly tactile piece, made all the more charming by its unconfirmed origins.

Art cart by Dom Johnson

Multiple uses are packed into one piece of furniture in this nifty art cart by British designer Dom Johnson.

Johnson used Douglas fir plywood and hardwood to create the cart, which features a reversible worktop and pencil tray, as well as a birch plywood pegboard, a mounted paper roll and various bespoke storage.

The cart was designed for Watts Gallery in Surrey after the museum commissioned Johnson to create furniture that would encourage visitors to draw during their visit.

It is an approachable piece of furniture that feels as if it might attract even the most amateur of sketchers.

Thorn by Rickard Torstenfelt

Thorn is a distinctive coat rack by emerging Swedish designer Rickard Torstenfelt, made from the spiky branches of old Christmas trees.

The recent Malmstens furniture school graduate salvaged one of the most overlooked forms of timber and transformed it into a beautifully prickly piece of furniture that is as sculptural as it is functional.

Thorn will be on show in Stockholm next week as part of the annual Ung Svensk Form exhibition at architecture and design museum ArkDes.

Lamp by Charlotte Taylor and Garcé Dimofski

Known for her penchant for collaboration, British designer Charlotte Taylor worked with Lisbon studio Garcé Dimofski to design this chunky solid wood table lamp.

The pleasingly weighty lampshade crowns a base made using Japanese-style joinery not dissimilar to the kind seen in Taylor's Sombresa table, which she debuted at last summer's 3 Days of Design festival in Copenhagen.

Available in both a natural and a black-stained finish, the lamp casts a soft glow across the joinery when illuminated.

Candle holder by Carlo Raymann

Finnish designer Carlo Raymann is a founding member of Minestrone Workshop, a Helsinki-based design collective established to test the limits of timber.

Raymann created this simple but loveable candle holder from small slabs of Douglas fir, which were glued in place to encourage plenty of interaction around the dinner table.

"The idea is a simple play with shapes and grain directions," he told Dezeen. "Several candle holders can be arranged to form different kinds of patterns."

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French fashion house Chanel filled Paris's Grand Palais with Alice in Wonderland-style mushrooms and real trees, which created a runway for the brand's Spring Summer 2026 haute couture show.

The presentation took place on Tuesday as part of Paris Couture Week at the Grand Palais – a landmark exhibition hall that has hosted many Chanel shows over the years and was restored in 2024 with support from the French fashion house.

Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy unveiled his first haute couture collection for the house amidst a curved arrangement of towering mushroom sculptures finished in sugary pink, red and yellow hues.

Designed to evoke a mystical clearing in a forest, the runway was formed from a large circular space surrounded by real willow trees coloured a distinctive shade of pink.

The fashion house said that the trees will be cleaned, pruned and replanted in a Parisian nursery following the show.

Blazy and his team positioned the toadstool-like mushrooms in a spiralled formation to form the runway, interspersed with curved benches to provide seating for guests.

Like real mushrooms, the oversized sculptures were characterised by hooded caps, frilly gills and curving stems. After the show, they will be repurposed for various art, cultural and film projects, the house said.

Toadstool-style spots featured on top of the largest mushrooms, nodding to otherworldly fairytales and fantasy stories such as Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

The soft, pink-toned scenography created a stark contrast with the architecture of the Grand Palais' atrium, which is formed from over 6,000 tonnes of steel.

Models stalked the mushroomy landscape in a series of looks informed by birds, from raven-black tailoring to intricately embroidered silhouettes that recall plumage.

"Haute couture is the very soul of Chanel," said Blazy. "It is the foundation and the full expression of the house."

Earlier this month during Paris Fashion Week Men's, fellow French brand Louis Vuitton constructed a minimalist prefabricated timber house as the set for its Autumn Winter 2026 show.

Last year, designer Willo Perron created a sculptural curving runway for Chanel's Spring Summer 2025 show, also at the Grand Palais.

The photography is courtesy of Chanel.

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Local architecture studio Anomaly has designed the Apex co-working space with textured materials including leather, timber and a bespoke rammed-earth welcome desk.

Set within the Bennetts Associates-designed concrete Tribecca development in London's King's Cross area, Apex is a waterfront co-working space that was interior designed by Anomaly to eschew harsh and unwelcoming office environments.

"Introducing and playing with a variety of textures that are tactile and soft created a welcome contrast to the firmness and solidity of the basebuild architecture of Apex," said Anomaly head of interior design Lucy Hillyer-Riley.

"The aim was to create a space that feels just as good once it's been properly used and occupied as it does on day one," she told Dezeen.

When entering the workspace, visitors are greeted by a rectilinear welcome desk made from dusty pink, brown and orangey slabs of low-carbon rammed earth, designed in collaboration with British natural finishes specialist Clayworks.

Hillyer-Riley explained that the team originally planned to salvage earthwork from the site excavation, but were met with constraints during the project.

"What we love about rammed earth is that you can read how it's made," said the designer.

"The layers, the texture, the slight imperfections. It is built up using natural pigments and aggregates, compacted to create a solid, monolithic form," she continued.

"No two rammed-earth elements could ever be the same, which felt right for a building that's meant to have its own identity."

Timber-clad stairs lead to a similarly textured cafe dressed in chocolatey brown hues, which overlooks the canal.

Wishbone chairs were paired with marble-topped tables, while terrazzo grey flooring offers a cooler antidote to the panelled wood behind the long coffee counter.

"The palette is tonal, soft and embracing, drawing on the canal frontage and making the most of daylight and long sight-lines," said Hillyer-Riley.

Other work and meeting spaces were designed with a similarly homely feel. Rather than rigid desks, communal tables were placed alongside a selection of chairs finished with materials including leather and upholstery.

"Leathers introduce softness and comfort, particularly in seating, and were chosen because the material wears in rather than wearing out," considered Hillyer-Riley.

"In addition to soft, plush zones, this adds a sense of ease and familiarity, helping the space feel relaxed rather than overly formal."

"Texture plays a big role," she added. "Softer seating, layered materials and generous planting sit against the hardiness of the existing building, creating a space that feels comfortable and aims to have a positive impact on the workers' wellbeing."

"Overall, it's a space designed to be used, enjoyed and returned to over and over again."

Co-working spaces have soared in popularity over the last decade as global working patterns have become more varied, especially post-pandemic.

Other recently designed co-working spaces featured on Dezeen include Forum, a space in Melbourne by Foolscap Studio dubbed as the Australian city's Silicon Valley and Spaced Agency's design for the New York City headquarters for non-profit Welcome to Chinatown.

The photography is courtesy of Anomaly.

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Artists Clementine Keith-Roach and Christopher Page have collaborated to design the cavernous Bar Far installation in Rome's Trastevere neighbourhood.

Bar Far is an installation curated by Vittoria Bonifati and commissioned by Villa Lontana, a non-profit art space that investigates links between ancient and contemporary creative practices.

Villa Lontana's exhibition space in Trastevere was renovated by architecture practice Studio Strato to create the temporary, site-specific bar, characterised by immersive catacomb-like corridors with plaster-clad arches.

British sculptor Keith-Roach and British painter Page looked to "ancient and baroque Rome" when decorating the interior with Keith-Roach's peculiar plaster reliefs shaped like body parts, which offer an uncanny take on traditional sculptures.

"The effect is an environment that is at once church and tomb, prophecy and ruin, heaven and hell," said Bonifati.

A glowing neon sign features on the facade, which leads to a cavernous hallway defined by various plaster legs, arms and hands, including two palms clasping ecclesiastical-style candles.

Lifelike sculptures of lower bodies with legs were used to support small tabletops, which were fixed to the wall close to the minimalist plaster bar itself.

On the wall opposite the bar, Keith-Roach and Page collaborated to create a circular portal from plaster and wood, which features an abstract, sunset-style painting in the middle, surrounded by interlaced plaster arms covered in chains and a single breast.

The artists used a mixture of other materials throughout the venue, including cement binder, stucco, silicon glue and scrim, to bring the interior to life.

The back room of Bar Far features a floor-to-ceiling trompe l'oeil mural by Page. Tall archways were painted with the same reddish orange hues as the portal and designed to look as if they lead to another dimension.

"Page's perspectival wall-painting is believably deep from some angles, but warps and distorts as we move around the space," said Bonifati

"It turns the final room into an illusory colonnade or cloister, though one that surveys not a heavenly landscape but an ominous infinity that draws us in with an ambiguous, otherworldly glow," she added.

Bar Far will be open until 14 March.

Located on the west bank of the River Tiber, which runs through Rome, the city's Trastevere neighbourhood is known for its creative community. Local practice StudioTamat previously updated a small 19th-century house in the area with glass floors and mirrored ceilings.

Studio Strato was founded in 2007. Among its portfolio of projects is Pointing House, a one-bedroom apartment renovated to include a cosy reading den.

The photography is by Jasper Fry.

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Local studio Hauvette & Madani looked to the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando when designing this wood-lined house in Paris, set within a lush garden.

Located close to the Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton museum in northwest Paris, the home is spread across three storeys.

On the ground floor, the open-plan kitchen and dining space features floor-to-ceiling glazing that reveals views of the surrounding garden's abundance of plants and ipe wood terracing.

"The house is structured around a strong 'inside-outside' relationship," studio founders Samantha Hauvette and Lucas Madani told Dezeen. "The landscape feels like a permanent, living backdrop, very close to the Japanese idea of architecture as a frame for nature."

When designing the home, Hauvette and Madani were heavily influenced by the work of Ando. The duo described his architectural projects as "echoing the quiet, contemplative relationship between buildings and gardens".

Inside, the home is filled with pieces from the studio's two furniture collections, playfully named Amuse Bouche and Entremets after French terms for small dishes served between courses of a meal.

"Our own pieces form the backbone of the furniture selection, ensuring coherence and a strong identity throughout the house," explained the designers.

The dining space features a bespoke built-in banquette, upholstered with plush textile-clad cushions and a chunky oak and lacquer floor lamp informed by art deco design.

The kitchen is characterised by veiny green quartz countertops set against custom timber cabinetry, also created by Hauvette and Madani.

"We worked with a restrained and natural palette based on oak, beige and ecru, enriched with deeper tones such as greens, tobacco and black," said the designers.

"Wood was chosen as the unifying material for its warmth, timelessness and ability to connect spaces seamlessly," they added. "It echoes the project's strong connection to nature."

In the living room, the duo constructed oversized oak shelving, which was positioned alongside a pair of low-slung sofas clad in velvety green fabric and a statement folded wood coffee table by Lisbon-based Studio HAOS.

A close-up, summery snapshot of two women sunbathing by French-Uruguayan photographer Bettina Pittaluga was framed above one of the sofas.

Wobbly, checkerboard-style carpets line the curved staircase, which leads to the two upper levels.

On the first floor, the kids' bedroom is characterised by a bed with a gridded, tartan-style headboard and a stripy bulbous pendant lamp.

The main suite is at the top of the house on the second floor and features an interconnected sleeping area and bathroom dressed in sandy, caramel hues, which was positioned on a platform raised above the custom oak bed.

"While level changes can be found in many Parisian interiors, here, it is not a space-saving device, but a way to structure the parental suite," said the designers.

"It subtly separates the sleeping area from the bathroom and adds a sense of hierarchy and intimacy."

