Nature is our oldest and most creative designer. Those in the business take structures, materiality, even morality from the organic rhythms of the earth, weaving their way through the mire and magic of creation. True sustainability requires that we understand and work within these parameters, using recycled and recyclable materials in tandem. In Tierra, Mar, y Aire, a new lighting collection from Héctor Serrano and presented by Faro Barcelona, the barriers between interior and exterior melt, a metabolization of materiality.

The project starts and ends with materiality at it’s core, mirroring the cycles of our natural world. The properties of each element relate to the composition that is used. For Tierra, a bioplastic formed from PLA and cellulose was utilized, which is both biodegradeable and compostable. Mar is composed of polypropylene derived from recycled fishing nets, and Aire from 100% recycled PETG, the most commonly recycled plastic in the world.

Serrano explains, “Circularity must be embedded throughout our entire consumption system; it is no use using sustainable materials if we then continue to live in a throwaway culture. We must rethink the way we produce, transport, consume and recycle our products, and this is where 3D printing offers an alternative, with on-demand, compact and automated production.” Indeed, true circularity involves not just a change of system, but a change of heart. If we are to participate in sustainability that lasts, our relationships with convenience must adapt.

This concept of “digital craftsmanship” comes into view: wherein the power of manufacturing is returning to the individual. Not directly into their hands, surely, but under their control. The traditional, top-down approach to design is being upended through additive manufacturing, allowing technical infrastructure to be created with surprising speed, in compact spaces. Here, the traditional ‘factory settings’ we know are now reset for modern ideals. In a broader effort to democratize large-scale 3D printing, more demand creates more widespread use, which is precisely what the technology needs to succeed. In this way, 3D printing gets, cheaper, easier, and more accessible, empowering anyone with a printer to join the conversation.

Not to be restrained by process, Tierra, Mar, y Aire reflects the structures we recognize in nature – hive structures, bubble-like volumes, and marine references dot the collection. These forms are familiar, emotional bonds ignited among our synapses. Millions of years have been spent perfecting the designs we see around us. As we look to our natural world, there is no waste, a perfect balance of flora and fauna. How can we embody these characteristics and make them real, within the parameters of our mortal minds? Serrano paints a new vision of the future, one where we ensure harmony in process and practice.

To learn more about Tierra, Mar, y Aire by Héctor Serrano for Faro Barcelona, visit hectorserrano.com.

Photography by Javier Márquez.

Jason Roskey grew up in Texas in a middle class, blue-collar family, but even at a young age he was inspired by art and architecture. When he was in elementary school and went on field trips to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, he was one of the few students interested in the Louis Kahn-designed building and the works inside it.

Roskey later went to college and envisioned a more traditional path for himself. “I didn’t know I could pursue a creative life and career,” he says. “I spent years doing business-type things to make a living. It wasn’t until I moved to New York that I really began discovering furniture and interiors.”

A self-taught woodworker, Roskey built custom pieces by hand in Brooklyn. His practice evolved, and he founded Fern in 2009. Today he operates the company from a studio and workshop in Hudson, New York, continuing the region’s long tradition of quality furniture production. Roskey first designs each item, which is then fabricated in-house by a team of skilled makers.

The studio now offers lighting, which is a natural complement to the sculptural tables and chairs. Fiberglass and hand-laced goat parchment on select fixtures are paired with bases of cast aluminum, blackened steel, and sand-cast bronze. This inaugural collection is now on view alongside signature furnishings in Junctions, the debut show at the Assembly Line Annex in Tribeca, a new exhibition space by General Assembly.

Quick to capture concepts as they come to him, Roskey continues to refine his initial models. “I am always sketching and designing in multiple ways,” he notes. “Often when I have a very pressing idea I will design directly on the bench, working through templates for different shapes.”

Today, Jason Roskey joins us for Friday Five!

1. Camper Van

In 2023 our studio needed a van to move furniture parts, upholstery and other things between fabrication partners. We ordered this 2024 Sprinter Van that splits time between shop duties and as a camping rig. It’s outfitted for a bunk bed, wifi, and a lightweight canoe stores on top.

2. John Porritt Welsh Chair

My favorite kind of chairs are vernacular chairs found throughout the world like the farm Windsors of England, Alpine tavern chairs and the Welsh Stick Chair. The Welsh Stick Chair is really the everyman’s Windsor – much less ornate, and often made from local green woods and material from hedgerows. All parts of the chair are made using different hand tools and no parts are turned on a lathe. Because the chairs were historically made by amateur woodworkers or village craftspeople, they each have a unique character. John Porritt is based in Spencertown, New York. A native of the U.K. John has been making this simple style of chair for decades. His are the most refined (and comfortable) that I have come across. While John’s chairs share the simplicity of prior Welsh stick chairs, they are of modern proportions. Visiting John for tea in his old Dutch barn workshop to discuss all things woodworking is a treat. His chairs are among my favorite being made in the country. He is using wood he sources entirely from around his Hudson Valley home that he dries next to his shop’s wood stove. I commissioned John a few years ago to build me this 8-stick Welsh chair. Often his chairs are expertly finished to appear vintage, but he painted this one black to naturally gain a patina over time.

3. Secret Catskills Creek

My favorite way to spend time alone is fly fishing. Standing in a river waving a stick to fool a trout into eating a fly – and then releasing it – might seem silly to some, but it’s my favorite way to unwind. The Catskills region has a variety of types of rivers, and the fishing I do in these parts can be relaxing dry fly fishing using traditional flies but mostly it is long hikes and wading in boulder-strewn streams. The woods, river, geological forms and wildlife inform so much of the work I do.

4. Baja Sur

I haven’t explored a lot of Mexico, but I’ve seen enough to know I love it. In college, we would make trips to the border towns – places that are no longer safe to visit. It felt like such an adventure in those days. My family and I try to make it to Baja Sur every few years. The area is made up of my favorite types of landscapes – a collision of mountains, the desert and the ocean within a close proximity.

5. Paris, Texas Poster

The film “Paris, Texas” by Wim Wenders made such an impact on me when I saw it while attending college in West Texas. Here was this film that kind of wasn’t really about Texas at all, but also it was. Wenders portrayal of American alienation resonated with me, a kid from a small town who didn’t really have a clue where he was going or how to get there. Of course there is the hauntingly beautiful Ry Cooder soundtrack, too.

Works by Fern’s Jason Roskey:

Tulia Dining Table
Inspired by the rock formations of Texas’ Palo Duro Canyon, the Tulia Dining Table features monumental sized base components constructed from laminated hardwoods.

Torre Table Lamp
Torre series of lamps reference Brutalist architecture forms, Casa Luis Barragán, using refined wood and metal working techniques.

Junctions Exhibition at Assembly Line Annex
Junctions by Jason Roskey of Fern is a new collection of lighting and furniture crafted entirely in the Hudson Valley. Working with parchment, fiberglass, metal, and wood, the pieces investigate the interplay of weight and lightness.

Ridge Bed
The Ridge Bed is a solid hardwood platform bed featuring a solid headboard with an upholstered pad that utilizes leather and darkened or white bronze hardware. The bed has two floating cabinets with cast bronze pulls, and cord management through the rear of side tables. Platform base available in plinth or standard styles.

