Maison&Objet Intérieurs Reveals Materials as Storytellers of Culture

Partnership

22 Dec

Preview

Maison&Objet Intérieurs Hong Kong 2025 sat at the crossroads of craft, culture and imagination. Designers and makers from Asia and beyond converged to turn materials into vessels of memory and possibilities

At this year’s Maison&Objet Intérieurs Hong Kong 2025, intersecting forces converged at a Crossroads — the event’s central theme and guiding principle for its approach to material exploration. Moving between tradition and innovation, materials emerged as vessels of culture, memory and emotions, reflecting the rapidly evolving ways of living.

In the Design Showcase, eight international installations explored hybrid living, hospitality and culture. Teo Yang’s Fragments of HK, A Letter from Seoul reimagined Hong Kong’s imprint on Korean memory. ‘For me, Hong Kong is part of the emotional landscape I grew up with in Korea,’ Yang explains. ‘In the nineties, Hong Kong movies, music and pop culture had a huge influence on Koreans, and many of us remember the city with a mix of longing, excitement and nostalgia.’ Drawing on posters, records, postcards and film stills from that era, Yang transformed them into a library-like emotional archive.

Wu Bin’s Hybridization: Garden Wanderings offered a contemplative pause amid urban intensity, where bark-textured walls, warm floors, filtered light and a fragrant garden guided visitors through a sensory journey. ‘We aimed to express fluidity and ambiguity: where inside merges with outside, movement coexists with stillness, and public intertwines with private. It feels like Hong Kong, like Shanghai — and even more like a folded projection of our shared urban daily life,’ says Bin.

Meanwhile, Steve Leung’s Connect merged modern materials with traditional craft, transforming furniture and lighting into playful, functional gestures rooted in memory. Pure white poles rose in a layered framework, their reflections multiplied by mirrors to create an expanding space, while a deep-grey curved core anchored the installation with a sense of solidity, echoed in the details of the patterned carpet and woven centrepiece.

Fragments of HK, A Letter from Seoul by Teo Yang

Drawing from his experience as someone who lives and works in Hong Kong, the installation was conceived as a space where contrasts coexist and, in his words, where collaboration across disciplines, ‘from weaving to lighting technology, sculpture to smart systems, reflects a broader shift in Asian design toward ecosystems in which different skills and stories enrich one another.’

Beyond the showcase, the Design Factory presented four immersive pavilions spotlighting sustainability and material innovation. Bringing names such as Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg of Collectible, Ann Chan and Korakot Aromdee, each pavilion invited visitors to explore materials in unexpected ways while proposing solutions for contemporary living.

Meanwhile, Le Club served as a hub for professional encounters, bringing together Hong Kong’s homegrown design talent alongside curated brand showcases. CL3, led by William Lim, and Lim + Lu, co-founded by his son Vincent Lim and Elaine Lu, reimagined the space by transforming modular plastic stools ubiquitous in Hong Kong into building blocks for perforated walls and hanging installations. ‘You know my dad and I don't actually do a lot of work together,’ explains Lim. ‘We come from the same school and background so the training was all aligned. We both look at everyday objects that people are familiar with but offer them in a very unexpected way.’

Rejecting the standard, clinical business lounge typology common at these events, the designers instead employed circular partitions inspired by the geometry of local eateries to carve out intimate pockets for meetings. Bespoke furniture crafted with local fabric studio Coltex, alongside carpets featuring mosaic-inspired patterns, subtly celebrated Hong Kong’s visual culture.

The event unfolded like a mosaic of lived experiences, each corner revealing a different way of inhabiting space, imbued with memory and craft. Materials spoke with quiet authority, guiding visitors through environments that felt lived, remembered and imagined all at once.

Text by Design Anthology
Images courtesy of Maison&Objet Intérieurs