Hauvette and Madani have been creating interiors together since 2010.

Among their portfolio is a Parisian apartment anchored by a sumptuous wine-red kitchen, and another home in the French capital with a gallery-like interior designed for its occupant's vast art collection.

The photography is by Matthew Avignone.

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Glass bricks and stainless steel characterise this apartment by Berghain designer Studio Karhard, renovated to capture the mood of Berlin's most famous nightclub.

Set within a building in the city's Kreuzberg neighbourhood, the home was designed as the "Berlin base" for an American couple.

When conceiving the interior, Thomas Karsten and Alexandra Erhard of local practice Studio Karhard drew on their 2003 experience of designing the interiors of Berghain – the German capital's renowned techno club set within a former power plant.

"The apartment reflects the clear design language and material aesthetics of Berghain in a homely context," Karsten and Erhard told Dezeen.

The duo reconfigured the layout to increase space and maximise light in the communal areas.

A striking curved glass brick wall anchors the central living space, which filters light between the entrance and the lounge area.

"Glass blocks provide interesting effects and a semi-transparent feeling," said the design duo.

A crimson-red, low-slung sofa was built around the wall on a stainless steel base that doubles as a side table at each end, while translucent petrol green glass coffee tables sit atop a velvety circular rug.

Terrazzo flooring was selected as "a high-quality, timeless accent that brings all the parts together".

"Throughout the apartment, the material selection is collage-like with a special focus on the haptic and atmospheric," explained Karsten and Erhard.

The open-plan kitchen and dining space is also characterised by a glass brick wall, which gives way to floor-to-ceiling stainless steel cabinetry with untreated brass alcoves.

"Stainless steel emphasises the strict, functional appearance of industrial buildings," said the designers.

Other spaces were deliberately created to prioritise darkness, nodding to intimate corners of nightclubs. The all-metal powder room features a partially gridded ceiling, illuminated only by thin strip lighting above a brutalist-style sink.

Karsten and Erhard said that they initially toyed with adding a smoke machine to the room as a playful ode to nightlife, but realised it would not be a practical choice for a second home.

"A fog machine needs to operate regularly and requires a lot of maintenance," they reflected.

In the bedroom, matte black walls and charcoal-coloured bedding create an immersive cocoon. The same colour palette was selected for a small study where the occupants store their statement silver suitcases in between travels.

The living space's glass brick wall doubles as one of the walls of the bathroom, which features a gleaming black tub accented with built-in yellow lights.

Studio Karhard made a name for itself designing Berghain, and has continued to draw on the club's creative legacy, including with a previous dental surgery that was conceived like a "concept store or cool bar".

But the studio founders have worked across residential, retail and healthcare settings and emphasised that each project comes with a very distinctive set of requirements.

"The goal is always to strengthen or defuse feelings with spatial design, such as euphoria in clubs or fear in medical practices," they explained.

"We attach great importance to mood elements such as acoustics and light, as they have a lasting influence on the emotional character of a room," added Karsten and Erhard.

"This results in spaces that function very atmospherically and appeal to the subconscious."

Last year, local studio Batek Architekten designed another Berlin dental clinic around an acrylic green glass cube to give the space an "inviting, artful atmosphere".

The photography is by Robert Rieger.

Project credits:

Interior design: Studio Karhard
Lead architects: Thomas Karsten and Alexandra Erhard
Collaborators: Jannick Naumann, Lutz Kneißl, Meta Popp

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A minimalist prefabricated timber house formed the set for Louis Vuitton's Autumn Winter 2026 menswear show during Paris Fashion Week, designed by the brand's men's creative director Pharrell Williams.

The show took place on Tuesday evening within a specially constructed venue in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, next to the city's Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton.

The home, called Drophaus, was prefabricated in collaboration with Japanese architecture studio Not a Hotel and formed the centrepiece of the runway.

It was composed of a large pyramidal roof protruding over a curved glass wall, which encircles the whole house and was designed to mimic a droplet of water.

The structure was positioned in the centre of the runway atop a grassy mound surrounded by a large expanse of lawn, interrupted only by carefully placed plants, shrubbery and flowers.

"The house concept is envisioned as a timeless space for future living situated within a luxuriant garden," said Louis Vuitton.

Boardwalk-style terraces were arranged around the perimeter of the house and provided seating for guests during the show.

Inside the home, timber was also used for the interior, which included a bedroom and a living-dining space, a bathroom and a dedicated listening room with Louis Vuitton-branded vinyl.

Each space was furnished with pieces from Williams's Homework furniture collection, created bespoke for the show.

Among the furniture was a playful, octagonal green lounger in the listening room, characterised by craggy lines that, according to the fashion house, "serve as an homage to the human hand".

Dressed in a range of looks from the Autumn Winter 2026 collection, models paraded through the house and across the lawn throughout the presentation.

The collection brought together houndstooth, herringbone and check patterns with technical yarns to play on the concept of "retro futuristic elegance" and the modern dandy, a term for a well-dressed man.

"Inspired by the shape of a droplet, the idea of which ripples through the collection itself, the home offers a glimpse into the imminent-future life of the Louis Vuitton dandy," said the brand.

Williams was appointed creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear in 2023 following the passing of his predecessor, Virgil Abloh.

Last year, the French fashion house created a giant snakes and ladders board for the brand's Spring Summer 2026 menswear show in Paris.

The photography is courtesy of Louis Vuitton.

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Wrocław-based COI Studio chose swathes of vividly-coloured wood, velvet and silk to create this "sculptural, sensual, slightly surreal" apartment in Poznań, Poland.

Called Two Suns, the home was designed by COI Studio founder Monika Rogusz-Witkoś, who told Dezeen that colour "became the main narrative tool" for the project.

"Every tone corresponds to a different emotional 'temperature', but all are linked by a quiet, cinematic softness," she explained.

Set within a century-old art nouveau building in Poznań's Jeżyce district, the one-bedroom apartment features interconnected communal spaces dressed in dramatic hues.

The dining room is characterised by multicoloured cornicing and walls finished with jagged crimson, sky blue and mint green shapes.

A sculptural glass table sits in the centre of the room, surrounded by a mismatch of dark timber and stainless steel chairs.

"Steel details run through the apartment as cool, precise accents, balancing the sensuality of wood," said Rogusz-Witkoś.

A gleaming red flower-shaped pendant light was suspended from a decorative sun motif on the ceiling, adding to the home's "dreamlike atmosphere".

"There is no raw oak or neutral timber here," said Rogusz-Witkoś. "Every surface is tinted, transformed and layered with pigment."

The living space is anchored by a chubby dark blue velvet sofa and a blobby metallic coffee table, surrounded by on-trend butter-yellow walls.

Plenty of the apartment's furniture was designed by COI Studio, from the colourful shelving systems, tables and lamps to subtle accessories including playful eye-shaped decorations attached to the walls.

"Each piece carries the studio's signature – sculptural, sensual, slightly surreal," explained Rogusz-Witkoś. "The furniture was built in close collaboration with our trusted artisans and carpenters."

The designer said that the rest of the apartment's furniture, which is vintage and dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, was curated to "coexist naturally with our custom designs".

"I love this mix," she said. "It makes the interior feel alive, unbound by time."

The kitchen is bathed in natural light through large floor-to-ceiling windows, concealed behind translucent, gauzy yellow curtains.

A sunny hue was also selected for the glossy cabinetry, which matches an extractor fan clad in stacked slabs of intricate marigold-coloured tiles.

In the bedroom, denim-blue limewash walls are interrupted only by a light gold sun-shaped motif that crowns the angular timber bed frame, which was stained in a deep shade of crimson and topped with cylindrical crushed velvet cushions.

The bathroom is as vibrant as the rest of the apartment. Barbie-pink shower curtains with silk trim cloak the bathtub, while shades of pink and blue were chosen to create colourful cupboards and a statement mirror.

"Textiles bring warmth and tactility to the home," said Rogusz-Witkoś.

"Silk, velvet, and plush absorb sound and light, creating a sense of calm," she continued. "Glass, used in selected elements, adds fragility and reflection."

"Together, these materials create a subtle tension between structure and softness, between control and freedom – and that's exactly what gives the space its pulse."

Bespoke COI Studio-designed chests make a statement throughout the dwelling, including a large asymmetric cupboard in the dining space and an architectural oak burr bureau in the kitchen.

Stained in a distinctive shade of blue, the bureau opens out as a bright red desk and features delicate eye-shaped handles to match the decorative shapes in the living space.

Two Suns joins a growing number of standout residential interiors created by emerging interior design studios in Poland, including the work of Dezeen Award-winning Mistovia and eclectic spaces by Dawid Konieczny.

Rogusz-Witkoś reflected on the state of contemporary Polish design, and why she believes it continues to thrive.

"Polish design today feels incredibly honest," she said.

"We've stopped imitating and started articulating our own voice — one that's emotional, imperfect and deeply human."

"There's a sense of transformation in our creative culture," added the designer. "We're rebuilding identity through materiality, memory, and craft. It's not about polish or perfection, but about sensitivity – and that's what makes the current Polish scene so powerful and poetic."

The photography is by Zasoby Studio.

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Design retailer APOC Store has reconfigured its London boutique so it doubles as an informal gallery where emerging creatives can showcase their work amid "incredibly challenging" industry conditions.

APOC Store is a "curated marketplace" that stocks fashion and furniture by young, independent designers, from Harikrishnan's blow-up latex trousers to Ying Chang's cardboard stools.

Founders Ying Suen and Jules Volleberg opened their first permanent shop in London Fields, Hackney, last year, which has now been pared back to provide a minimalist white backdrop for a changing roster of collectible designs.

"We will collaborate with a new artist as and when it feels right to completely redesign the store and produce custom works that will also be for sale," Suen told Dezeen.

"Making a living as an independent designer is still incredibly challenging," he added. "With our store, we wanted to give designers a space where they can stay true to their vision and have full control over their work."

"Some produce one-off pieces each month, so even we never know exactly what will appear."

The debut designer showing at the shop is Barnaby Lewis, a southeast London furniture maker who works predominantly with steel.

Among Lewis's bespoke pieces are a gothic-style desk anchored by spindly legs and a wiry black chair with a fishbone-shaped back.

One of his intricate room dividers, characterised by illustrative cutouts of a sun, moon and stars, also features in the space, finished in the same dark-hued metal as the rest of the furniture.

Suen and Volleberg explained that while the store's exhibition will change twice a year, its understated, gallery-style backdrop will remain in place to allow each of the rotating designers' pieces to speak for themselves.

"If I'm being completely honest, going into the store every day, I got bored of the space staying the same," Suen reflected.

"I'm the same with my home – I move and change things every few months. It didn't take long for the original interior to stop provoking new feelings for me. That boredom pushed us to rethink the store not as a finished design, but as an ongoing framework that could evolve whenever we wanted."

"The gallery series was conceived as a way to treat the store as a living, evolving space rather than a fixed backdrop," she added.

"Each iteration introduces a different world. We think this creates a more engaging interior because visitors aren't just encountering products, but a specific moment in time. It encourages repeat visits and allows the space to remain curious and relevant rather than static."

In recent years, emerging designers have been up against rising costs and red tape when attempting to exhibit across London. But young creatives are finding new and innovative ways to get their work seen.