Elwha Cabinet
Influenced by natural valleys and extreme river environments, a deep ravine is carved into the case surround of the Elwha Cabinet. Doors are accessed with sand casted white bronze that reflect a warm silver tone.

Sheffield Sectional, Ned Floor Lamp, Clois Daybed
Referencing middle 20th century forms, the Sheffield upholstery collection features exposed wood arm and panel components. The Ned Floor Lamp is our first foray into sculptural lighting that is an extension of the laminated wood pieces we have been exploring. Ned features a built-up hardwood base, a hand cast fiberglass & wood shade, and custom steel armature. And the Clois Daybed is a monumental-sized piece featuring hardwood construction with classic joinery details including wedged and carved wood tenons and faceted leg details. The mattress features a weighted, removable bolster, and a down filled pillow sized to match the bolster.

Few design conditions are as layered as the inhabited palimpsest – a historic building asked to absorb a contemporary life without surrendering what made it worth preserving in the first place. Penthouse Frankfurt, completed by Munich-based workshop and studio Holzrausch, navigates exactly this tension. The Wilhelminian era left behind a very particular architectural grammar – deep floor plates, generously proportioned rooms, and load-bearing masonry. Rather than smooth over these conditions or treat them as a neutral backdrop, Holzrausch worked the existing fabric into the logic of the intervention itself.

The two-story roof extension that crowns the building is the project’s boldest move, and its most structurally clarifying one. By constructing a new volume above the historic shell, the project distinguishes legibly between what was found and what was made. Inside, Kambala – an African hardwood with a warm amber grain that oxidizes gracefully – runs as full-height panelling across rooms, built-ins, and circulations alike, functioning as a continuous spatial membrane.

Warm-brushed stainless steel meets terrazzo and stained timber within the kitchen. Holzrausch, operating as a single-source supplier with designers, construction planners, and craftspeople in continuous dialogue, was particularly well positioned to resolve these junctions. The end result is coherent precisely because no single element was considered in isolation from the whole.

The client came with an art collection, of which required a space with walls that do not compete, and circulation that allowed for sustained attention. The calm sequencing of rooms was a direct response to this need, with the Kambala shell providing a visual ground warm enough to humanize the spaces without asserting itself against the works on display. It is a balance that gallery-adjacent residences frequently fail to strike, defaulting either to the clinical neutrality of a white cube or to an exuberant domesticity that overwhelms the collection.

View more information on Holzrausch’s website.

Photography by Salva Lopez.

There’s a particular discipline in building an entire book around a single ingredient. It requires curiosity—and the confidence that one subject, examined closely enough, can hold a reader’s attention. This Month, Anna Stockwell’s The Butter Book, Bonnie Chung’s new edition of Miso: From Japanese Classics to Everyday Umami, and Taschen’s The Gourmand’s Mushroom present butter, miso, and mushrooms not just as pantry staples, but as substances with visual presence—explored through recipe techniques, cultural context, and striking close-up “glamour” photography. Each title, in its own way, argues for the ingredient as both material and muse.

Initially, I was drawn (pun intended) to The Butter Book’s design, a clever trompe l’oeil that mimics a stick of butter. The volume of churned, cream-colored pages arrives wrapped in a vellum book jacket adorned with all-too-familiar blue typography. Anna Stockwell shared that this was Chronicle Books Food & Lifestyle Art Director Lizzie Vaughn’s concept. A veteran of the test kitchens at Bon Appétit and Epicurious, Stockwell writes with the confidence of someone who has browned, clarified, whipped, and emulsified her way through years of recipe development. She reveals how butter can baste scallops into tenderness and gloss a roast chicken until it gleams. From savory puttanesca to hot honey, the pages on compound butters demonstrate modular, creative ways to layer flavor into even the most mundane dish.

Beyond recipes, Stockwell explores one of the oldest human-made foods—synonymous with the history of cooking itself—by diving into the world of butter accessories like molds, slicers, and warmers. Though we bonded over a shared disdain for single-use kitchen gadgets, we both admitted a soft spot for the Coquillor, a silver butter dish and curler in one that extrudes a perfect rosette with a gentle press. Inevitably, our conversation turned to today’s butter renaissance—swooped whipped mounds and edible sculptures populating brand launches and trendy restaurant scenes. As all trends stem from something, Stockwell traced the lineage of butter sculpture back to 1536, when chef Bartolomeo Scappi carved Hercules with a lion as a dinner centerpiece in Rome. As butter continues to permeate food, fashion, and interiors—as hue, reference, and indulgent signifier—The Butter Book emerges as a timely, design-forward homage.

Bonnie Chung’s self-proclaimed magnum opus—and love letter to her favorite ingredient—Miso: From Japanese Classics to Everyday Umami approaches its subject with similar focus, from the perspective of fermentation and balance. This new and expanded edition positions miso, a paste that builds depth with minimal volume, as an essential tool in contemporary cooking. Chung outlines various types and tasting notes, explains how miso is made, and provides guidance for home fermentation alongside profiles of innovative, sustainable producers. The book moves from recognizable dishes, such as miso soup and miso black cod, to more unexpected applications like miso udon carbonara and white miso ice cream with hazelnut praline. Throughout, Chung frames miso not only as a structural ingredient, but as “a chef’s secret.” By adding a spoonful to enrich a tomato sauce, intensify a gravy, or deepen a dessert, she encourages us to see miso not as exotic, but essential. Visually, the book draws on the richness and tonal range of miso for its striking cover—a full-bleed, close-up photograph capturing shades from deep russet to pale ochre, reminiscent of the Grand Canyon at sunset.

From the same authors behind Taschen’s iconic Egg and Lemon collections comes the third book in the series, The Gourmand’s Mushroom: A Collection of Stories & Recipes. David Lane and Marina Tweed, founders of the UK-based Gourmand Magazine, explore one of the more mysterious ingredients on Earth, bringing together culinary craft and cultural inquiry. The volume opens with a reflection on impermanence, foraging, and culinary memory by chef and food writer Jeremy Lee. Photography captures caps and gills as sculpture, pattern, and form—a visual feast that situates fungi within art, folklore, science, and design. This in-depth mycological journey honors mushrooms as fleeting marvels and endlessly inventive ingredients. It’s the expansive collection of original recipes, from funghi sott’olio to classic duxelles and Hungarian mushroom pie (gombás lepény), that makes this more than just a chic coffee table book.

In the end, these books leave you with a hunger rooted as much in curiosity as in appetite. Each, devoted to a single ingredient, creates space for deeper understanding: how it behaves under heat, how it carries culture, and how it shapes the look and feel of a dish. For cooks who approach food through a design lens, the visual and structural qualities of these ingredients extend beyond taste—through butter’s glossy sheen, miso’s dense richness, and mushrooms’ architectural potential. Butter teaches restraint and indulgence in the same breath. Miso reminds us that time is an ingredient we cannot shortcut. Mushrooms insist we look closer at what grows in the shadows. Alone, these ingredients may seem straightforward. Together, however, they feel almost conspiratorial. So yes, I went ahead and made brown butter–miso glazed maitakes for dinner. I suggest you do the same.

