From Specification to Authorship: Why Architects Are Designing Furniture Again

Architizer is thrilled to announce that the 2026 A+Product Awards is open for submissions! The clock is ticking — get your merchandise in entrance of the AEC trade’s most famed designers by submitting at the moment.

For a lot of the twentieth century, architects had been skilled specifiers. As soon as the drawings had been executed, their job was to pick out supplies, merchandise and furnishings — producing the well-known “FF&E” (Furnishings, Fixtures, and Tools) doc. Product design remained a very completely different self-discipline. Architects designed areas, producers provided elements and the rise of world product catalogs and standardized development methods strengthened this division.

And but, at the moment we witness a shift, one which goes again to the rules of Modernism, when architects corresponding to Mies Van Der Rohe and Alvar Alto advocated the thought of complete design and produced a few of the most well-known product items ever created — objects that had been structure in miniature. These days, structure corporations are as soon as once more beginning to design merchandise in addition to buildings. From door handles to chairs and lighting fixtures, they put the identical ardour and rigor in assembling a desk as they do an area. So, what modified? When did architects cease selecting merchandise and begin designing them — and what does that imply for the self-discipline?

This shift taking place now just isn’t random. In lots of instances, buildings have grow to be more and more value-engineered, main architects to attempt to “regain” management by designing customized parts in smaller scales. Moreover, customized merchandise enable structure corporations to speak their model and id past buildings, branching out to various markets and by extent, income streams. Nonetheless, maybe probably the most notable side of this “design cycle” (constructing to object and again once more), is how architectural pondering can reshape merchandise, treating them as spatial or infrastructural relatively than purely ergonomic or ornamental.

One instance is Collect and Tiers by Foster + Companions, an outside furnishings assortment produced in collaboration with ESCOFET. This Barcelona-based firm works with city parts and concrete to remodel cities and promote using public area. The product is a modular seating system, whose form can vary from liners, concave, convex and finish modules, all of which may be reconfigured to create enclosed pocket areas, straight benches, or seating round inexperienced islands.

The seating system is constituted of ultra-high-performance concrete and is accessible in 4 completely different colours – gray, black, white and beige – with a bespoke aluminum armrest. In parallel, the Tiers household is made up of a bench, desk or perch, excessive tables or low stools that may be organized in several formations for socializing or working. Finally, Collect and Tiers is furnishings behaving like micro-architecture, rooted within the concept of configurations that may be deployed throughout any outside context to outline area, supply levels of privateness and encourage collective use.

Trio by Studio mk27, | Finalist, Outside Furnishings, 2025 Product Awards

An equally essential motivator is the shift away from consumer-driven aesthetics, with architects emphasizing development logic and craft relatively than shopper tendencies. Trio by Studio mk27 is an armchair with a transparent Brazilian twist produced in collaboration with Minotti, an Italian modern furnishings model. The armchair is comprised of three completely different supplies – leather-based, cloth and wooden for the seat, backrest and body – all rigorously assembled. The backrest is exquisitely crafted, drawing experience from the everyday Brazilian cabinet-making course of, whereas the slender, padded seat is rested upon it. Lastly, the polished armrests supply a tactile, sensory expertise that echoes the curatorial precision of architectural detailing.

This isn’t the primary time Studio mk27 and Minotti collaborate. The Brazilian architectural studio has an in depth product design line that features seating methods, indoor and outside furnishings, a line of sideboards and cupboards and so on., underscoring how product design has grow to be an integral extension of the studio’s architectural observe relatively than a parallel pursuit.

TOPOS Chair by Zaha Hadid Design, 2025 Product Awards, Particular Point out, Better of the Yr – Sustainable Design

Lastly, product making by architectural observe usually views supplies as methods relatively than finishes. A definite instance is the TOPOS Chair for iSiMAR in addition to the Department Console for Neutra, each designed by Zaha Hadid Design. TOPOS is a set of out of doors furnishings that celebrates Mediterranean residing. Knowledgeable by the geographical idea of topography (the place the phrase toposmeans place in Greek), the furnishings converts contour traces into chair elements, utilizing materials because the medium of translation. Particularly, TOPOS Chair is constituted of galvanized metal chosen for its sturdiness in addition to its recyclability, for the reason that elements of every piece may be recovered, repurposed or recycled.

The fabric embodies the conceptual intent of the chair, with the contours adapting to every distinctive person, balancing ergonomics, structural resilience and geometric expression. Equally, the Department Console, a part of the Erosion Assortment, is carved from the best Carrara marble, celebrating the fantastic thing about pure stone remodeled over time. The fluid varieties and sinuous traces blur the boundary between furnishings and sculpture, suggesting an alternate idea of area.

These examples enable architects to reclaim authorship at scales the place experimentation is quicker, and objects supply a extra agile territory for inventive testing. This renewed proximity between constructing and product reveals how architectural pondering is migrating throughout scales looking for relevance and influence. So, the query stands, ought to the individuals who form cities additionally form the chairs? Finally, the reply lies in whether or not architectural values and important thought may be meaningfully transferred from the size of town to the size of the chair.

Architizer is thrilled to announce that the 2026 A+Product Awards is open for submissions! The clock is ticking — get your merchandise in entrance of the AEC trade’s most famed designers by submitting at the moment.

Featured Picture: Department Console by Zaha Hadid Design | Finalist, Residential Furnishings 2025 Product Awards