At last September's London Design Festival (LDF), for example, non-profit collective Design Everything presented a touring exhibition from the back of a van.

The photography is by Studio Adamson, courtesy of APOC.

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Toymaker Mattel has released a Barbie with autism, complete with pink noise-cancelling headphones and a clip-on fidget spinner to reflect her sensory needs.

Mattel developed the doll with the US-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), a non-profit disability rights group that represents people with autism – a form of neurodivergence that can influence your communication and experience of the world.

The first autistic Barbie was designed with a series of visible features in solidarity with autistic children, who make up around one in 100 kids worldwide.

The doll features elbow and wrist articulation to enable stimming – repeated movements or behaviours like hand flapping, which some autistic people use to manage overwhelming feelings or overstimulation.

Mattel also designed the Barbie with an eye gaze subtly shifted to the side to reflect how some people with autism prefer to avoid direct eye contact.

The doll comes with Barbie-pink over-ear headphones, described by the toymaker as a "helpful and fashionable accessory that reduces sensory overload by blocking out background noise".

Finished in the same hue, a clip-on fidget spinner can be attached to the doll's finger to reflect how some autistic people use handheld fidget toys to aid concentration and minimise stress.

The doll carries a pink tablet with a symbol-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system on its screen – a tool that some individuals with autism, including children, use to assist with everyday communication.

Mattel also explained that the doll's outfit was chosen to reflect her autism.

She wears a loose-fitting, short-sleeved dress with a skater skirt to minimise fabric-to-skin contact and flat, sturdy shoes to "promote stability and ease of movement", the toymaker explained.

"The first autistic Barbie doll invites more children to see themselves represented," said Mattel, which officially released the doll yesterday.

As part of the launch, the toymaker is working with autistic people in the UK, including Ellie Middleton, founder of neurodivergent community Unmasked.

"Statistics show that young girls are often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed," said Middleton, who was diagnosed with autism and ADHD at the age of 24.

"To have a powerful symbol like this autistic Barbie doll helps bring the conversation around neurodivergence in women to the forefront, so that autistic girls can feel accepted and seen," she added.

Mattel has strived to make Barbies more inclusive over the last decade, following the release of its 2016 Fashionista line that was created to include more body types and skin types.

Previously, this effort has also seen the company release a hijabi Barbie based on Olympic athlete Ibtihaj Muhammad.

The photography is courtesy of Mattel.

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On the heels of Dezeen's 2026 interiors trend report that forecast "intelligent restraint" in the year ahead, our latest lookbook spotlights eight pared-back living spaces.

With a new year underway, Dezeen spoke to interior designers about their trend predictions for 2026. The creatives were united in their feeling that spaces designed over the next 12 months will resist extravagance for the sake of it.

Among the contributors was Smita Thomas, founder of Bengaluru studio Multitude of Sins, who predicted "a disciplined, intelligent restraint that borrows from maximalism's warmth but strips its excess".

To mark the anticipated shift from much of the decadence that characterised interior design in 2025, we have rounded up eight living spaces from around the world that are characterised by minimalism.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring wooden kitchens, compact bedrooms and homes in former factories.

Plaka House, Greece, by Local Local 

Emerging architecture studio Local Local renovated this neoclassical Athens home with "contemporary and playful finishes" that respect the building's historic character.

The main living area features an almost entirely white, monochromatic palette, interrupted only by red terrazzo flooring and a fireplace reconstructed with green marble from the island of Tinos.

Find out more about Plaka House ›

Home Farm, UK, by John Pawson

Often hailed as one of minimalist architecture and design's leading voices, British creative John Pawson applied his signature pared-back style to this Cotswolds retreat he designed for himself.

The interior of Home Farm is characterised by subtle timber accents, breathable lime plaster and a sparse selection of furniture.

"There's very little stuff," acknowledged Pawson. "I think I'm used to it, but you can see on people's faces when they look around."

Find out more about Home Farm ›

Amami House, Japan, by Sakai Architects

Amami House is an off-grid dwelling on the Japanese island of Amami Ōshima, topped by a large corrugated metal roof.

Local studio Sakai Architects chose a pared-back interior for the home to match the minimal way it functions as an all-solar-powered building with a vegetable garden that doubles as a space for composting food waste.

The living space is characterised by planks of sugi, a type of Japanese cedar, which were dyed using local mud and the extract of the Sharimbai tree – a process used in the region's traditional textile craft.

Find out more about Amani House ›

Heatherhill Beach House, Denmark, by Norm Architects

Copenhagen firm Norm Architects created this "getaway from everyday life" as a wooden holiday home on the Danish coast.

Timber also features heavily in the interior, which includes an ocean-facing living room with wood panelling and smooth brick flooring.

"We opted for integrating traditional materials in a contemporary way," architect Sophie Bak told Dezeen.

Find out more about Heatherhill Beach House ›

Madrid apartment, Spain, by Hanghar

This renovated 1970s Madrid apartment proves that minimalist doesn't always mean monochrome.

The property is home to Eduardo Mediero, founder of local architecture studio Hanghar, who designed his flat with carefully curated bursts of Pirelli rubber flooring, raw MDF and galvanised steel.

Pops of colour add to the pared-back but eclectic feel in the form of a gridded, cage-like yellow stool and glossy, rounded red sofa.

Find out more about this Madrid apartment ›

Kerr, Australia, by SSdH 

Set within an old chocolate factory in Melbourne, Kerr is a split-level, mezzanine-style apartment with a subtle interior design.

Local studio SSdH created an open-plan living and kitchen area dominated by geometric cabinetry made from Australian spotted gum timber, as well as brushed stainless steel and nickel fixtures.

Find out more about Kerr ›

House by the Sea, UK, by Of Architecture

London practice Of Architecture designed this Cornish beachside home for a surfer-and-artist couple to reflect their carefree lifestyle.

The pair were hoping for a "simple, robust and utilitarian" living space, which the studio achieved using a palette of sandy hues and industrial-style pendant lamps.

Find out more about House by the Sea ›

Flat Iron House, UK, by Michaelis Boyd

A flowing spiral staircase connects all five floors of this minimalist Georgian townhouse in west London, reconfigured by architecture studio Michaelis Boyd.

Flat Iron House features a subtle aesthetic, selected to evoke the owners' memories of holidaying in a Moroccan villa and led by neutral tones and gentle textures.

Find out more about Flat Iron House ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring wooden kitchens, compact bedrooms and homes in former factories.

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At the CES tech fair in Las Vegas, Chinese startup Takway has unveiled a cute AI-powered pet-like accessory, designed to grow physically and emotionally alongside its user.

Sweekar is similar in concept to a Tamagotchi, the popular Japanese handheld electronic toy pet that was launched in the mid-1990s.

However, unlike traditional virtual pets, Sweekar has the capacity to physically change over time thanks to a built in experience points (XP)-based system.

Users can prompt their pet to grow from an "egg" to a "baby", a "teenager" and finally an "adult" through feeding, cleaning and talking to it.

Weighing just 89 grams, Sweekar was designed to fit in your pocket. It features a shell-like body in different colours, which breaks after a two-day incubation period to reveal cartoonish eyes.

Users can also buy different outfits for their pet, which was designed to be self-sufficient once it has reached "adulthood", save for charging the device.

Sweekar emits body warmth and gentle breathing rhythms to create "a more lifelike presence and a stronger sense of emotional connection" with its user, according to Takway.

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the pet is fitted with Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)-based behavioural modelling, which is designed to shape each Sweekar's individual personality through interacting with its user.

The pet is supported by a combination of Gemini Flash and Chat GPT-class models, which allow it to continue learning over time and develop context-aware responses and multimodal interaction.

"A built-in long-term emotional memory enables the device to remember user preferences, moods, and past conversations," explained Takway.

"Its language capabilities progress gradually from simple, baby-like sounds to fluent dialogue as the AI matures," added the startup.

"Sweekar is the world's first emotionally intelligent, physically growing AI pet, marking a major milestone in the evolution of AI companionship".

Takway was launched in 2024 with the goal of making AI "feel warm, playful and emotionally present".

The brand unveiled Sweekar at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which concludes today.

Other projects on display at CES this year have ranged from the "world's first ultrasonic chef's knife" to colour-shifting versions of Sabine Marcelis's "doughnut lamps" she created for IKEA.

The images are courtesy of Takway.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2026 takes place in Las Vegas, USA, from 6 to 9 January 2026. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis has created an updated version of the popular Varmblixt lights she designed for IKEA, revamping the company's most-sold lamp with a matte white finish and a smart bulb.

Originally launched in 2022 as part of a 20-piece collection, the bloated, doughnut-shaped lamp quickly sold out and became a viral hit for its playful and tactile form.

Now, IKEA is presenting an updated version of the lamp as part of its first-ever presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, complete with a dimmable, colour-changing bulb.

The updated version also features a matte white glass surface that changes colour from within when users switch between 12 preset colours controlled via a handheld remote.

Engineered for a subtle transition, the colour sequence includes a spectrum of hues, from white light to pulsating amber, gentle pink and lavender.

"My main mission with this light was to create very smooth transitions between colours," Marcelis told Dezeen. "In the original doughnut lamp, external light played on the glossy surface and bounced beautifully off it."

"What makes this new version so different is that the surface finish is matte and white as opposed to glossy and coloured," she added.

"With this version, the matte finish lets the light glow softly from within. It's a very natural, technical evolution of how light can be experienced."

IKEA is also presenting a smart version of a pendant lamp from the Varmblixt collection at CES.

Characterised by a cluster of curved tubes, the pendant "focuses on the nuances of white light" and glows with a spectrum of hues from cool white to candle-like yellow that can also be altered with a handheld remote.

IKEA global range manager David Granath believes that the Varmblixt "doughnut lamp" first took the internet by storm due to it being a "genuine design item".

"I think it went viral because it's a great shape and atmospheric light effect that is easy to like, and people simply started sharing it," Granath told Dezeen.

"It stands out as a genuine design item, at a price many people can afford," he reflected. "Since launch, it's been selling out repeatedly, and today it's our most sold lamp globally across all electronic products."

"In the US alone, one Varmblixt lamp is sold every five minutes."

This is the first time that IKEA has shown at CES, where the furniture giant is presenting a range of affordably priced smart home products.

"CES is where a lot of conversations about the smart home start," Granath explained. "For us, its a chance to show how smart functionality is increasingly becoming part of everyday home furnishing as something that can genuinely improve how products are used and experienced at home."

Other highlights from this year's edition of CES so far include a privacy-focused smartphone and smart Lego bricks.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2026 takes place in Las Vegas, USA from 6 to 9 January 2026. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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The Trump effect will see interior designers resolve to steer clear of excess in 2026 but it won't trigger a trend for stark minimalism, industry figures predict.

With a new year underway, Dezeen spoke to interior designers about their trend predictions for 2026.

The creatives were united in forecasting interiors that resist extravagance for the sake of it.

No "simple reactionary return to minimalism"

"It feels clear that 2025 marked a shift from interiors designed to deliver a 'wow' effect to spaces that hold and support human time," reflected Tokyo architect Keiji Ashizawa.

"Memorable interiors are not necessarily those with the strongest statements, but often the ones where people naturally want to stay longer," he added.