Continue reading for more information regarding each monograph and its availability:

The Butter Book
Chronicle Books, March 17, 2026

The Gourmand’s Mushroom. A Collection of Stories & Recipes
TASCHEN – available end of March 2026

Miso: from Japanese Classics to Everyday Umami
(Pavilion Books, Harper Collins in January 2026)
Photography by Yuki Suguira
Food & Prop Styling by Aya Nishimura
Illustrations by Merlin Evans

Corporate environments typically reference a brand aesthetic paired with contract furnishings to support staff as they perform their daily tasks. When architects envision their own spaces, they often strive to capture a seamless blend of form and function that mirrors the firm’s signature structures.

When the Powell team envisioned their own headquarters, they decided to create a contemporary workspace that doubles as a showcase of their capabilities. “As an architecture, design, and construction firm, we wanted to bring our clients into a space where all of that was fully integrated and to show them what we can do,” says Katie Vance, partner and chief creative officer at Powell.

Located in the Berry Hill neighborhood, home of Nashville’s design district, two ordinary parcels were transformed into a three-story story structure that houses Powell’s spaces and those of another tenant, a luxury functional medicine and movement studio.

Fine craftsmanship sets the tone as soon as visitors enter the building through a first-floor lobby, where they are welcomed through an 11-foot custom white oak door. The area opens into a glass entryway punctuated by exposed steel, enlivened by terrazzo tile in shades of peach, black, cream, and hunter green.

Powell’s 3,806-square-foot office space is on the second floor. Yet rather than simply emphasize a few interiors with distinct colors and signage, this section is immersive and warm, with bold visual moments layered in. “We have a series of vignettes that you see in hospitality environments, like an amazing lounge or a booth that feels cozy,” notes Luke Tidwell, Powell partner and CEO. “These are the same types of spaces that we create, but in a smaller form.”

The studio serves as a gallery filled with unique elements produced by 13 local makers, who also frequently collaborate with Powell. In the lounge, comfortable seating is paired with a Pullman-style upholstered booth. A custom bodega-like bar sits across the room. Clad in tile, it features playful design iconography with items that begin with the letter P (for Powell, of course), including pizza, a pirate, and pretzel.

The marquee conference room is decorated with a bespoke wallpaper from New Hat, with hues and details inspired by Powell’s completed projects, each represented in its own rectangle. Greenery adds vibrancy throughout the workplace, while glass walls let light in and maintain a connection to the outdoors.

More than a place to work, Powell’s headquarters is a dimensional narrative and a living prototype that will continue to evolve alongside the firm.

To see other works by the firm, visit powellnashville.com.

Photography courtesy of Emily Dorio.

There’s something about the smell of the sea that calls to us. A briny froth caps the waves, signaling the turning of our world. The Tasca Table Large from FRAMA is made to be used anywhere, even outdoors – and even among the waves themselves. A beautifully wrought satin finish takes charge, a subtlety that hearkens to the flow of water itself. Also available in a smaller size, the Tasca Table is ready to host – perfect for two, three, or four.

At first, the Tasca Table seems like something you’ve seen before – a solid ‘x’ creating the base, a singular cylindrical leg, and a circular top. In simplicity, technical detail is obfuscated within minutia, for those who look to find it. Subtle but intentional variation emerges within the hand-wrought finish, a graceful patina developing over time. As the aluminum is left bare, signs of wear are natural and welcome, a sign of a life well-loved.

A luminosity emerges in soft light, almost seeming to glow from within. As aluminum is strong, light, and endlessly recyclable, it was a natural choice for the team to expand their collection of aluminum pieces, adding a sustainable lens to the project. As we dive into a new era of the anthropocene, it is our duty and privilege as designers to take stock of how we create, and to design within the flow of our natural world, not against it. FRAMA continues to explore this balance – inviting us to take our time, and feel good in doing so.

Copenhagen-based FRAMA celebrates the intersection between design and experience, encouraging us to celebrate the details, and hopefully be a bit more mindful. Natural materials and simplified geometries help retain integrity within the collection, keeping spaces warm, practical, and honest.

To learn more about the Tasca Table Large from FRAMA, visit framacph.com.

Photography by Paolo Galgani, and courtesy of FRAMA.

 

“As kindred spirits, the Artek and Heath Ceramics teams have once again come together to combine our respective crafts,” says Marianne Goebl, Artek Managing Director. “Designed as a system, the Tile Table collection encourages play and experimentation with color and texture. The results are, we believe, delightful functional companions for the home.” The refreshed offering, a first version of which debuted in 2022, is presented in a trio of signature colorways: green, white, and now terracotta red. The latter aligns well with an industry-wide return to moody hues and Art Deco embellishments. This third edition stands in the intersection between materiality, personality, and honesty – the wood simply treated, the tiles moveable to taste.

This extended proposition – the fusing of historic ceramicist Edith Heath’s deftly proportioned and toned tiles with Alvar Aalto’s Table Square—isn’t just aesthetic. The practical, durable and even hygienic application of fully glazed ceramic tiles as a table finish can’t be overlooked. One has only to consider the especially efficient and cost-effective kitchen countertops of the 1990s, replaced since by equally enduring but significantly more expensive natural stones.   

What the joining of these forces ultimately represents is the deft mirroring of values. Both boutique heritage producers rarely diverge from the central principles of beauty, utility, integrity, and longevity. New releases are almost always nuanced reinterpretations of long-appreciated classics that transcend time without necessarily becoming “timeless.” These fresh takes tend to hold fast to a long-established, underlying understanding of succinct form-finding and resolute styling that has yet to be surpassed. And any indication of national or regional attribution – what might be characterized as Finnish and Californian design – is hard to decipher. Nods to their distinct natural settings are implicit, at best. These cleverly configured and finished designs are emphatically universal; enticing on both a visceral and visual level.  

Where other brand-collabs lean bombastic and gimmicky, this collaboration makes sense. “What keeps us coming back to this [project] with Artek is a shared reverence for natural materials—clay, glaze, and wood—and how they respond to use over time,” says Heath Clay Studio Director Tung Chiang. “It’s both a creative exchange and a close friendship, rooted in the mutual love for thoughtful making.”  

An added bonus: the Artek + Heath Chess Table. Though the brand identifies this clever application as a call back to Max Ernst chess table at Villa Mairea—designed by Aino and Alvar Aalto, this ingeniously unexpected second application seems to have naturally emerged from the coherence of tile and table typologies—an impromptu game board with segmented tiles doubling as chessboard files. To mark the moment, hand-thrown and hand-glazed ceramic chess pieces were imagined according to the previously outlined philosophy. The possibilities of pattern configuration and unexpected function are ostensibly, endless.  

To learn more about the brands involved in this spirited collaboration, visit artek.fi and heathceramics.com.

Photography by Derek Yarra and courtesy of Heath Ceramics.

Smell is the sense most closely associated with memory, our olfactory systems nestled right next to the hippocampus. A whiff of cologne on a crowded subway car or an unmistakable trace of a beloved baked good in a nearby shop can instantly transport us to a different time and place. Since 1883, Italian perfumery Satinine has studied the art of scent, and now presents its newest space, Oficina Milanese, designed by Mara Bragagnolo, which treats memory through scent as something spatial, tactile, and alive.

