Design Milk

From June 8–9, this dynamic lineup of 20-minute conversations will dive into topics ranging from salutogenic spaces to designing for neurodiversity. Itineraries are already filling up for the commercial interior design industry’s premier annual event, NeoCon 2026. With more than 450 established and emerging exhibitors, this year’s programming includes engaging exhibits, collaborations and more—plus a new lighting showcase, Illuminate at NeoCon. But one thing you won’t want

Highlights at Clerkenwell Design Week 2026: Day 2 Every day, Design Milk editors bring you the best to see, learn, and do during the UK’s leading design festival. Here are our picks for Wednesday, May 20. Editors’ Pick | Talks | All-Day Happenings | Showroom Events | Products Highlight of the Day The Secret Garden by La Erreria This sensory installation that reimagines the traditional English garden as a reflection of materiality in architecture, featuring Tile of Spain ceramics f

One of the most vexing problems for those of us chasing a clutter-free aesthetic in the modern world is the mess of charging cords. We all have them—crisscrossing our otherwise perfect living rooms, and somehow getting more in the way each day than previously thought possible. With wireless, we can remove this pain point entirely. San Francisco-based Gantri has long been changing the lighting game, offering 3D printed, considered lighting for the home, office, and beyond. The innovation continue

Highlights at Clerkenwell Design Week 2026: Day 1 Every day, Design Milk editors bring you the best to see, learn, and do during the UK’s leading design festival. Here are our picks for Tuesday, May 19. Editors’ Pick | Talks | All-Day Happenings | Showroom Events | Products EDITORS’ PICK: Clerkenwell Design Awards at Haberdasher’s Hall The Clerkenwell Design Week Awards celebrate the most innovative, visionary products and, new for 2026, the people shaping the future o

Trajectory defines our world. As energy ebbs and flows, particles bounce in every way imaginable, forming the structures and bodies we see today. Even though they may seem static, the same is true for paper and textiles—their fibers are positioned in a specific directionality, unique to their content and circumstances of creation. In this way, every material contains its own terroir: one of a kind, just like us. This sensitivity to the unique nature of fiber is at the heart of Taiwan-Lantern&#82

As AI, spatial computing and immersive technologies rapidly move from experimental novelty into the fabric of everyday life, a new question is emerging for designers, architects, technologists and cultural institutions alike: What does it actually mean to design for humans in an increasingly immersive world? As part of the Design Dialogues by Design Milk at Clerkenwell Design Week 2026, the conversation “Immersive Spaces: Technology, Empathy & the Human Experience” explores a shi

As design culture increasingly reckons with questions of sustainability, overproduction, and what meaningful innovation looks like, this year’s physical Clerkenwell Design Week Award arrives as something refreshingly grounded: an object shaped by process, material intelligence, and the quiet poetry of making itself. Designed by Henry Marks, the sculptural award uses American cherry to celebrate craft as an aesthetic language as much as a way of thinking. For Marks, whose practice bridges exhibit

In the heart of sunny Naples, Florida, a new flagship boutique is challenging the sterile norms of luxury retail. Designed by DS Studio—a Canadian, all-female powerhouse team of architects—the Henri Noël Jewelry Flagship is a precisely crafted study in emotionally intelligent design. Led by principal Dina Sarhane, the design of the 2,350-square-foot space reimagines the boutique as both a retail showroom and a place of fabrication. Customers can browse finished pieces while glimpsing the process

The ground floor of a semi-detached Toronto townhouse is rarely generous with light. In the Mathersfield Project, designer Sam Sacks inherited a floor plate further complicated by a structural wall dividing the living and dining areas from a sunken kitchen and family room at the rear – two zones occupying the same house but operating independently of each other. Rather than restructuring the floor plate, Sacks moved the existing opening into alignment with the living and dining rooms, then

As populations continue to age globally, architecture is increasingly confronted with a difficult question: how can homes support physical accessibility without reducing later life to a purely clinical condition? Too often, housing designed for aging prioritizes utility at the expense of atmosphere, identity, and emotional comfort. The result is a built environment that functions efficiently yet rarely feels aspirational. With Home for Life in Heifort, Belgian practice FELT proposes another poss

