The artist and designer Harry Nuriev was named Designer of the Year at Maison&Objet, unveiling Transformism: an installation that functions as a manifesto, an immersive space, and a cultural stance. More than a project you move through, it’s an idea to inhabit. Nuriev doesn’t introduce new objects into the world—he rereads the ones that already exist, shifting their context, meaning, and function.

The installation moves along the boundary between memory and the future, perfectly aligned with the fair’s theme, Past Reveals Future. Everyday objects, familiar materials, and almost domestic atmospheres are recomposed into a set that slows the gaze and forces us to reconsider what we take for granted. Nothing is completely new, yet everything looks different. This is a kind of design that doesn’t erase the past—it puts it on display.

Nuriev’s work has revolved around this tension for years. With Crosby Studios, the designer has built a language that moves between interiors, art, and installation, treating space as a surface for storytelling. In Transformism, this vision condenses in an almost didactic way: the project becomes a statement against the obsession with novelty and in favor of transformation as a creative and political act.

Inside the installation, the line between functional object and collectible piece dissolves. Everything feels suspended in an in-between state, as if it were waiting for a new identity. It’s an invitation to look more closely—but also to consume less, to recognize value in what already exists, in an era when overproduction has emptied the very meaning of design.

Transformism is an open system, a lens through which to read the present. And from Maison & Objet 2026, Harry Nuriev uses space to declare that the future of design may not lie in constant invention, but in the ability to transform what we already have—restoring to it meaning, memory, and intention.

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