A modern interpretation of the traditional portineria, or concierge, the stately doors open onto a distinctly Milanese sequence of spaces, each facet mirroring the culture of the city beyond. Bragagnolo positions hospitality as a principle of architecture, drawing from the entrance halls of historic buildings—thresholds where the act of arrival becomes ceremonial. Here, that gesture unfolds across a series of distinct yet connected environments: a reception-like portineria that reframes exchange as ritual, a more intimate sensory room for discovering fragrances in quiet seclusion, and a curatorial space designed for rotation, collaboration, and dialogue with art and design.

Integrity is essential to understanding the longevity of a perfume house established nearly 150 years ago. Throughout, the lighting, stonework, tile, and millwork are not only locally sourced but shaped through close collaboration with Milanese artisans, reinforcing a supply chain rooted in proximity and care. Every furnishing element—from the oak boiserie to the custom lighting fixtures—was made by hand, carrying forward a lineage of craft that feels vehemently relevant rather than nostalgic.

The care and attention to detail evident throughout the space, combined with the provenance of the hands that created it, marks Oficina Milanese as distinctly respectful of its surroundings. It underscores a larger truth: that Milan’s identity is inseparable from its material culture, and that authenticity is not declared but built, surface by surface.

As scent is emotional, so too are the details featured in the space. Lombard terracotta tiles, laid according to traditional techniques, ground the interior in regional history, while glossy ceramic tiles arranged vertically nod to the facades of Milanese apartment buildings. Cathedral glass partitions diffuse light with a quiet luminosity, recalling the thresholds of historic entryways. Against this, oak paneling introduces warmth, set in deliberate contrast to cardinal marble, burl wood, and satin-finished steel. The sensorial experience gently oscillates between softness and precision.

The lighting, developed in collaboration with lighting designer Martina Frattura, bathes the space in a muted, diffused glow that boasts a silky, enveloping “satin” effect in subtle reference to the brand itself. It is less about illumination than atmosphere, softening edges and extending time within the room.

Art Deco sensibilities meet a color drench in the lounge area, where sage velvet wraps the room in a kind of quiet opulence. Round forms paired with slender metallic verticals introduce height and rhythm, while curtains provide a sense of retreat from the city’s constant movement.

A sliding door with colored glass panes seals the space from view when necessary, a nod to the stained glass windows that punctuate Milan’s churches. Directly to the left, a burlwood bar inlaid with the brand’s name encapsulates the project’s ethos. Highly polished and meticulously crafted, it transforms the expected gesture of welcome into something more enduring—an invitation to linger. Flanked by twin chrome lamps, their reflective surfaces catch and refract the surrounding materials, embedding the space in a subtle play of light and texture.

As Satinine looks toward the future, it does so not in defiance of the past, but through a careful continuation of it where craftsmanship becomes a contemporary language, and simple gestures, repeated with intention, become ritual.

To learn more about Satinine’s Oficina Milanese or designer Mara Bragagnolo, visit satinine.com and marabragagnolo.com, respectively.

Photography by Tiziano Ercoli & Riccardo Giancola.

Dynamically programmed bathhouses and saunas have cropped up across major metropolises. These alternative third spaces are far better for one’s health than the proverbial bar. People are drinking less and instead, getting in a good sweat to allay the pains of the day. But what if these third spaces were able to collapse back into our first spaces—our homes—quite literally? Home sauna products are a dime a dozen these days but most require considerable amounts of square footage to be installed, the measure of which most urban dwellers can only dream of attaining at some point in their lives.

Making the prospect of domestic wellness far more accessible to those residing in infinitesimal abodes, long established German brand KLAFS—a subsidiary of American bathroom fixture giant Kohler—just unveiled to the US market its fully retractable S1 sauna. Attuned to the equally acute push to imbue these primary environments with modular, adaptable solutions, the system compresses into itself not just two, but three, fold. Impressively, it does so without skimping on performance or style.

Retractable kitchens and beds that descend from the ceiling are becoming more commonplace in progressively compact apartments stacked on top of each other in increasingly populated urban centers. Why shouldn’t a sauna do the same?

Emerging from what would be the proportions of a standard bookshelf or bar cabinet, the flexible system expands into an enclosure fully equipped to support the schvitzing needs of three people. It does so, automatically, at the touch of a button.

The S1 is enabled with KLAFS proprietary SANARIUM control, offering five distinct climate experiences allowing its users to custom calibrate ambiance, humidity, and heat up to 210° Fahrenheit. The design is as sleek as it is versatile; able to fade into the background of interiors outfitted in various styles. Exterior finishes include matte black and walnut, both complemented by a walnut interior for a sophisticated yet inviting aesthetic. The S1 is available in three sizes—small, medium, and large—accommodating 2 to 3 users.

“For nearly a century, KLAFS has pushed the boundaries of sauna design, and the S1 represents our most transformative innovation for the wellness industry yet,” says KLAFS CEO Phillip Rock. “We’re thrilled to introduce a luxury wellness experience that makes sauna ownership attainable for people who may not have considered it possible due to limited space in their homes. By combining advanced engineering with thoughtful, space efficient design, we’ve created a sauna solution that elevates wellness in any home.”

To learn more about the latest wellness technology from the brand, visit klafsusa.com.

Photography courtesy of KLAFS.

Designing in the shadow of a master requires a particular kind of restraint and discipline––not deference so literal that it becomes mimicry, nor ambition so forceful that it erases lineage altogether. It demands something quieter, more exacting. With JOSEPH, his first Wittmann collaboration, French designer Philippe Nigro finds that balance, creating an armchair that reads as a contemporary work shaped by the discipline, geometry, and craft tenets that defined Josef Hoffmann’s original pieces.

At Wittmann’s Lower Austrian manufactory, this lineage is not theoretical, it is practiced. For generations, the company has built its identity around the idea that furniture is composed rather than assembled, each piece passing through the hands of specialists who understand material as both constraint and opportunity. JOSEPH emerges from this environment as the result of many: woodworkers, metal fabricators, seamstresses, and upholsterers working in concert, refining a form until construction, comfort, and clarity align.

Nigro’s reference to Hoffmann is deliberately indirect. Rather than quoting the ornamental tendencies of Viennese Art Nouveau, JOSEPH channels its underlying logic—precision, proportion, and a commitment to legibility. Hoffmann’s barrel armchairs, with their enveloping curvature, and the rigorously gridded Kubus chair both quietly echo here: the former in JOSEPH’s continuous, wrapping silhouette, the latter in its quilted outer shell, where geometry becomes structure rather than surface decoration.

That exterior is perhaps the chair’s most immediate expression of craft. A grid of meticulously upholstered squares wraps the back and arms, each seam placed with millimetric accuracy. It is an unforgiving detail—any deviation becomes instantly visible—requiring not just experience, but a kind of anticipatory thinking from the upholsterer. The interior, by contrast, softens. Smooth upholstery lines the seat and backrest, creating a subtle inversion: precision outwardly expressed, comfort inwardly reserved.