Benni Allan, founder of London architecture studio EBBA, agreed that the mood of interior design this year will be "quietly expressive – spaces that feel calm, tactile and deeply personal".

The designers considered whether US president Donald Trump's obsession with decadence, especially seen in the ongoing construction of a neoclassical ballroom at the White House, might influence attitudes towards less maximalist interiors in 2026.

"I don't see it as a simple reactionary return to minimalism," said Ashizawa.

"Rather than reducing decoration as an ideology, there will be a more careful attitude towards what is truly worth keeping," he continued. "This may result in calmer, more restrained spaces, but as a sign of maturity rather than a stylistic position."

"The counter-movement won't be a pure 'minimalist manifesto'," agreed Smita Thomas, founder of Bengaluru studio Multitude of Sins. "It'll be a disciplined, intelligent restraint that borrows from maximalism's warmth but strips its excess."

"We expect a form of conscious reduction, spaces that are quieter, but not empty; restrained, yet layered," offered Milan-based Dimore Studio.

"Decoration does not disappear, but becomes internalised and refined," added the studio, which was crowned interior designer of the year at November's Dezeen Awards.

"The reaction is not towards stark minimalism, but towards quiet authenticity and personal narrative – curated calm over superficial opulence," said Hong Kong practitioner Andre Fu.

This sentiment was echoed by Andreas Christodoulou, founder of emerging London studio House of Dré.

"My reaction to Trump's renovations is just an empty feeling inside," he reflected.

"I would say that the design antidote to Trump is not to be too reactive. Take a step back and a deep breath and get to work making something beautiful," added Christodoulou. "There was beautiful design before Trump and there will be beautiful design after him."

"One of the strengths of the creative world today is the freedom to define our own narratives," agreed London designer Tola Ojuolape.

Considering which materials they believe will dominate in 2026, the creatives also anticipate an emphasis on less processed, more honest materials that prioritise what Allan defined as "meaning and longevity".

The designers cited dark woods, aged metals, textured stones and lime renders among the finishes they expect to use and see in projects completed over the next year.

Ojuolape and Christodoulou also predicted that chrome, as a "cooler metal", will take centre stage.

"2026 has to be the year where chrome officially replaces brass in the metal accent department," said the House of Dré founder.

Claire Sá, director of London and Lisbon firm De Rosee Sa, expects surfaces with patina will continue to be celebrated rather than concealed.

"Keep materials in their truest form, without over-treating them and let them evolve naturally," she advised.

Los Angeles designer Kelly Wearstler anticipates "palettes that feel slightly off-kilter – smoked pastels, mineral tones, and one saturated 'odd' note to keep the room alive".

"Design for the senses, not just the screen"

The undeniable influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on creativity also emerged as a central theme.

"As the lines between the digital and physical continue to blur, I expect interior design that prioritises individuality, intention, local context and experience," said Ojuolape.

"In a world dominated by speed and overstimulation, interiors must become places of concentration, intimacy, and emotional grounding," said Dimore Studio.

Thomas summarised 2026 as the "battle of machines versus meaning".

"I felt 2025 unlocked big, almost otherworldly design moves thanks to AI," she considered. "It's a new world of imagination served on a platter."

"AI has been a huge driver of efficiency in my studio," agreed Wearstler.

Despite her positive outlook on the technology, Thomas also acknowledged the collective need for harnessing AI to produce "simple, honest and purpose-driven spaces that we can actually live in".

"Design for the senses, not just the screen," echoed Fu. "Last year showed a shift from spectacle to design as a grounding force, focusing on sensory wellbeing and seamless, invisible technology."

"It's never been easier to combine old and new"

Louis Hagen Hall, founder of emerging London practice Studio Hagen Hall, urged interior designers to use 2026 to consider the "lifecycle" of their projects, selecting materials, fittings and pieces that last and can eventually be recycled.

"We're well past the luxury of choosing finishes purely for aesthetics and then changing minds (all the while creating more waste) a season later," he warned.

"Importantly, clients need to be brought on this journey with them."

On the ever-growing urgency of sustainability, Christodoulou expressed approval "that for the most part the culture in the UK and Europe has moved away from a very mid-century aesthetic of everything being space age and therefore brand new".

"It's never been easier to combine old and new," he continued. "Where we can, we have to try and work more with what we have, and where we can't use the old, we should be employing more sustainable materials and practices."

Additionally, designers called for what Ojuolape described as a "growing responsibility to design with a global perspective" as the world becomes not only more interconnected but also more complex.

"Next year should be about curating spaces that feel intuitive, layered and culturally inspired, without being literal or pastiche," mused Amber Pan and Michelle Song, co-founders of London-based Studio ŪMA.

"We feel the shift [away from maximalism] will be slightly more nuanced than a pivot to minimalism, but do feel that 2026 will favour more thoughtful layering, blending eastern sensibilities with western modernity to create spaces that feel both curated and alive," they added.

"Be a great listener," Wearstler urged practitioners.

"If you're designing a bathroom, don't study bathrooms," she continued. "Look at sculpture, jewellery, industrial design, even vintage ceramics. When your references come from those worlds, you almost can't help but land somewhere more original and entirely your own."

Similarly to last year, plenty of interior designers are questioning the very nature of their roles in a fragile world, and exploring how creativity can respond to mounting environmental issues.

Finnish creative Joanna Laajisto had the following to say.

"I have taken a significant transformation in my work in response to the climate crisis, and I am reimagining my process to prioritise existing structures and reclaimed resources."

"This shift also demands a new aesthetic language," continued the designer. "Although I feel that this is a necessary approach considering the construction industry is responsible for 35 per cent of global carbon emissions."

"Unfortunately, I am not seeing this reflected in the major interior design trends – yet."

The main image is by Andrea Ferrari and shows an apartment inside the Latitude 43 building in Saint Tropez, France, designed by Dimore Studio.

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Electronics brand LG has unveiled CLOiD, an AI-powered home robot that takes care of household chores like cooking and laundry, at the CES tech fair in Las Vegas.

Debuted on stage as part of the company's keynote presentation, the humanoid robot uses artificial intelligence (AI) to learn users' habits and integrates with LG's smart home appliances to alleviate their daily tasks.

"The LG CLOiD home robot is designed to naturally engage with and understand the humans it serves, providing an optimised level of household help," said Steve Baek, president of home appliance solutions at LG.

The ultimate aim, according to Baek, is "making housework a thing of the past" to create a "zero labour home".

CLOiD is characterised by a curved head unit that functions as the robot's "brain" and is animated by a pair of cartoon-like eyes.

The unit is fitted with a speaker, cameras, sensors and a voice-based generative AI, allowing the robot to communicate with humans through spoken language and facial expressions.

CLOiD's head is connected to a torso with adjustable height and articulated arms designed with seven degrees of freedom, which LG claims can match "the mobility of a human arm".

"The shoulder, elbow and wrist allow forward, backward, rotational and lateral motion, while each hand includes five independently actuated fingers for fine manipulation," said the electronics brand.

"This configuration allows LG CLOiD to handle a wide range of household objects and operate in kitchens, laundry rooms and living areas."

The robot also features a wheeled base with autonomous driving technology, with a low centre of gravity to reduce the risk of tipping.

As part of LG's presentation at CES, a CLOiD prototype rolled onto the stage and demonstrated its ability to load laundry into a washing machine. So far, no details have been revealed about when the robot will make it into actual homes.

LG is no stranger to CES, having previously used the platform to launch products including a 3-in-1 "lifestyle projector" that also functions as a speaker and lamp, as well as a television with a transparent screen.

Other major launches from this year's edition of the tech fair include a privacy-focussed smartphone, a minimalist Samsung speaker designed by Erwan Bouroullec and smart Lego bricks.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2026 takes place in Las Vegas, USA from 6 to 9 January 2026. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.

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From a cognac bottle by rapper 50 Cent to supermarket brand Aldi's puffer jacket shaped like a giant baked potato, the latest instalment of our 2025 review explores collaborations from the last 12 months that we definitely didn't see coming.

Cognac bottle by 50 Cent for Lalique 

Rapper 50 Cent created a blown and pinched glass cognac bottle for glassware brand Lalique, designed to be a "piece of art".

Engraved with lion heads and topped with a pineapple-esque stopper, the bottle was made to raise funds for the rapper's G-Unit Foundation.

"This is more than a cognac," 50 Cent said. "It's a manifesto, a bridge between French heritage, the American dream, and my strong belief in conscious capitalism".

Find out more about the cognac bottle collaboration ›

Artistry in Oak by Jeanne Gang for Glenlivet Distillery

Architect Jeanne Gang joined forces with Glenlivet Distillery to create a bottle for the world's oldest whisky.

Gang was informed by the protective nature of trees when designing the bottle, which is characterised by four interlocking pieces of oak sculpted like curved branches.

Find out more about the Artistry in Oak collaboration ›

iPhone pocket by Issey Miyake and Apple

Fashion brand Issey Miyake teamed up with Apple to launch the iPhone Pocket.

The product is a wearable smartphone carrier that stretches, much like Issey Miyake's distinctive pleated clothing, to hold any iPhone.

Find out more about the iPhone Pocket collaboration ›

The Introvert Chair by Robbie Williams for Moooi

Musician Robbie Williams turned his hand to furniture design with The Introvert Chair, a gently curving seat that was informed by Williams's experience with social anxiety.

Wrapped in a tactile blend of virgin wool, alpaca and cotton, the armchair was designed for Dutch brand Moooi and marks the singer-songwriter's debut in the furniture sphere.

Find out more about The Introvert Chair collaboration ›

Mind 001 and Mind 002 trainers by Nike and the Mind Science Department

The Mind 001 and Mind 002 trainers are sportswear brand Nike's "first neuroscience-based footwear".

Designed in collaboration with the brand's in-house Mind Science Department, the shoes were engineered based on athlete brain and body imaging scans.

Find out more about the trainer collaboration ›

Jacket Potato Jacket by Aldi and Agro Studio

Described by supermarket chain Aldi as "comfort food chic", this limited-edition jacket was designed in collaboration with fashion brand Agro Studio to mimic an oversized baked potato.

The puffer jacket features a mottled brown exterior and a fluffy white fleece lining, and comes with a silver rain cover to create the impression of tinfoil. It was launched to mark the start of what Aldi calls "jacket potato season".

Find out more about the Jacket Potato Jacket collaboration ›

Still G.I.N. bottle by Ini Archibong for Gin & Juice

Designer Ini Archibong created a dimpled-glass gin bottle for musicians Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg's spirits company Gin & Juice, following the brand's launch last year.

Nineties West Coast hip-hop culture and the "old world elegance" of Murano, Italy, informed the design of the bottle.

Find out more about the Still G.I.N bottle collaboration ›

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Colour specialist Pantone has announced Cloud Dancer as its 2026 colour of the year – an understated, greyish white hue chosen to signify a yearning for "a future free from toxicity and excess".

Pantone 11-4201 Cloud Dancer was described by the Pantone Colour Institute as similar to a blank canvas.

"Cloud Dancer is a lofty white that reads like a breath of fresh air," said Pantone Colour Institute vice president Laurie Pressman.

"It speaks of our desire to live in a world that's balanced, kind, and deeply human," she told Dezeen.