With sterile white cube exhibits now a memory of a bygone era, contextualized displays have become the norm across the design industry. Independent talents, established brands, and leading galleries are now primarily staging their wares in fully furnished, total-work-of-art domestic settings. The idea is to suggest – or clearly indicate – how their products and limited-run works might actually live in the spaces they’ll eventually inhabit. Few, however, fully respond to the existing conditions a

Texture is a unique facet of design in that it cannot be felt with just the eyes – or perhaps it can. Our brains are so primed to understand our environments on an immediate basis that those with practice will report feeling the very same sensations that they see. MUHLY are experts in texture, deftly transforming plans of material into familiar shapes and configurations, with a specific twist. The studio is proud to present their latest pieces, Dekko, Pokal and the Prairie Pendant. The work is d

Light and faith have long been intertwined symbols of life, our circadian rhythms tethered to the sunlight that greets us each day. Across cultures and centuries, light has signified purity, warmth, revelation, and at times an almost blinding transcendence – qualities drawn from the very star that holds our solar system together. It’s no surprise, then, that those regarded as divine on earth – prophets, saints, and other sacred figures – have so often been depicted with halos, visual echoes of c

As the pageant queen of design weeks, Milan tends to go all out. And this year, the city-wide festivities were bigger and bolder than ever. The name of the game: balloons. From the most luxe brand-activations to emerging artist installations, giant inflated creatures and air-filled experiences emerged as a clear visual motif of the festival. Here, check out 5 standouts that rose above the crowd. Courtesy of 10 Corso Como. Courtesy of 10 Corso Como. 1. Moncler’s Octopus Invasion at 10 Corso Como

In a profession where deadlines are tight, inspiration is fleeting, and sourcing can quickly become a logistical labyrinth, efficiency is no longer a luxury––it’s a necessity. Enter Material Bank, the digital marketplace that redefined material sourcing in North America continues to expand its presence across Europe. Since 2023, Material Bank has steadily built momentum on the continent. Its promise is deceptively simple: make searching, sampling, and specifying materials radically easier—and do

To savor a fresh baguette from a bakery in Paris is truly a feast for the senses, and often a highlight for foodies on holiday abroad. Few offerings stateside compare, though, with grab-and-go bakeries that all too often imitate the look of a standard French café, with little variation. The Bread Club in Dallas offers a different experience, with a contemporary take on traditional fare and favorite spots in the City of Light. Designed by INK+ ORO Creatives and inspired by the ritual of bringin

Time is one of the hardest intangibles to fathom. It can feel both fleeting and unending; perceptively tied to specific places and conditions, yet also entirely untethered by context. With the advent of industrialization nearly four centuries ago—electric light “allowing” us to operate beyond the limitations of natural, seasonal rhythms—the perception of time itself accelerated. The best we, as humans, have done to formalize and comprehend this unceasing force is the invention of the clock. Th

As a young man in Iceland Tryggvi Thorsteinsson worked in construction, which shaped his view of his eventual profession. “Everything had to be imported so nothing was wasted, and that mindset stayed with me,” he says. “Architecture became an extension of that way of thinking; being intentional, simplifying, and making things that last.” Thorsteinsson was also inspired by nature in his native country, which is raw and powerful. His parents created a botanical garden in the Westfjords region, whe

Adrienna Matzeg’s work often recalls bright summer afternoons, her vibrant table scapes conjuring a lunchtime setting at an alfresco cafe. But her latest series, After Hours, departs from her previous work completely. The punch needle pieces on black linen depict nighttime moments as conjured by memory. The collection, on view at Toronto’s Abbozzo Gallery, is Matzeg’s first physical solo show (she also exhibits her tapestries online). And it draws inspiration from her experiences on a trip

The simple pleasures of life are defined personally – ice clinking in a glass of water on a hot summer’s day, a fresh bar of nice-smelling soap – certainly, not everything is for everyone, yet there are usually things that modern adults can agree upon. A clean home is usually one of those, and for those of us with pets or kids, it sometimes seems impossible to stop the  neverending flow of spills and messes. Operating like a self-driving car, Matic is a robot vacuum that doesn’t requ