This duality—structure and softness—extends through every layer of the chair. Beneath the surface, a complex assembly of pocket springs and multi-layered foam is calibrated to support a posture that sits somewhere between upright and relaxed. JOSEPH is intentionally hybridized: neither strictly a dining chair nor a lounge piece, but a form that accommodates both modes of sitting. The slightly inclined backrest and carefully balanced proportions allow it to shift contexts, from residential interiors to workspaces, without losing its composure.

Materially, the chair operates as a site of negotiation. Wittmann’s expertise with upholstery allows for combinations of leather and fabric across interior and exterior surfaces, each pairing requiring careful calibration in cutting, tension, and visual weight. No two materials behave alike; elasticity, thickness, and grain all influence how a seam holds or a curve resolves. The result is beyond aesthetic, demonstrating JOSEPH’s ability to harmonize difference into a single, coherent object.

Despite its clean execution, the construction still carries the imprint of human handwork. The curved metal detail at the backrest is welded in-house, “amid flying sparks,” rather than standardized, which allows each chair to be subtly adjusted as needed. The wooden base, shaped through tensioned straps, introduces both structural resilience and ergonomic nuance. In summation, each chair a discrete resolution of similar sets of challenges.

And, in a final gesture that brings authorship back into the workshop, each finished piece bears a small plaque signed by the upholsterer responsible for its making. In this way, JOSEPH resists the anonymity of contemporary production or an object to be optimized for replication. Wittmann frames this approach as sustainability not through material innovation alone, but through longevity: furniture designed to endure, to be used, repaired, and ultimately passed on.

To shop this and other products from the storied brand, visit wittmann.at.

Photography by Lea Sonderegger courtesy of Wittmann.

Color is a powerful thing. Emotional and expansive, the most compelling hues can’t help but define our homes, clothes, and objects by washing every facet of our being in their brilliance and personality. Championing this creative tenet is Gantri, the now decade-old lighting company who fundamentally changed how many creatives and designers conceptualize with light.

Designs from familiar faces in the industry, including Madeline Isakson, Louis Filosa, and Viviana Degrandi, are 3D printed, assembled, and shipped out quick––rapid response time just one benefit to the system established here. Extending their influence into the brick-and-mortar world for the first time, Gantri is proud to present The Shop, a space to welcome community and commerce, but most importantly, color.

A 1920’s autobody shop in the heart of the Mission District is the set and setting for the new creative hub. Sectioned into thirds, the first facet of The Shop serves as a showroom and community space, with color cards, spaces to rest, and a unique method of room division lacquered in the signature Gantri green. Tiles sit balanced upon one another, perpendicular to their neighbors below. This creates an almost scale-like appearance, undulating tones of green picking up light in slightly different amounts, creating a serpentine feel when viewed from afar.

The center of the shop serves as a flexible hub, to be utilized for whatever is most pressing at that moment. This gives the team space to host events, meetings, or breakout sessions, while still maintaining the polish of a showroom.

In the third quadrant, the team works the magic that has brought international acclaim––and more than a few copycats––throughout ten years in business. Functionally the engine room of the operation, material research, prototyping, and refinement all happen here under one roof. The streamlining of a process that once was so technically arduous and required a large amount of background knowledge is quite elegant, even more so when paired with the clean design Gantri is known for.

A showroom, community hub, design studio, and materials lab all in one, the space is simultaneously a stunning achievement of how ubiquitous the Gantri model has become, and inspires a strong future in the decades to come. They take being a part of their neighborhood seriously, and plan to call 10th Street home for the near and far future.

To learn more about The Shop, visit gantri.com.

Photography by Krescent Carasso.

Much to my chagrin, a frenzy of screens increasingly defines my human existence. They seem to multiply, migrate, and mutate over time—expanding beyond passive surfaces into active participants in how I see, speak, and make. Through every iteration, my stalwart ally remains the original 2011 Thunderbolt Display from Apple. And with the introduction of a newly expanded Studio Display family, the brand leans further into its carefully considered evolution, positioning the screen as the central site of creative exchange, where desktop real estate, aspect ratios, and hybridized media shape how we see, process, and retain an onslaught of information.

At the entry point, the updated Studio Display reframes the desktop monitor as an integrated communications hub. A 27-inch 5K Retina panel—packing more than 14 million pixels—anchors the experience, offering a precise prescription of equipment variables calibrated for clarity and continuity. Here, user attention, retention, and responsiveness are embedded outcomes, supported by high pixel density, balanced brightness, and a color profile tuned for legibility as much as vibrancy.

Performance, too, is measured in human terms. The potential for eye fatigue or strain hangs in a delicate balance between the density of displayed text, the quality of graphics rendered, and the rhythms of scrolling. Apple’s 5K resolution, 600 nits of brightness, and P3 color gamut work in concert to maintain that equilibrium, allowing for extended time-on-task without compromising comfort or comprehension.

The addition of a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View further shifts the screen from a one-way display into a multi-directional interface that acknowledges how often we are now both viewer and participant. Studio-quality microphones and a six-speaker system with Spatial Audio extend this condition, transforming the display into a site of presence.The addition of a 12MP Center Stage camera with Desk View further shifts the screen from a one-way display into a multi-directional interface that acknowledges how often we are now both viewer and participant. Studio-quality microphones and a six-speaker system with Spatial Audio extend this condition, transforming the display into a site of presence.

Connectivity follows suit. With Thunderbolt 5, the Studio Display becomes infrastructural—capable of daisy-chaining up to four displays or supporting high-speed peripherals through a single cable that also delivers up to 96W of charging power. What emerges is a workspace no longer constrained to a single screen but distributed across a continuous visual field that can be modulated across multiple surfaces.

If Studio Display expands the everyday screen, the all-new Studio Display XDR recalibrates what a professional interface can be. Built around a 27-inch 5K Retina XDR panel with a mini-LED backlight and over 2,000 local dimming zones, it reaches up to 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio—producing ultra-bright and ultra-crisp images, respectively.

The implications for attention and accuracy only intensify. A 120Hz refresh rate with Adaptive Sync ensures that motion remains fluid and responsive, reducing visual friction and cognitive lag. Expanded color support positions the display as a true reference surface, where even subtle shifts in tone or contrast can be read with precision. Whether navigating dense timelines in video editing, parsing complex datasets, or rendering immersive environments, the screen becomes an instrument calibrated for sustained focus and interpretive clarity.

Across both models, Apple’s approach is consistent: the screen is no longer just where content appears—it is where workflows converge. Camera, audio, connectivity, and computation are folded into a single plane, transforming the display into a responsive environment attuned to the nuances of human perception and productivity as technology continues to proliferate.

To discover more of the brand’s latest launches or to shop the Studio Displays, visit apple.com.

Photography courtesy of Apple.

The allure of venturing into the great outdoors for a few days will never cease. When the going gets tough and the challenges of the world seem insurmountable, a trip deep into the reaches of unspoiled nature is almost always the right antidote. Camping, however, doesn’t mean one has to entirely rid themselves of acculturated conveniences. It doesn’t mean they should completely replicate or exceed the creature comforts of home with elaborate glamping accoutrements either. The middle road can be exactly what the doctor ordered. But for it to work, the right equipment is essential. These carefully calibrated tools, furnishings even, should get the job done well and only when that’s achieved, sport a bit of stylistic flourish or incorporate technological advancements.