The institute is Pantone's trend forecasting consultancy. Since 1999, the team has selected an existing Pantone colour each year that it feels best represents both the mood of the current moment and the year ahead.

Pressman explained that the 2026 colour of the year was chosen as a collective reaction against feeling "overcommitted and overstimulated in our 24/7 hustle culture".

"Cloud Dancer expresses our aspiration for a future free from toxicity and excess," she continued.

The vice president also said that the colour's balance of both warm and cool undertones gives it a "natural and human quality".

"Uncertain of what the future holds, underpinned by the advancements of AI, we are trying to find the place where we belong," she said.

"Yearning for authentic human connections and real-life experiences, we want to share things without filters or spectacle, to rediscover the value of moments and find joy in life's simple pleasures."

The institute conducts ongoing research throughout the year to determine the annual hue, spanning art, fashion, film and design, as well as technology, upcoming sporting events and shifting socio-economic conditions.

"We take the Pantone Colour of the Year selection process very seriously," stressed Pressman. "The colour we select is not an arbitrary decision."

The vice president considered how the consumer landscape has changed since 1999, and weighed up whether an increasingly politicised global stage has affected how the annual colour is selected.

"The world getting more politically charged and polarised is one more manifestation of what people are looking for," she said. "But we would not say it makes our selection process harder – it is just one more thing to consider."

Cloud Dancer was chosen as a subtle transition from last year's Mocha Mousse – a chocolatey brown hue selected to reflect the importance of "little treat culture".

Interiors expert Michelle Ogundehin shared an opinion piece on the 2025 choice, declaring Mocha Mousse "a classic exemplar of enshittification".

The images are courtesy of Pantone.

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From restaurant Cracker Barrel's failed rebrand to the barely-noticeable tweaks to retailers Amazon and Walmart, our Review of 2025 continues with Dezeen's top 10 rebrands from the last year.

Walmart

American hypermarket chain Walmart unveiled one of 2025's most subtle redesigns, with a largely unchanged brand identity and logo.

Walmart said that it updated its "spark" motif to be slightly fuller to reflect the chain's current state as a "people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer".

Find out more about the Walmart rebrand ›

Bentley

British automaker Bentley made a more substantial update to its brand with the "biggest change" to its familiar Winged B emblem in its 100-year history.

The car brand simplified the emblem's wings and stylised them with a diamond pattern. Bentley also removed the feathers below the central B for the first time since the logo was designed by illustrator F Gordon Crosby in 1919.

The project marked only the fourth rebrand since Bentley was founded.

Find out more about the Bentley rebrand ›

Amazon

Online retailer Amazon unveiled a new logo for the first time in 20 years as part of a collaboration between design agency Koto and the retailer's in-house creative team Amazon XCM.

The project included an understated tweak to Amazon's recognisable smile logo, which meant expanding the shaft and point of the logo's arrow and rendering it in a more vibrant orange hue.

"Our update puts greater emphasis not on the arrow, but on a deeper and more emphatic smile, reflecting Amazon's mission to delight customers and make their lives easier," said Koto.

Find out more about the Amazon rebrand ›

Ribena

"Plumper and juicier" letterforms were the goal of this rebrand, completed for British squash brand Ribena.

Design consultancy Elmwood worked with typographer Luke Ritchie to preserve the nostalgic familiarity of Ribena, while dialling up its most recognisable qualities. For example, the brand's wordmark is now rendered in attention-grabbing red, rather than blackcurrant purple.

Find out more about the Ribena rebrand ›

Google

Tech giant Google was among the brands that quietly updated their look this year, debuting a soft-focus version of its distinctive G icon.

First introduced by the company in 2015, the icon received a subtle redesign. The motif's formerly solid blocks of red, yellow, green and blue were transformed into a smooth gradient.

The new icon quickly sparked comparisons with the gradient logo of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Gemini, unveiled in 2024 with a design by Strohl.

Find out more about the Google rebrand ›

Lay's

The identity of American crisp brand Lay's was recently updated by the in-house design team of the brand's parent company, PepsiCo.

The team sought to honour "real, farm-grown potatoes" with the new logo, which features a sun-like circle emblazoned with a red ribbon and the word Lay's, but finished in flatter shapes than its predecessor.

Find out more about the Lay's rebrand ›

Cracker Barrell

American restaurant chain Cracker Barrell caused a stir when it attempted to update its 1970s logo with a minimalist redesign that did not include an illustration of Uncle Herschel, the eatery's beloved mascot.

After intense online backlash, including from US president Donald Trump, the chain scrapped the new logo.

"We said we would listen, and we have," said Cracker Barrel in the aftermath. "Our new logo is going away and our 'old timer' will remain."

Find out more about the Cracker Barrell rebrand ›

Austin logo

Global design agency Pentagram looked to the "natural beauty" of Austin, Texas, to create a logo for the American city.

Characterised by gently curving blue and green arches informed by the surrounding landscape, the motif is a striking departure from the city's previous logo, which was based on a coat-of-arms design submitted for a flag competition in 1916.

Find out more about the Austin logo rebrand ›

Microsoft

Fluid curves and zingy gradients define the updated logos for Microsoft's Office applications, which were redesigned for the first time since 2018.

Microsoft updated its 10 core Office icons for everyday applications, ranging from email to Word and PowerPoint.

Jon Friedman, corporate vice president of design and research for Microsoft 365, said that the "small but significant" rebrand demonstrates "how AI is shifting the discipline of design and the nature of product development".

Find out more about the Microsoft rebrand ›

AS Roma

Italian football club AS Roma unveiled a new logo on the eve of its 98th anniversary.

The reworked logo hearkens back to the club's original crest from 1927, but reintroduces the intertwined ASR monogram, which was abandoned during a controversial rebrand in 2013.

AS Roma owners Dan and Ryan Friedkin called the motif "a tribute to Roma's identity".

"It reflects our belief that the symbols of a club matter, and that honouring our roots is essential to building our future," they said.

Find out more about the AS Roma rebrand › 

The post The top rebrands of 2025 appeared first on Dezeen.

To mark the start of the festive period, design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield has rounded up six design products with a subtle Christmas feel, from a wreath made from dead sunflowers to algae-based stickers.

Wreaths by Sage

Southeast London florist Sage has created a pair of wreaths, handcrafted in its Peckham studio.

The first is wrapped in snowy white ribbed cloth in homage to the late Japanese designer Issey Miyake's trademark pleated garments and embellished with helichrysum and dried strelitzia leaves.

The second wreath is a playful patchwork of tartan that nods to the deconstructed and sculptural designs of fashion house Comme des Garçons. Adorned with dried sunflower heads, the decoration makes use of detritus that could've easily been thrown away.

Made to last for many Decembers to come, Sage's wreaths capture a distinctly festive feel while eschewing tired Christmas cliches.

Serving spoons by Gohar World

New York sister duo Gohar World chose cultivated mother-of-pearl to create these curvaceous serving spoons, shaped like bobbing swans.

The hand-carved cutlery was subtly engraved with feather-like illustrations that glint when the light touches them.

The spoons form part of the brand's Table VIII Holiday Collection, complete with ribbon-laden stockings and gleaming gold aprons.

Aalto Bubble Vase by Iittala

Looking ahead to 2026, Finnish glassware brand Iittala will mark 90 years of the organically shaped Aalto Vase, first created by seminal architect Alvar Aalto.

A traditional glassblowing technique was used to capture the delicate bubbles suspended within the glass of the Aalto Bubble Vase, which Iittala has launched for the occasion.

The result is a design classic that looks as if it has been covered by a cool layer of frost.

La Coupole by Fabio Novembre for Kartell

Kartell has just served up La Coupole, a playful panettone dish created for the classic Christmas fruitcake.

Italian designer Fabio Novembre drew on Italy's many urban domes when creating the oversized dishes, which come in translucent hues ranging from amber and cola to light blue and green.

La Coupole features in Kartell's 2025 Holiday Collection, alongside pieces by designers including Patricia Urquiola and a reissued lamp by the late Joe Colombo.

Ace stickers by Other Matter and Little Troop

These graphic stickers are simple, colourful shapes that could be used to create festive decorations on cards or in windows.

The stickers were made from algae-based film developed by Australian studio Other Matter and American practice Little Troop, who designed the packs as a smaller version of the vinyl-free and reusable decals that they made for a window display at Ace Hotel Sydney.

The collaboration is an understated antidote to the abundance of plastic that plagues much of December.

Rocc by Michael Anastassiades for Alessi

Italian brand Alessi is known for its sleek homeware, a trademark that Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades has continued with his Rocc collection of candles and diffusers.

Formed from stainless steel orbs, the products offer a shiny but pared-back alternative to kitschy Christmas candles that don't compromise on glint thanks to their metallic surfaces.

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EBBA Architects founder Benni Allan has renovated his own London apartment in a former tea factory, which features walls, floors, furniture and even speakers crafted from Douglas fir.

Located on the top floor of a canalside plot in east London, Living with Timber is the self-designed home of Allan, who runs the nearby studio EBBA.

The architect clad the interior with Douglas fir throughout as a love letter to the material.

"Timber is adaptable, warm and tactile," Allan told Dezeen. "The versatility and sense of craft the material brings is something that isn't appreciated enough. This project became a kind of essay on how to live with wood, testing how far we could take a single material in different applications."

Allan reconfigured the layout of the loft apartment, which was first turned into flats in the 1980s, to create an open-plan living space and kitchen.

This involved the placement of floor-to-ceiling Douglas fir joinery. Running along the length of one wall, smooth cabinetry conceals all of the kitchen appliances behind slim doors.

"The joinery also resolves the awkward geometry of the original flanking wall that was at a harsh angle," explained Allan.

"The renovation was really about trying to open up as much as possible to get the most amount of volume, while inserting carefully considered interventions," he added.

This also meant raising all of the apartment's door frames to full height.

A low-slung, chunky timber armchair and stacked wooden coffee table characterise the living space, both designed by EBBA.

Framing the furniture, a pair of bespoke Douglas fir speakers was created in collaboration with hi-fi start-up Friendly Pressure and fabricator Our Department.

One is suspended from the ceiling on a thin silver fixture, while the other is perched on a brutalist-style metal stand by emerging designer Olivia Bossy.

Mahogany parquet flooring features throughout the apartment, salvaged from a previous EBBA project.

Concealed behind a pocket door, Allan's bedroom was finished in the same sandy hues as the main living space. A tall timber chair sits to the left of the door, giving the impression of a monolithic sculpture.

A separate study was constructed for Allan's ongoing projects, featuring various wooden offcuts and ephemera spread across a pared-back timber desk.

Characterised by micro-cement flooring and a chubby stainless-steel toilet, the bathroom offers a subtle departure from the rest of the all-timber interior.

"I think timber connects us to a slower, more grounded way of living," Allan said.

"It's not just about the overall aesthetic, it's about how a space makes you feel, and timber is really great at naturally bringing warmth and balance to a space."

"There's a timelessness in how it ages and changes with you," he added. "It’s also about tactility, I think people are drawn to materials that feel alive and imperfect."

Established in 2016, EBBA has an eclectic portfolio of projects across London, ranging from a residential extension formed from basalt blocks to an atmospheric listening bar designed in collaboration with Charlotte Taylor and a Cubitts glasses store in a former pie and mash shop.

