The annual festival that takes over New York, NYCxDESIGN, transformed the city into a sprawling platform for contemporary design, bringing together the international community through a series of events, talks, and installations. While ICFF at the Javits Center served as the institutional heart of the festival, it was on the city’s streets that creativity truly unleashed its most experimental energy, engaging schools like Parsons, Pratt, SVA, Cooper Union, and FIT, as well as museums from the MAD to the Cooper Hewitt. Kicking off with a party filled with performances and culinary experiences, its nearly 300 events were scattered across New York’s boroughs, from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Exclusive events, like the talk with Santiago and Gabriel Calatrava, marked the festival’s start at the Pavilion in Times Square, created in collaboration with Lexus.
Presented by Ilene Shaw, Executive Director of NYCxDESIGN, with the “Sketch to Street” event, the Japanese brand turned Broadway into an open-air laboratory, creating a dialogue between automotive design, visual art, and fashion. The project, structured as a real-time studio, involved William Chergosky of CALTY Design, artist Alex Alpert, and Denise Fócil of ASxDF, showcasing design as a language that cuts across disciplines.
A whirlwind of opening nights swept from Soho to Tribeca, from Chelsea to the design promenade of NoMad. On Madison Avenue, the multi-brand retailer Haute Living opened its second New York space, and Tecno inaugurated its first Manhattan showroom alongside acclaimed names like Poltrona Frau, Kartell, Rimadesio, Giorgetti, Boffi/De Padova, B&B Italia, Blu Dot, and Moooi all celebrating the start of design week. Moroso’s enchanting showroom hosted the ICFF Night Out, which was also celebrated in LIXIL’s immersive space on Fifth Avenue with a “Water Experience” that highlighted a world of innovation and refined aesthetics. Over in Soho, Scavolini unveiled a lighting design by Lodes during a design day that included brands still rooted in the city’s bohemian quarter: Technogym, Salvatori, Flou, USM, Artemide, Foscarini, Flos, and Calico Wallpaper, Meanwhile, British brand Tom Dixon returned to the New York scene, opening an industrial-flavored showroom in Tribeca.
Amidst immersive installations, open studios, and ever-stronger cross-pollinations, The Future Perfect unveiled eclectic microlighting by DUUD; Kab’ Juun presented a new concept for a music experience by Simon Howe; Kalei gallery offered an immersion into Radical Design; Ralph Pucci showcased creations by Sébastien Léon; StudioTwentyseven presented the Tessuto collection by Francesco Balzano, created during his residency at Villa Medici in Rome; and Galerie Gabriel hosted “The Cultivated Eye,” an exhibition curated by Julie Hillman in the Sutton Tower, exploring the domestic world of a collector with a keen eye for observing, preserving, and passing on heritage. In parallel, the city saw a focus on American design with the “Look Book Off” exhibition by Wanted Design; the new space from Los Angeles-based furniture brand Lawson-Fenning; and Maiden Home’s collection evoking the Arts and Crafts movement. In the realm of lighting design – the undisputed star of this edition – SHINE staged works by New York-based creatives, while “The New York Edit,” the first public exhibition organized by Design Hotels in collaboration with Lumens, focused on collectible pieces from names like In Common With, Roll & Hill, SIN, PELLE, and Rosie Li Studio.
From Soho to Downtown Manhattan, Afternoon Light has established itself as one of the most interesting platforms outside the traditional trade fair circuit. Hosted at the WSA, the event conceived by Deirdre Maloney and Minya Quirk offered a more fluid and interactive format without rigid divisions between exhibitors: an open-plan space featuring lounges, bookshops, sound installations by USM and items available for purchase on site. Among the key players were Rarify, Stickbulb, RAD Furniture, Espaces et Lignes and Peeke Design, with a strong focus on experimentation with materials and independent production.
And whilst the Italian Trade Agency, in collaboration with Interni, organised a series of events and talks dedicated to Made in Italy at its Townhouse – reimagined by Paola Navone-Otto studio – a renewed focus on the sensory dimension of design was explored by young French designers at the exhibition at Villa Albertine (now in its fourth edition), as part of Oui Design!, with the support of the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller and Manufactures Nationales–Sèvres & Mobilier National. Material innovation and sustainability were explored in Spotlight on Scandinavian Design, at the Residence of the Swedish Consul General, by six Nordic designers and their contemporary approach to living, whilst Vitra – with a spectacular installation by Camille Okhio – explored Verner Panton’s ingenuity in experimentation.
The event wasn’t confined to Manhattan: Brooklyn cemented its role as a parallel hub of Design Week with Dumbo Design Day, now in its second year, which opened architecture firms and creative studios to the public, featuring firms such as BIG and Snøhetta. It transformed into an open-air hub during the closing night of NYCxDESIGN and a programme packed with events which, this year, harmoniously overlapped with New York Art Week, featuring events such as Frieze, NADA and TEFAF, blurring the boundaries between collectible design, art and interiors. In an increasingly fluid conception of design culture, where product, research, storytelling and identity intertwine and connect.