Famous for his “supper normal” re-calibration of everyday furniture, lighting, and device typologies, British designer Jasper Morrison has just launched an outdoor product collection with Danish brand HAY that facilitates the median. The simple implementation of colorful strip patterns on incorporated upholstery and the gleaming iridescence of the laid bare metal used accomplishes the second task, not as an added layer of superfluous aesthetic intervention, but as an incidental byproduct of the new, if just slightly, anomalous forms; responding to an intensive, if just slight, reassessment of function conducive to present day need.

Funny enough, the aesthetic outcome of this process emerged as nostalgic. Bypassing the pitfalls of overly engineered gear with too many bells and whistles lead to the rediscovery of shapes and mechanics that have and will continue to transcend time. The aim here for Morrison, however, wasn’t to create artifacts with so-called timeless appeal, nor objects with fleeting novelty, but rather designs that carry a degree of familiarity and relatable emotional resonance. Sustainable strategy—the deft implementation of durable water-lacquered beech wood and stainless steel—didn’t need to be explicit, shouted out loud. Ease of use and perceptible simplicity sounds louder.

“For us, Jasper is a master of everyday objects,” said Mette Hay, co-founder of HAY. “He has an incredible ability to make the ordinary feel essential, a perspective that closely aligns with our approach to design, where usefulness and longevity are central.”

The comprehensive range is as suited for a few days prospecting in the wilderness as for a beach day, afternoon picnic, or evening backyard hang. Included are folding armchairs and love seats that can be quickly stored away. They’re far more refined and essentialized than the unsightly, collapsible metal pole camping chairs sold at the local camping store. It makes the prospect of spontaneously heading out far more appealing and tenable.

Alongside the more structural Canopy and Folding Tables are the Cooler, Bottle, and Picnic Bags. Formed like two intersection cones, the BBQ and Firepit products are as straightforward in their function as they are satisfying in their countered shape. The adjoining Plates, Pans, Grills, Tongs, Forks, and Skewers round-out the proposition. Bringing in that nostalgic feel are the Brooms and Dust Pan.

The collection is now available at both MoMA Design Store and through Design Within Reach. To shop, visit store.moma.org and dwr.com, respectively.

Photography courtesy of HAY.

Cities like New York are densely packed in an effort to maximize every available square foot—people literally stacked on top of one another. While a calendar crammed full of engagements—or simply fighting through the grocery store at 6 p.m.—can feel taxing, depleting one’s social battery, isolation and complete anonymity are also very real conditions in this context.

Through the monotony of constantly going to work and returning home, one can get lost in the thick of it. Third spaces are essential for breaking the cycle. They facilitate more meaningful, less superficial and fleeting interactions. For too long, this type of “escape” has simply been the bar around the corner; not merely a place to drink but also have impromptu—if more subconsciously planned than most will admit—exchanges with those outside of one’s professional and social circles. The health implications are problematic, to say the least.

Positioned as a new type of neighborhood gathering place—akin to the thriving supper clubs of a bygone era—Lore Bath House is not just another urban sauna but a facility made to more smoothly facilitate community. That isn’t to say that introverts or the newly defined, hybrid ambivert are barred from visiting. The option to converse with others is simply there. Lore’s expansive shared sauna spaces—both dry heat and infrared—and oversized cold plunge pool are far less modulated, confined, and formulaic than other comparable venues in New York.

It’s also nowhere near as cultish or “fully participatory” as some. The aim, of course, is to forge a base of regulars; those members that come to sweat as part of their weekly, even daily, routine. It’s a healthier alternative to the bar, coffee shop, and even, that loneliest of places, the gym.

For founders James O’Reilly—formerly of NeueHouse and Life Time—and Adam Elzer—the force behind Everyday Hospitality—such a proposition is not just outwardly but also inwardly facing; an act of kindness bestowed on oneself.

“We were drawn to this practice for the social elements, but stayed for the health and felt benefits,” O’Reilly says. “While it’s been around for millennia, science now confirms what tradition always knew: regular sauna and cold-water immersion sessions enrich health. The key isn’t longer sessions but greater frequency.

Behind a nondescript facade flanking Broadway as it climbs up through the bustling pocket neighborhood of NoHo, Lore unfolds as a 6,200-square-foot facility. Upon entering, members descend two separate staircases, one for women and the other for men, only to discover long, well-appointed changing and shower rooms. They re-emerge on either side and are fully immersed in the monumental sauna and cold plunge chamber. Along the way, they’re guided by a gradually evolving, sensorially cued palette of colors, materials, and textures. White warm travertine encircles the pool, the sauna is wrapped in dark, chocolate toned, alder wood. The bold yet gentled transitioned scheme evokes the sharp contrast of putting one’s body through thel extremes of “hot and cold.”

To learn more about the new space, visit lorebathingclub.com.

Photography by Sean Davidson and Aly Kula as noted.

Untethered by bombastic claims of trend adherence or disingenuous refutes thereof, Brooklyn furniture brand Sixpenny does things differently. For the maverick producer, it isn’t even a question of substance over style but an unyielding concession that the objects we surround ourselves with in our ever-multivalent homes will inevitably wear down; imprint the passage of time and use. Its proposition: create especially comfortable furnishings with carefully sourced top quality materials in timeless compositions. Sixpenny’s differentiator: a favorable price point for what are ostensibly heirloom pieces.

Whether a sofa with flowing upholstery—recycled vegan polys—with overstuffed pillows—ethically sourced down feathers. Base frames are hand-assembled out of kiln-dried hardwoods. Up until recently, achieving timelessness in these designs centered on using neutral tones.

That changes with the new Wild Air print, a striking interplay of rich yellows, greens, and reds. The fabric—wrapping various existing designs—centers on a sfumato effect blending together what appears to be Mannerist-style watercolors of flowers.

The move was so bold that Sixpenny CEO and Head of Design Robert Natale chose to completely retrofit the brand’s Dumbo, Brooklyn loft. Rather than the stark white, post industrial interior they might expect to encounter, visitors are transported in what appears to be an Art Deco haveli.

The orangey red found in the printed textile covers the walls in an almost stucco-like effect and carries across to subtly ornamented rugs. A dramatically staged lounge gives way to a platformed bedroom accessed through intricately detailed (concentric circle pattern) panel doors.

The moody time capsule—a retreat from the concrete, glass, and steel of the surrounding area—showcases an expanded product range alongside a vast collection of accessories, plants, and art works. Nods to the historic Art Deco style fascination with Japanisme are emphatic. Each carefully arranged vignette throughout the ever-unfolding interior reveals something new about Sixpenny’s aesthetic ambition, if not also, its agility.

To learn more about the brand and shop their extensive collection, visit sixpenny.com.

Photography by William Jess Laird.

Erika Hardman spent time in the corporate world as a recruiter, but when she began working alongside her partner Liam in their furniture studio, she realized that it was not just a career but a calling. “I would wake up thinking about new possibilities,” she says. “That’s when it really clicked for me. When something starts running through you like that, you know it’s where your energy belongs.”