The photography is by Felix Speller.

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Ailing design education is leaving graduates unprepared for the realities of industry and saddled with debt, established designers have warned as part of our Performance Review series.

"Design education is fucked," said designer Andu Masebo, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2021 with a master's in Design Products.

"It's so bad, I don't know if it should be fixed," he told Dezeen. "I think we should tear it down and refashion it into a completely new model. From my experience, all of it but one tutor was a nightmare."

"The quality of design education is lower than it was 25 years ago," echoed Pearson Lloyd co-founder Tom Lloyd. "And it's more expensive."

For a long time, when applying to design schools, students have anticipated their courses as crucial stepping stones to bagging top industry jobs.

But speaking to Dezeen for our ongoing Performance Review series, multiple top designers agreed that they have noticed a distinctive decline in the quality of design education in recent years – an alarming trend that jars with an increasingly competitive job market.

"Too many design courses"

"I do think we're in an age now where students can't just go and get a degree and walk into a job," said Jo Barnard, who founded her design agency Morrama at age 24.

Part of the reason for this, said Barnard, is a lack of connection between university courses and the creative working world.

"I think that there should be a closer relationship between design and business at an educational level," she explained. "So that people can understand the implications of what it is that they're creating from a business perspective."

"There are too many design courses, and there are too many courses that don't have a really strong connection with industry," continued Barnard.

"There are students doing three years of a design course, but at no point do they even get a week of work experience. For me, that feels so wrong."

"It should be a requirement that you can't graduate without some form of experience in the industry," she added. "Without that experience, it's really hard to get a job."

Masebo suggested that the diminishing quality of design education is also down to the way "academia has been monetised".

"What it has done is turned design education into something that only makes sense if it pays back," he said.

"So you kind of step into it thinking like, well, I'm doing this so I can get a job, and it's not really what you should be doing when you go to design school," continued Masebo.

"In my opinion, you don't do a master's to build a network or learn skills," he added. "You go to make sense of the things that have gone into your melting pot before you got to the master's. Like, what is my cultural heritage? Who are my friends? How do I think? What excites me?"

"Teachers aren't getting paid properly"

Barnard also suggested that many design courses don't have enough of a sustainability focus – something she observed after recently advertising for a junior role and receiving more than 200 applications.

"Obviously, we're going to receive more applications as the business grows in reputation, but that still feels crazy to me, and the quality was quite high, which means that there's a lot of people out there who just don't have work," she said.

"I noticed that a lot of the applications made no or very little reference to sustainability, despite the fact that Morrama positions itself as a company that prioritises it quite highly."

"Which for me suggests that students are not receiving the education that gives them any foundation to say they have any knowledge in this area," she continued. "I haven't seen as much shift at an educational level as I would have expected over the last 10 years."

Students are often told that further study will build them a network of contacts that can lead to employment. But Masebo noted that it is not a guarantee.

"I don't know if I believe in that so much," considered Masebo, who said his network was formed from meeting people from diverse creative disciplines in social settings.

"There's very little support from the industry or from designers who have had success where they explain things like, 'this is how this thing works, meet this person, here's a manufacturer you could work with'. There's very little of that," he added.

Barnard and Masebo agreed that university staff aren't getting the support they need, either.

"The money side of it is the biggest problem," said Masebo. "You've got these padded institutions where most of the people who work for them aren't teachers."

"The best people on my course were the most underfunded and the most stretched," he continued. "Teachers aren't getting paid properly and have too many students."

"There are courses out there where there's not even live briefs set by actual businesses," said Barnard. "So it's just teachers who may or may not have, at some point, actually practised design themselves, tutoring students on what they think is the best thing for them to be doing."

"You can kind of teach yourself"

The designers acknowledged that in 2025, it is necessary to question the very purpose of design education and potentially consider alternative routes.

"From a skills perspective, you can kind of teach yourself these days. There are so many courses out there for free, and so much stuff on YouTube that you could learn how to use," said Barnard.

"You can get yourself around the Adobe Suite, KeyShop, Blender – whatever it might be. You don't need to go to university to learn the actual tools. And you could read a bunch of books. But without that industry experience, it's really hard to get a job."

"I think that people who are 18 and looking to go into design need to know when a course is not worth doing and spending that fortune on."

The top photo is by Good Free Photos via Unsplash.

Performance Review

This article is part of Dezeen's Performance Review series interrogating the problems plaguing architecture and design, from difficult working conditions to ethical dilemmas.

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It's rapidly cooling down across the northern hemisphere. To mark the seasonal shift, we've collected a lookbook of eight fireplaces installed in living spaces from Lithuania to Chile.

Whether boxy or more conical, these fireplaces are united by their striking appearances and ability to anchor and warm living spaces as winter begins.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring double-height living rooms, homes in former factories and Halloweeny bedrooms.

The Cornwall Retreat, UK, by De Rosee Sa 

Architecture studio De Rosee Sa designed this coastal house in Cornwall with barn-like volumes, completed on a cliff edge for a family of surfers.

The sandy-hued living space is characterised by a central Portland stone fireplace flanked by papery sconce lights. Oak carpentry and timber ceiling beams add to the peaceful colour palette.

Find out more about The Cornwall Retreat ›

Casa Malalcahuello, Chile, by Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados

Perched on a Chilean mountainside, Casa Malalcahuello is a home built from two gabled volumes of CNC-cut wood.

Guillermo Acuña Arquitectos Asociados partially clad a conical fireplace with stones in the living space, forming a dramatic chimney that reaches the height of the roof in one of the volumes.

Find out more about Casa Malalcahuello ›

Queen's Park House, UK, by Daytrip

Queen's Park House is a double-fronted Edwardian property in northwest London, renovated and extended by architecture studio Daytrip.

The studio topped a geometric glass box with a chunky chimney flue to create a statement fireplace, partially camouflaged to disappear into the surrounding white walls. A thick shelf was built on one side of the structure to accommodate a pile of logs.

Find out more about Queen's Park House ›

Hygge Studio, Brazil, by Melina Romano

Designer Melina Romano filled this São Paulo apartment with gentle terracotta flooring and tan brick walls, which are offset by a floating black fireplace suspended from the ceiling.

The living space includes a screen made of decorative blocks, called a cobogó, chosen to be interpreted as an artwork as well as a room divider.

Find out more about Hygge Studio ›

El Aguacate, Mexico, by Práctica Arquitectura

Affectionately named El Aguacate, or "the avocado", this house in northern Mexico by Práctica Arquitectura is made almost entirely out of concrete.

The interior is also defined by this material, including the open-plan living and dining area. Here, a monolithic concrete fireplace blends in with the rest of the walls.

Find out more about El Aguacate ›

House and the River, Lithuania, by After Party

A boulder sits at the base of the black fireplace that is wedged into a gold alcove at House and the River, a creekside home on the outskirts of Panevėžys, Lithuania.

Vilnius-based studio After Party designed the dwelling to be characterful throughout, with a pink kitchen, a planted roof and a terrace that slices through the building.

Find out more about House and the River ›

The Yellow House in the Apple Garden, Norway, by Familien Kvistad

Design duo Familien Kvistad clad this blocky mustard-yellow fireplace in fluted Kaufmann tiles, creating a sculptural accent in the living space of this renovated house in Oslo, Norway.

The statement feature complements the rest of the interior, complete with solid ash joinery and lightly speckled terrazzo surfaces.

Find out more about The Yellow House in the Apple Garden ›

The Garden House, USA, by Olson Kundig and ATRA

This Olson Kundig-designed home in West Hollywood was outfitted by furniture brand ATRA using pieces by Mexico-based artists and designers.

A large bronze fireplace anchors the living space, which features a greeny-brown velvet sofa and a striking stone coffee table.

Find out more about The Garden House ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring double-height living rooms, homes in former factories and Halloweeny bedrooms.

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A rich history of storytelling and self-sufficient island living have fostered an exciting contemporary design scene in Ireland, Irish Design Week head Tom Watts tells Dezeen in this interview.

Launched in 2022 and taking place for the fourth time this week, Irish Design Week is in its infancy. Yet the community that led to the country-wide event's inception has been brewing for years, explained the head of the festival.

"It has existed for decades in different iterations," said Watts, who is also head of design for Design & Crafts Council Ireland.

"It's existed through different people with different approaches and initiatives down through the years, but this [edition] is the first time that it has been government-funded and backed," he added.

"There's just something in the Irish psyche"

Much has been said in recent times about the high quality of Irish literature and performing arts. But the distinctive spirit of Irish creativity is alive and well in the design scene too, explained Watts.

"Ireland is absolutely having a moment," he said. "I think there's just something in the Irish psyche linked to a weird way of thinking about things. We go at things with a storytelling approach."

"Ireland is actually quite a small place," he continued. "We're the population of Greater Manchester. And that can be an amazing thing, because everybody tends to be connected to everyone else."

Considering more characteristics of the contemporary Irish design scene, Watts argued that many of Ireland's creatives make work informed by an innate understanding of circular principles, thanks to living on an island.

"Ireland is at a huge advantage with regard to circular design," considered Watts. "Because we were such a small agricultural economy, most people have a living memory of what a circular economy was."

"A lot of people came from a rural background and agricultural communities where it was not intensive agriculture, it was small farming. There was a real element of self-sufficiency in Ireland, maybe 50 years ago, and that's why I think a lot of designers can understand circular design just as something that makes total sense," he continued.

"It's the way we were – it was make do and mend, you know, don't throw that away because you'll need it one day."

Watts emphasised that Ireland's history is deeply woven into its present-day design scene, displayed at an exhibition celebrating six decades of Kilkenny Design Workshops during Irish Design Week.

"Irish people are very open to new ideas"

Over 130 artefacts are on display in the stables at Butler Gallery near Kilkenny Castle, southeast Ireland, where the Design Workshops were founded in 1963 and where Design & Crafts Council Ireland is headquartered today.

The Design Workshops were founded after the Irish government commissioned the Scandinavian Report – an investigation that highlighted the gap between the country's creative potential and its economic output.

"The report told us that we really had to get our act together," reflected Watts. "Irish people are very open to new ideas and open to learning from other people."

Watts noted that the Irish knack for craft is no clearer than in the work of one of Northern Ireland's most famous creative exports – Jonathan Anderson, former Loewe creative director and current creative director of Dior.

While at Loewe, Anderson established the Loewe Craft Prize, created to revive and spotlight often-forgotten craft practices.

"He is a wonderful example of a storyteller," said Watts, who also referenced fashion designers Róisín Pearce and Michael Stewart as exciting new names in the industry.

"When Jonathan went to Dior, he went deep into the archives to explore its history, and then took his own Irish cultural wellspring and laid that over the history."

"A quote that I love from him is 'decode to recode'."

Watts also noted the work of emerging graphic designer Oscar Torrans, who created the visual identity for this year's design week.

Torrans "takes huge inspiration from Irish mythology and history, but is also right at the forefront of what's happening with contemporary design", said Watts.

"It's a kind of walking backwards into the future."

"I think storytelling is something that is emerging as an art form," considered Watts. "If there's anyone who can do it, it's the Irish. It's just in our DNA."

The images are courtesy of Irish Design Week.

