Design Agenda: September 2026
Material, Memory and the Art of Living
From Paris to New York and Monaco, MAEVE explores the exhibitions, objects and ideas shaping the season.
September brings a particular energy to the design world. Galleries reopen, collections emerge, and the international calendar gathers momentum. For those interested in how art enters everyday life, it is a month of discovery: a chance to look closely at the materials, histories and ambitions behind the objects we choose.
This edition of the MAEVE Design Agenda follows the September events in our calendar: Maison&Objet in Paris, Independent 20th Century in New York and the Monaco Yacht Show. Together, they offer three distinct perspectives on living with design, from the intimacy of a crafted object to the atmosphere of an entire floating home.
Maison&Objet, Paris | 10–14 September
Objects with an expressive life
Maison&Objet’s September edition took “Pulse in Motion” as its creative theme. Masquespacio, the studio founded by Ana Milena Hernández and Christophe Penasse, served as ambassadors for the fair and Paris Design Week. Their installation, Feel the Shift, approached design through the relationship between people, spaces and emotion.
A more tactile conversation unfolded in In Materia, conceived by Elizabeth Leriche with Ateliers d’Art de France. At the entrance to the Fine Craft sector, the installation brought the expressive qualities of materials and contemporary craftsmanship into focus.
The Rising Talent Awards added another compelling layer, spotlighting seven South African designers and studios. Ashleigh Lloyd’s sculptural rope seating and lighting, Meetlo Studio’s dialogue with cultural heritage, and Siyanda Mbele’s geometry and Ndebele-inspired motifs offered distinct expressions of contemporary craft.
For MAEVE, the interest lies in that specificity. A technique, a place and a maker’s decisions can give an object a presence that extends beyond its silhouette. These presentations invite a closer way of looking: at how something is made, and at what its material carries into a room.
Independent 20th Century, New York | 24–27 September
The collector’s second look
Independent 20th Century moved into the Breuer building at 945 Madison Avenue for its fifth edition. Its programme gave familiar names unexpected contexts and brought less widely recognised practices into view.
Among the announced presentations were the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Love, Sex, and Desire, featuring drawings from the 1950s; Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s Yves Klein survey, centred on Pluie bleue; and Emma Kunz’s geometric drawings, presented by Hauser & Wirth. Berry Campbell’s The Women of Stable Gallery revisited the women supported by influential dealer Eleanor Ward.
These choices make an absorbing proposition for anyone building a collection. Discovery can mean returning to an artist we thought we understood, or following a historical connection we had never considered.
In the home, that approach allows a collection to develop through curiosity. A work might enter a room because its story stays with us. Another might change how we see the piece beside it. The resulting interior acquires the depth of an ongoing conversation.
Monaco Yacht Show | 23–26 September
Designing life at sea
At Monaco, one revealing design proposition was Feadship’s 115-metre HIVE, a concept developed by Studio De Voogt and presented through a scale model at the House of Feadship.
Its organising idea was a shared centre: an open space extending across four decks, inspired partly by the social salons of 1930s Paris. The design accommodates conversation, performances and gatherings, with more intimate settings around it—including a glass-enclosed library opening onto a garden and dining at water level.
HIVE remains a concept. Its significance for interiors lies in the question behind the architecture: how do people want to spend their time together?
That question travels easily from yacht to home. It asks where guests gather naturally, where a quieter conversation can happen, and how furniture and objects support those moments. Luxury becomes tangible in the quality of the experience a space makes possible.
On the October Agenda
October brings a rich conversation between art, interiors and collectible design. London gathers Decorex, PAD, Frieze London and Frieze Masters, while Paris welcomes Design Miami Paris, Paris Internationale, Art Basel Paris and MENART Fair. Across the Atlantic, the New York Tabletop Show and High Point Market turn our attention to the objects and collections that shape everyday living. For MAEVE, the month ahead invites us to explore how craftsmanship, artistic expression, and a collector’s eye come together in the home.
Our reading of these programmes brings us back to three enduring interests: material, memory and human connection.
For MAEVE, they belong together. The hand of the maker gives an object its character. The stories we discover deepen our attachment to it. And daily life gives it meaning, a light switched on at dusk, an artwork considered again, a table prepared for someone’s arrival.
Art that lives. Objects that endure.