Originally founded in Berlin in 2012, Hardman Design is now based in Brooklyn. Hardman, the company’s creative director, stepped into her role gradually. She remained curious and became more involved in the different aspects of the process, from shaping initial concepts to building the brand.

Clients treasure the custom hardwood pieces defined by clean lines and sculptural forms. When Hardman receives an impression in her mind, she usually jots down some quick notes, not all of which make sense at first. Then she collects references and screenshots of architecture, natural materials, and travel destinations to put on a physical or digital mood board.

Hardman finds that this early stage of a project is the most malleable, and the opportunities feel endless. She discusses and filters a design repeatedly until it eventually moves from paper to solid object.

The collaboration with Liam is still rewarding, even though it happens every day. “Design has become such a big part of our daily life that we sometimes find ourselves standing in the middle of the street with a measuring tape, talking about proportions or sketching,” she adds. “Some of the best ideas appear in those unexpected moments.”

Today, Erika Hardman joins us for Friday Five!

1. My Dogs Mio & Lue

My dogs are a constant reminder of energy and persistence. Their excitement for the smallest things — a walk, a toy, a patch of sunlight — is grounding. Watching their curiosity every day is surprisingly motivating. They bring joy and immediacy to life in a way that’s hard to ignore.

2. Sauna & Cold Plunge

Sauna and cold plunge have become a weekly ritual for me. I’m drawn to the architecture of spaces like Othership, with warm wood interiors, soft light, and minimal finishes. The contrast between heat and cold clears my often-busy mind. I always leave feeling calmer and more focused.

3. Architectural Footwear

I’m drawn to objects where the structure is visible. Certain footwear can feel almost like a designed object in its own right. Maison Margiela approaches this through geometry, balance, and subtle details — the trapezoidal heel on some of their pumps feels almost architectural. Brands like NEOUS explore similar ideas as well, treating footwear from a more sculptural perspective.

4. The California Desert

The California desert has a way of blocking out the noise of the world. The vastness and quiet reset my mind almost instantly. I’m always drawn to its restraint — muted colors, dry air, and dramatic light. There’s a simplicity to it that feels almost elemental. It’s minimal, raw, and deeply inspiring to me.

5. Music

Music is a constant companion in both my work and life. I tend to gravitate toward electronic music — especially when I’m working. It creates a steady atmosphere without being distracting and helps me focus for long stretches. The right track can completely shift the mood of a space or a moment.

Works by Hardman Design’s co-owner and Creative Director Erika Hardman:

LÜNA
The LÜNA bed continues the subtractive design language introduced in the LÜNA collection — softened edges, rounded transitions, and a restrained silhouette. Sitting low to the ground, the design emphasizes proportion and spatial calm. The curved headboard is sculpted from solid wood boards joined to preserve continuity of grain.

LELA
LELA draws from Danish chair design, focusing on proportion and comfort. Curved wooden armrests and tapered legs create a quiet sculptural form, while the upholstered seat adds softness. The chair is designed for long gatherings around the table.

KAT Dining Table
KAT centers around a strong structural base that gives the table a clear architectural presence. The central column keeps the footprint compact while leaving the surrounding space open for chairs. It’s a simple form that balances stability with a sense of lightness.

ARLEN
ARLEN explores circular forms and softened geometry. The flowing silhouettes of the tables and gently rounded edges create an approachable presence that works comfortably in many interiors. The design blends Scandinavian warmth with modernist clarity.

LULU Sofa
The LULU Sofa pairs soft upholstery with a simple exposed wooden frame. Its curved lines and generous proportions create an inviting place to relax while keeping the overall form visually light. The design balances warmth with a clear structural expression.

Throughout his illustrious career, the late Karl Lagerfeld amassed an impressive portfolio of distinctive properties. Recent monograph Karl Lagerfeld A Life in Houses, published by Thames & Hudson, surveys this vast collection: everything from the Memphis-ladden apartment in Monte Carlo to the high-ornate, era-appropriate eighteenth-century mansion Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo in Paris. Regardless of the address, the revered fashion designer always, unabashedly, combined old with new, shedding fresh light on various historical design movements and their most important pioneers. Most of these homes have been the subject of expansive magazine print features and the fodder of tabloid headlines but little focus has ever really been placed on his workspaces.

That all changed with the recent uncovering and reformatting of Lagerfeld’s private Saint-Germain-des-Prés office. Luxury apartment and home rental platform HIGHSTAY has deftly, yet carefully, transformed the multi-level bureau into a two bedroom Saint-Germain I accommodation replete with original architectural fit-outs and collected items. This period room of sorts is a timecapsule, preserved in exactly the same configuration as the day the legendary talent left for the last time. Away from the major couture houses he stewarded up to his death in 2019, the space was a more intimate retreat; a stylistic reflection of himself, in which he could carry out private business and entertain close friends.

Though decidedly indicative of a specific era in design history—not disclosed but easily deciphered as the late 1990s and early 2000s—the sprawling 2690 square-foot unit unfolds with sleek, space-age-like built-ins contoured in curvilinear half polished and half patinated steel surfaces. Even in this once-contemporary pared back setting—somehow timeless and au courant yet again—Laggerfeld still exerted a degree of opulence, if slightly restraint in overall scheme.

The near palatial stairwell was custom designed by him in partnership with top-billing Australian product designer Marc Newson. The “La tête dans les nuages” (Head in the Clouds) sculpture standing at its base was created by artist Laurence Perratzi.

In one of the adjoining lounges, soaring mirrored ceilings expand the visual perspective of twin steel libraries—articulated in the same formal vocabulary—described above—as a custom bedframe-cum-armoire. Normally a stark material that evokes a level of cold industrial conformity was rendered in warm, corporeal form here. Wielded in the more intimate walk-in closets and bar, dark-tone wood paneling emerges a grounding contrast.

This matrix of a hybrid complex—an urban retreat featuring a private hammam and sauna—also includes a second en-suite bedroom, separate dining room, and other annexes. There’s a visual consistency of capsule and pixelated elements—hinting at a more sophisticated interpretation of early digital motifs.

Complementing the hard product is a curated Karl Itinerary incorporation stops at the couturier’s favorite Left Bank haunts, Café de Flore and Maison du Caviar among them.

What: Saint-Germain I
Where: Paris, France
How much: price upon request
Design draws: Karl Lagerfeld’s lesser-known private office perfectly preserved as a two-bedroom rental apartment with sleek metallic capsule and pixelated pattern details throughout.
Book it: Saint-Germain I

Go virtually on vacation with more design destinations right here.

Photography courtesy of HIGHSTAY

Tables are essential in today’s modern workplaces, utilized as work surfaces and places to gather around. Yet these pieces, ever functional, can often feel basic and rather cold, like the metal furnishings that dot the office landscape.

So when contract furniture manufacturer KFi STUDiOS tapped Union Design to create a new line of tables, the team envisioned furnishings that acknowledge the constant motion and noise of the workplace, but don’t add to it—which the name Hum perfectly captures. “We wanted to have a cohesive look across the product, while changing the sizes and shapes for different spaces,” says Jeff Theesfeld, founder of Union Design. “Then we started looking at which forms would convey a sense of calm.”