Irish Design Week 2025 takes place from 17 to 21 November 2025 at various locations across Ireland. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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French flooring brand Tarkett has announced that its linoleum is now carbon-negative across all stages of its life cycle, from sourcing raw materials to end-of-life deconstruction and recycling.

The brand said although the make up of the material has not been changed, it is now the "world's first" carbon-negative linoleum across the full product life cycle due to the creation of a closed loop system.

It has now implemented a closed-loop system that has three key stages. First it manufactures linoleum using materials that absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, as well as 100 per cent recirculated industrial water and 100 per cent renewable electricity at its factory in Narni, Italy.

Tarkett has been creating linoleum using the same recipe since 1898 – a mix of 97 per cent natural and renewable materials including cork, wood powder, pine rosin and linseed oil. The remaining three per cent is made up of colour pigments and surface protection.

Next, the brand installs the linoleum, ensuring that any scraps or offcuts are returned to Tarkett and used to make additional flooring.

Finally, at the end of the material's expected 30-year lifespan, Tarkett collects post-consumer linoleum and returns it to the brand's factory in Narni, where it is broken down and used to make new flooring.

"Within our current 'take, make, waste' economy, materials generally move in one direction, extracted from finite resources, transformed into products and discarded once they are no longer needed," said Tarkett vice president Thomas Leneveu.

"The solution to this issue is a closed-loop system, where materials are habitually returned at the end of their useful life to be broken down, recycled and turned into new materials in an endless closed-loop system," he told Dezeen.

Leneveu said that Tarkett calculates and externally verifies its flooring's "circular carbon footprint" to keep track of the carbon it generates and saves.

The vice president said that one of the key challenges is incentivising consumers to return flooring to Tarkett at the end of its life, while it is still "so much cheaper and easier" to send materials to landfill.

"Regulation can play a key role in helping to make circularity the default option," considered Leneveu, who encouraged manufacturers to work together to ensure that closed-loop systems are as accessible as possible.

Designers are constantly finding new ways to rethink linoleum, from furniture by design school graduates to tiles that can be remodelled "like playdough".

The images are courtesy of Tarkett.

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Swiss architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron has designed bubbly glass trophies for the Art Basel Awards that aim to capture the shape of breath in glass.

The amorphous trophies will be presented to the gold winners of the inaugural Art Basel Awards, taking place in Miami Beach, Florida, in December as part of Miami art week.

To honour the recipients, Herzog & de Meuron wanted to create unique glass objects that look like breath suspended in mid-air. Each of the clear glass trophies was hand-blown, so that no two are the same.

"Each time you breathe, it gives a different shape, like every thought we have is different," said studio co-founder Jacques Herzog.

"I love that glass, like clouds, can always be interpreted differently," he added. "Sometimes you see figures, sometimes you don't. That endless transformation reflects human creativity."

Herzog explained that the studio experimented with gold and smoke traces, but ultimately settled on the "pure expression" of clear glass.

"That's the real beauty of it," said the architect. "It's something everyone can recognise in their own way."

Herzog worked with Swiss artisan and Glassworks founder Matteo Gonet to create the trophies, beginning with simple sketches on the floor of Gonet's studio.

The preliminary drawings featured intertwining forms referencing smoke or clouds, which eventually became solid glass objects.

"When I was approached about designing the award, at first I thought it was a very unlikely proposal," said Herzog.

"But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed interesting because it's so different from anything that's ever been done for an award," he added.

"Because it's Art Basel, the award should be very special. The more I thought about it, the more I felt motivated and excited."

International art fair Art Basel launched its dedicated awards programme in June to recognise achievements across the creative spectrum.

Herzog & de Meuron has completed architecture projects all over the world, most recently completing a "quasi-invisible" renovation of Marcel Breuer's brutalist 945 Madison Avenue in New York for auction house Sotheby's.

Founded in 1978 by Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the studio also designs furniture and earlier this month used its stools and floor lamps to create reading spaces as part of an event at the SKWAT art centre in Tokyo.

The photography is courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron.

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Emirati studio Some Kind of Practice presented a palm-clad pavilion with a central courtyard at this year's Dubai Design Week, exploring how this architectural feature has been shaped by climate and communities over time.

Titled When Does a Threshold Become a Courtyard?, the installation was positioned in the Dubai Design District and created by studio founder Omar Darwish alongside co-leader Abdulla Abbas.

The rectilinear pavilion is enclosed by towering walls made of concrete blocks and palm fronds, known as arish, layered on top of a wooden frame.

A deep wind tower was placed in the centre of the roof, covered with corrugated metal sheets, which allows air to circulate through the structure.

The duo wanted to create a courtyard using readily available "off-the-shelf" materials, marrying contemporary design with traditional architecture.

"We do a lot of research on the UAE in general, historically, materially, spatially, looking at how it evolved and how architecture evolved in the region," Abbas explained during a tour of the installation.

"So rather than just simply building a building with four walls and enclosing it and saying 'that's a courtyard', we wanted to look at it contextually."

Stacked concrete blocks were chosen in homage to the piles of stone that Abbas said people historically used to create courtyard boundary walls in the UAE's mountainous regions.

"Rather than stone, we looked at stacking concrete blocks, because in the 60s, when concrete was first imported from Japan, it completely changed the way we constructed in the country," said the architect.

"It led to the abandonment of a lot of these materials, which are still found today, but they're mostly used for temporary stuff," he explained, citing the use of palm fronds for makeshift shade structures.

Corrugated metal was selected to absorb heat and mitigate temperatures within the courtyard – a system that local people have used for decades in harsh climates.

"When you come into the space, it's a lot cooler than outside," acknowledged Abbas.

Abbas and Darwish wanted to imbue the installation with a sense of community, as a nod to the myriad neighbourhoods they visited across the UAE during their research.

A table and chairs were placed within the courtyard for a portion of the design week, and visitors were invited to interact with the structure.

Dubai Design Week, which concluded on Sunday, featured presentations including furniture by Italian studio Draga & Aurel and an exhibition by emerging designers hailing from across the Middle East.

The photography is courtesy of Dubai Design Week.

Dubai Design Week 2025 took place from 4 to 9 November 2025 at various locations across Dubai, United Arab Emirates. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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This year's UAE Designer Exhibition at Dubai Design Week features a glass coffee table debossed with oysters and a towering wooden lamp referencing French pastries.

The exhibition is a regular fixture of Dubai's annual furniture fair, Downtown Design, created to platform emerging talent from across the United Arab Emirates.

Among this year's 24 participants is Jordanian designer Dania Najee, who is presenting a coffee table topped with delicately textured glass that was debossed using real oyster shells.

"It pays tribute to the maritime activities in the UAE," Najee told Dezeen, nodding to Dubai's origins as a pearling and fishing village.

"These things were a significant part of the region's development before the discovery of oil."

Najee used bent laminated timber to create arched wooden legs for the table, paying homage to the curved fishing boats, or shasha, that local fishermen would painstakingly craft from palm fronds.

"Back in the day, they would soak fronds in water for 20 days, just to get a bit of bend," explained Najee.

Also on display is Lebanese designer Nourhan Rahhal's Mille Feuille collection. It features two tables and a lamp formed from stacks of ash wood and terracotta tiles, hand-layered to look like the titular French dessert made of pastry and cream.

Rahhal chose ash for its "busy grain", emulating the flakiness of pastry, while the terracotta was glazed to give it a creamy sheen.

The towering floor lamp features a subtle magnetic switch, which illuminates the piles of wood and terracotta with a soft glow.

"It's dessert meets furniture," explained Rahhal, who wanted to create something in honour of her mother's favourite sweet treat. "What's not to like?" she joked.

Rahhal, who is based in Abu Dhabi, also emphasised the benefits of living and working in the capital's emerging creative scene.

"It's calmer than Dubai," she considered. "There are some younger designers, but I'm hoping that we start to see more and more emerging designers and fabricators."

Syrian architect Ahmad Alkattan is another of the show's exhibitors, presenting a trio of yellow pinewood coffee tables called Tria, Hexa and Pytha, based on "fundamental geometry".

"All of the pieces are based on very simple shapes," the architect told Dezeen.

Although the tables look to be carved from whole blocks of timber, Alkattan actually cut and joined individual pieces of wood to create the geometric pieces to reduce the amount of offcuts.

The architect sources all of his timber from nearby India, Iran or Pakistan to eliminate unnecessary transport emissions.

The rest of the exhibition's projects are made from a diverse array of materials that nod to the UAE's meandering history.

Among the group are Emirati designer Majid Al Bastaki's decorative tables, informed by the region's 1980s steel front doors, and Lebanese designer Ranim AlHalaky's tall room dividers crafted from palm fronds.

Palestinian-Jordanian designer Mohammed Samara collaborated with Emirati designer Khaled Al Shaer to create the Moza chair, a striking piece of low-slung furniture crafted from a tubular steel frame that looks like a planetary orbit.

The annual show is a chance for emerging designers based in the UAE to present their projects to a global audience.

In 2022, Syrian designer Talin Hazbar made a splash with her blocky seating crafted from fishing ropes and cages extracted from the Persian Gulf, which featured as part of the Downtown Design exhibition.

The project went on to be picked up by the curators of last year's inaugural Design Doha biennial and featured in the event's extensive Arab Design Now presentation of contemporary regional design.

Dubai Design Week 2025 takes place from 4 to 9 November 2025 at various locations across Dubai, United Arab Emirates. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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Italian duo Draga & Aurel has created a collection of striking furniture from Murano glass, resin and concrete, which forms their Dubai Design Week debut.

Crafted in collaboration with local brand Collectional, the pieces are currently on display in an installation at Dubai's annual Downtown Design fair.

Central to the collection are the bulbous Soffio lamps, formed from translucent sheets of glass combined with globular components salvaged from 1970s chandeliers.

"It all started with a kind of 'rescue me' gesture, saving the vintage glass bubbles we discovered here and there," explained studio founders Draga Obradovic and Aurel K Basedow.

The pair travelled to Venice, where "Draga wants to celebrate all her birthdays", and collaborated with local glassblowers to create the lamps.

"We gave the bubbles new life by combining them with newly blown pieces, creating a dialogue between past and present," they told Dezeen.

"We also revived traditional blown-glass techniques, from craquele to cotisso and gold-leaf inserts, pushing them even further through our own creative experimentation," added Obradovic and Basedow.

The Cava coffee tables are squat, geometric slabs of concrete layered with epoxy resin, a material that the studio has become known for.

Despite the different elements, both the resin and the concrete were poured into moulds to create the handcrafted furniture. The liquid resin was coloured in burnt red and amber hues before it set.

"We like to think that, through the production process, which demands care and attention at every single step, we give these 'humble' materials a new life, transforming them into something precious, into jewels," reflected Obradovic and Basedow.

The duo applied sea salt to the slabs of resin and concrete to give them a more textured and tactile finish before attaching the materials to complete the tables' composition.

Alongside the Cava coffee tables, Draga & Aurel also designed Lava – similar furniture with rounded, more refined resin tabletops.

Stendhal is an architectural console table made from ruby-red resin supported by two pillar-like concrete legs, while Rescue Me is a low-slung cabinet made from a patchwork of multicoloured resin cupboards positioned atop a transparent plinth.

