We didn’t just want to make the milestone tangible—we wanted to call in the global design figures who’ve made est magazine what it is today by featuring five inaugural Hall of Fame recipients.

We hear from Vincent Van Duysen on the need for a fortified vision to design without borders; from John Pawson about why nothing falls outside the remit of architecture, and how Faye Toogood protects the conditions for meaningful work at all costs. “Design is never truly finished,” Norm Architects founding partner Jonas Bjerre-Poulsen says, and for Vincenzo De Cotiis, memory is the structural element that sparks intuitive creation.

This is how Design Instinct informed the title of this issue, and what connects our esteemed 10 for 2026: the most influential voices in Australian residential architecture and design, and the multidisciplinary designers hopscotching between interiors, spatial and product design. We discover what lights them up, what they’d like to see less of in design and why, as designer Olivia Bossy says, “If it doesn’t create an emotion, there’s probably a better version.”

Designing for feeling is just as potent in this issue’s homes. Our cover story, an art aficionado’s New York townhouse, is designed by Nicolas Schuybroek Architects as a “slow withdrawal from the city”, and a coastal home by Templeton Architecture and Pasquale Cook breathes with the ease of imperfect materials.

Making its way out of this issue and into your ears, our latest podcast with Flack Studio founder and principal David Flack, hosted by Karen McCartney, reminds us of this same humility—and why design with soul and the courage to be a little disruptive lasts a lifetime.