Unlike traditional furniture with hard edges, Hum’s versions include softly shaped round, square, triangle, rectangle, and line-of-sight tops. These selections encourage comfortable interaction among those gathered around the worktable. There are seven wood tops, from a classic natural shade to navy and evergreen. Solid surfaces come in lighter tints like Designer White and creamy Bisque. Laminate tops are available in 26 Wilsonart colors.

Offered in 16-inch and 20-inch occasional heights, plus a 30-inch meeting height, Hum tables span lounge and conference applications. Each item can also adapt for casual touch-down moments or be utilized to enhance conference spaces.

A fully upholstered pedestal base is available in a large selection of graded-in fabrics or COM. This tactile element has an inviting presence that adds warmth to corporate interiors. Specifiers can choose from woven, coated, or leather textiles to complement a range of interiors.

The triangular and line-of-sight bases feature a magnetic panel for easy access to cables and audio-visual equipment. When multiple bases are used, a hollow beam connects them, which provides a pathway to help neatly manage cables. Hum offers multiple integrated power options, including standard outlets and USB charging ports. Adjustable glides allow employees to move the tables from room to room throughout the day.

Traditional hierarchies continue to shift, and Hum tables reflect this blurring of boundaries. “If you look in an executive boardroom, no one is wearing a tie anymore,” Theesfeld notes. “Everything is softening and I wanted to express that.”

To learn more about the creative brands behind Hum, visit kfistudios.com and createwithunion.com, respectively.

Photography courtesy of KFi STUDiOS.

The fundamental tension at the heart of this San Diego residence is one familiar to anyone working along California’s coastline: how to make something genuinely new from a structure that, by regulation, must remain. Bound to a 1950s footprint that could not be fully demolished under Coastal Commission guidelines, architect Daniel Joseph Chenin approached the La Jolla beachside project less as renovation and more as recalibration—working with contractor Hill Construction to strip the house to its essential framework before reconstructing an interior that feels wholly reauthored, yet quietly in dialogue with what came before.

Beyond spatial reconfiguration, the result is a disciplined study in restraint. The kitchen island, carved from solid onyx, becomes the project’s conceptual anchor—selected not for decorative veining, but for its capacity to hold and refract light, mimicking the rhythmic shimmer of the Pacific just beyond. Its sculptural, rounded form operates in the round, shifting from workspace to bar, dissolving boundaries between utility and hospitality. Above, a rudder-inspired fixture underscores this sense of orientation and balance, while warm oak millwork runs throughout the home, establishing a continuous tonal field against which these moments of expression can register.

Nautical references surface repeatedly, though never as overt motif. The living area’s oak-paneled ceiling pitches subtly overhead, recalling the hull of a ship in a way that reads as structural logic rather than decoration. In the powder room, a steel porthole mirror frames a hand-painted underwater tableau, while a circular port window in the main living space captures a precise view of the peninsula—each gesture operating as a controlled aperture, making the act of looking outward feel intentional, almost choreographed.

That same preoccupation extends to how the house manages light and movement over time. Morning sun enters first through a central courtyard—conceived as both threshold and communal core—before tracking across onyx, lacquered surfaces, and finely tuned wood grain.

As the day progresses, the interior shifts in register, textures revealing themselves gradually, never all at once. Rather than performing under a single, static condition, the material palette is calibrated to respond to change, allowing the house to unfold in tandem with the coastal atmosphere that surrounds it.

The owner’s brief—shaped by a life of travel and a preference for environments that feel both curated and calm—called for tranquility and material authenticity over overt expression. Chenin’s response is one of rigorous spatial editing, where absence becomes an active design tool. Integrated storage, concealed systems like a hidden television lift embedded within the central bar, and furnishings selected for proportion and tactile quality rather than statement all contribute to a space that resists excess while remaining deeply sensorial.

Even where conventional art might typically occupy walls, architecture itself assumes that role. Curved ceilings echo the motion of nearby waves, custom vanities blend wood, leather, and metal into singular compositions, and every touchpoint is considered for its physical and emotional resonance. As Chenin notes, “In a home like this, anything the hand touches should feel exquisite,” reflecting a practice that elevates the everyday into something quietly ceremonial.

“He wasn’t looking for an ornate or overly stylized space,” Chenin explains. “It was about distilling the essence of simplicity, order, and material authenticity—an understated luxury that isn’t overt, but felt.”

Architecture, material, and light are held in careful equilibrium—each one calibrated to the steady, unhurried rhythm of the sea.

View this and other works by the internationally-recognized firm by visiting djc-ltd.com.

Photography by Tim Hirschmann and courstey of v2com.

The annual design calendar is undeniably saturated with various well-entrenched events taking place across the globe almost every other week. Traditional convention center-beholden trade fairs have largely operated along the same lines for decades now. Visitors with a vested interest enter one of these poorly lit, badly insulated, and cavernous voids only to find rows and rows of white cube booths and narrow, overcrowded passageways between them. The proposition is clear: bringing a wide range of brands—specialized in different types of design products—under one roof.

For well over a decade now, a handful of these exhibitors have sought to break out and showcase within offsite city center showrooms; welcoming in visitors in a more intimate and impromptu fashion. These not necessarily opposing and perhaps more complimentary formats are now the norm at major happenings like Milan Design Week, New York Design Week, and 3Days of Design in Copenhagen. Until now, no-one has really challenged the duality.

To the perceived chagrin of an ever-thriving Stockholm design scene—one that gets easily overshadowed by the boisterous Danish capital to its south—its annual design week and furniture fair were cancelled this year. Instead of throwing their hands up and accepting this fate, the Swedish capital’s small but internationally impactful crop of independent studios and manufacturers mounted a series of more informal and scrappy happenings. Inherently—by nature of these industriously collective efforts—the resulting but not necessarily aligned program felt more authentic. The exchange was less prescriptive; fresher and more honest.

One such endeavor was local powerhouse industrial design practice Form Us With Love’s (FUWL) Testing Grounds Showroom project. Bringing into the fold various local and international industry players, the studio chose to re-assess the efficacy of this model, as well as the larger fair format.

FUWL brought in Dutch textile producer BYBORRE, Swedish acoustics company BAUX, modular storage system brand String, office chair maker Savo, and French sustainable flooring manufacturer Tarkett for a four-month-long showcase (on view through the end of May). FUWL collaborated with each on new concepts.

Running for much longer than any fair, even a conventional gallery exhibition, the presentation champions a hyper contextualized approach, putting these complementary solutions to the test in a sincerely demonstrative fashion. It allows those vested visitors mentioned before to slow down a bit and truly engage with the concepts; have time to make their own substantively critical assessments. In a more traditional context these myriad releases would be disassociatively exhibited across a sprawling convention center.

Tying everything together is a series of live event workshops that push far beyond the typical panel talk. The carefully coordinated program is earnestly addressing the main question of what a showroom is today through a wide variety of lens. Topics range from color accuracy in digital workflows and the role sound technology plays in communicating brand value to how showrooms themselves can become the most effective devices for decision making.

To learn more about the pioneering brand, visit formuswithlove.se.

Photography Courtesy of Form Us With Love.