"For our debut at Dubai Design Week, we wanted to present a synthesis of our expressive studio language," said Obradovic and Basedow.

As Dubai Design Week kicks off across the Emirati city, explore projects from last year's edition, including a parametric cardboard pavilion by British designer Ross Lovegrove and spiky palm tree-style lamps by Spanish studio Masquespacio.

The photography is courtesy of Draga & Aurel.

Dubai Design Week 2025 takes place from 4 to 9 November 2025 at various locations across Dubai, United Arab Emirates. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world. 

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Marbled stools made from old car plastic and a sculptural lamp woven with silk are among the standout pieces of furniture and lighting spotted by Dezeen's design and interiors reporter Jane Englefield over the past month.

Perron Pillo Lounge Chair by Willo Perron for Knoll

Launched in late September by Canadian designer Willo Perron, this lounge chair is formed from five connected cushions that give the impression of freestanding pillows stacked on a bed.

On closer inspection, you'll also find that the furniture conceals an in-built 360-degree rotation that allows the user to swivel round at their leisure.

Perron's enviably tactile chair is an obvious visual feast that doesn't compromise on comfort or usability. I'd call that a surprisingly rare find.

Haku by Baku Sakashita

Haku is the latest lighting collection from Japanese designer Baku Sakashita, currently on display in an exhibition at Tokyo Midtown Galleria until 5 November.

Floor lamps made from boxy stainless steel structures were woven with silk threads coloured with natural dyes sourced from various indigenous Japanese plants, borrowing from a technique Sakashita said has long been used to make kimonos.

Ultra-fine LEDs were woven into the silk, enhancing their natural sheen. The designer wanted to amplify the beauty of singular threads – "a beauty that is often lost once they are woven into fabric".

The project is a smart example of how lighting can do more than just illuminate a room. It might serve as a grounding reminder of ancient craft techniques cultivated outside during the gloomy winter months, when artificial indoor light so often dominates.

Mother of Pearl furniture by Plasticiet, Casper Mueller Kneer Architects and Jil Sander

Mother of Pearl is a colourful marbled material made by Dutch studio Plasticiet, developed into squat stools in collaboration with London studio Casper Mueller Kneer Architects and German fashion house Jil Sander.

The material was handmade from discarded polycarbonate casing once used to cover old car headlights.

Beyond Mother of Pearl's deliciously veiny appearance, it is an intriguing application of a waste material, and proof that the much-desired visual qualities of stone can be emulated without the carbon cost.

Originally produced as podiums and benches for Jil Sander stores, the stools debuted at Dutch Design Week as part of the Forward Furniture exhibition.

The Jesus Quintana Cabinet by Studio Rens and Maarten Baas

Also at Dutch Design Week, local practice Studio Rens joined forces with Dutch designer Maarten Baas to make this striking cabinet, intended as a mashup of the duo's different visual languages.

Baas created the furniture's raw brass body, arranged in his trademark patchwork style, while Studio Rens sought to showcase its experiments with glass by making a delicately layered pink and orange door.

Despite its standout appearance, the furniture was actually created to highlight "light doing its thing" through the door – an example of a piece made to respond to its surroundings.

Corner Light by There's Light and Neoz

Corner Light is a compact cordless table lamp by London studio There's Light and Australian manufacturer Neoz.

Recently designed for London's Tate Modern cafe, renovated in 2023 by Holland Harvey, the light features an attractively ribbed lampshade that casts a subtly opaque glow. Its confident lines are a nod to the Tate Modern's industrial architecture, too.

The lamp's brass base was chosen for its ability to weather over time, making it a long-lasting choice for pretty much any setting.

Wardrobe by Teun Zwets

Rising Eindhoven star Teun Zwets was another Dutch Design Week exhibitor, who showed a series of new pieces during the city-wide event.

Zwets has made a name for himself creating strikingly cartoonish furniture crafted from split Douglas fir wood, which is then finished with a gleaming coat of colourful lacquer. This towering yellow wardrobe is one of his latest distinctive-looking pieces.

The designer first got the idea to work in this way when splitting wood with an axe to make a campfire, and was struck by the graininess of the material. The result is always furniture that you want to reach out and touch.

Standard Shelf by Sebastián Alarcón

Ecuadorian designer Sebastián Alarcón has released the debut collection from his studio, Aset.

Among the pieces is Standard Shelf, a beautifully crafted modular storage system made of two different-sized units that effortlessly stack and interlock without additional hardware.

The stainless steel components are solid enough to create stable shelving, but lightweight enough to move easily.

Another project that featured at Dutch Design Week, the storage system is a masterclass in sleek simplicity.

Wood Grass Chair by Joyce Lin

This plywood chair is one of a handful of mind-bending pieces by Houston-based designer Joyce Lin.

In an undeniable feat of engineering, Lin has managed to create furniture that looks as if it has been sliced from a single tree. She used a mixture of oil and acrylic paint, epoxy clay and raffia fibres to create the effect.

"In recent years, I've found myself losing track of where truth ends and fiction begins," said Lin, whose deliberately uncanny work explores how we impact the environment.

"The natural and human-made, too, have merged into one bizarre and unpredictable landscape."

Lin's pieces will be on display in a solo exhibition at R & Company in New York City, which opens on 7 November.

Lamp by Josh Page

There's something enchanting about soft light being emitted from wood – a solid material so often associated with denser pieces like cupboards or coffee tables. This lamp by emerging designer Josh Page is the perfect example.

Page carved playful cutouts into slabs of redwood pine, which cast illustrative shadows onto the surrounding walls when the lamp is illuminated.

Fluvia Bench by Sereen Hassanieh Architects

Lebanese architect Sereen Hassanieh debuted this undulating bench at We Design Beirut.

Formed from slim slices of marble, the outdoor seating was created in a nod to the stacks of pilae tiles that were once used to heat local Roman baths.

Despite its strength, the bench looks a bit like a pile of dominoes poised to collapse on top of each other. You want to investigate its configuration as soon as you see it, which is often the mark of an interesting piece of furniture.

The post Dezeen's favourite furniture and lighting from October appeared first on Dezeen.

Horror-film-style wood panelling and charcoal-coloured sheets feature in this lookbook of moody bedrooms to pore over this Halloween weekend.

Located across the globe in homes from Mexico to Ukraine, these bedrooms provide the perfect place to hide under the covers during the gloomier months.

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring double-height living rooms, built-in sofas and rustic milking stools.

Zero House, UK, by Rae Morris and Ben Garrett

Musicians Rae Morris and Ben Garrett sought to create a "horror film slash [Stanley] Kubrick feel" in their mid-century north London home, which they renovated themselves.

Upstairs, a moody mahogany carpet was paired with timber wall and ceiling panels, referencing the dark reds and browns found in the late director's 1980 supernatural horror movie The Shining.

"We leaned into [it]," Garrett told Dezeen.

Find out more about Zero House ›

Casa Tres Árboles, Mexico, by Direccion

This Valle de Bravo house was designed by Mexican studio Direccion to celebrate light and shadow contrasts.

A trio of en-suite bedrooms feature on the upper level, painted in dark shades to offer a counterpoint to the warmer tones of the exposed timber ceiling beams. Crinkly grey bedding adds to the sombre colour palette.

Find out more about Casa Tres Árboles ›

Openfield House, New Zealand, by Keshaw McArthur

The corrugated metal roof of this rural New Zealand home is defined by an oversized circular skylight, which frames views of the surrounding Crown Range mountains and casts shadows on the moody attic bedroom.

Architecture studio Keshaw McArthur placed the iconic 1928 Cassina lounge chair designed by Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret just below the skylight, giving the impression of a rocking chair in a horror film.

Find out more about Openfield House ›

Shkrub, Ukraine, by Sergey Makhno

Architect Sergey Makhno self-designed Shkrub as a thatch-roofed home for his family in the Ukrainian village of Kozin, south of Kyiv.

The main bedroom features a striking headboard decorated with atmospheric illustrations of smoke plumes, emphasised by the low-slung bed's charcoal-coloured sheets.

Find out more about Shkrub ›

House in Ukraine by Balbek Bureau

Also in Ukraine, this house was renovated by architecture studio Balbek Bureau to create a modern interpretation of a log cabin.

Two of its three bedrooms are characterised by soft, padded sleeping nooks finished in light grey fabric. Dark-toned log walls complement the home's leafy surroundings.

Find out more about this house in Ukraine ›

Shadow House, Australia, by Grotto Studio

True to its name, Shadow House is a charred-timber extension to an early 1900s cottage in Perth, informed by the shifting light of the day.

Australian practice Grotto Studio added a shadow-casting clerestory window to one of the bedrooms, clad with jarrah timber sourced from the demolition of the back of the existing cottage.

Find out more about Shadow House ›

Austin house, USA, by Melanie Raines

Interior designer Melanie Raines set out to create "weird and funky" interiors for this family home in Austin, Texas.

The primary bedroom features dark blue walls and sheets paired with a sleek built-in leather bedframe.

Find out more about this Austin house ›

Kawakawa House, New Zealand, by Herbst Architects

A glazed clerestory draws light down into the bedroom at Kawakawa House in Piha, New Zealand, with the help of angled plywood ceilings.

Dark birch panel walls enhance the room's interior, designed with a dark colour palette that responds to the home's woodland surroundings.

Find out more about Kawakawa House ›

This is the latest in our lookbooks series, which provides visual inspiration from Dezeen's archive. For more inspiration, see previous lookbooks featuring double-height living rooms, built-in sofas and rustic milking stools.

The post Eight shadowy bedrooms that are perfect for the spooky season appeared first on Dezeen.

British musician Robbie Williams has created an enveloping chair for Dutch furniture brand Moooi, featuring a generously padded seat designed to mimic the feeling of a hug.

The Introvert Chair marks the first foray into furniture design for Williams, who is known for his global hits, including Angels and Let Me Entertain You.

The armchair features a gently curved shape, wrapped in a tactile blend of virgin wool, alpaca and cotton, which was 3D-quilted and stretched over a generously padded seat to mimic the feeling of an embrace.

"In a world that rarely slows down, we often crave a place of respite, and this chair is just that," Williams said.

"Its soft fabric and gentle curves create a sanctuary that offers complete comfort and calm, reminding me of the power that art and design have – not only in shaping our spaces, but in transforming how we feel within them."

Williams was motivated to create the enveloping furniture in response to his own experience with social anxiety, which he has discussed candidly throughout his career.

"The Introvert Chair is designed as a comforting sanctuary channelled by Robbie's own personal journey with social anxiety," Moooi explained.

Optional matching cushions were designed to allow the user to "nest in their own way".

While The Introvert Chair is Williams's first furniture design, the singer-songwriter is no stranger to expanding his creative outputs, having also produced ceramics and paintings in recent years.

Among other musicians who have ventured into the design world is Justin Bieber, who collaborated with Italian brand Vespa to create a monochrome version of its classic Sprint scooter, surrounded by a ring of icy white flames to give it a "Justin spin".

Bruno Mars also joined forces with North American studio Yabu Pushelberg to conceive the interiors of a cocktail lounge and live music venue at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas.

The photography is courtesy of Moooi.

The post Robbie Williams ventures into furniture design with The Introvert Chair appeared first on Dezeen.