From Material to Meaning: A Different Approach to Custom Design

- The Many Forms of Home

The theme ‘Home Can Take Any Shape’ emerged from Lux Casa’s ongoing reflections on the meaning of customisation. Beyond its material form, furniture could act as a vessel for memory, identity, and emotional expression. During the first hour, participants engaged in an open Critique Talk, walking through the Lux Casa space while exploring materials, proportions, and spatial atmospheres. Each designer assembled a personal ‘mood board’, transforming individual perception into collective dialogue — a process of moving from two-dimensional inspiration to three-dimensional thinking.

We referenced the work of Penny Wincer, particularly her book Home Matters: How Our Homes Shape Us, and We Shape Them. Wincer describes the home as an extension of our psychological selves, a threshold where cultural structure and individual identity converge. For her, home is not just a built environment — it is a layered container of memory, emotion, and social meaning. With this in mind, the second part of the gathering invited participants to reflect on how spatial language and custom furniture can serve as tools for telling the stories of those who inhabit them. 

- Where Ideas Take Shape

The final half-hour was reserved for open discussion. Questions such as “What kind of furniture truly reflects the lives of its users?”, “How do your custom collaborations usually unfold?”, and “What do you value most in a creative partnership — materiality, narrative, or spatial resonance?” sparked honest and generous exchanges. These conversations extended beyond personal insight — they became a form of shared thinking, generating possibilities for future collaboration and expanding Lux Casa’s imagination around co-creation.

As Wincer suggests, the shape of home is never fixed, it is continuously reshaped by the rhythms of daily life and the aesthetic choices we make. It is in this dynamic interaction that the true meaning of home is formed. Each Critique Room, going forward, will serve as a quiet proposal — an open-ended exploration into how we inhabit space, how we relate to materials, and how we design for memory, presence, and connection. There is no single answer to what a home should look like.

Lux Casa will continue to be both an initiator and companion on this journey — welcoming more creators to leave their traces, to bring ideas into daily life, and to keep design in conversation with the human experience.

- Inspiration That Endures

Building on the outcomes of the event, the three distinct mood boards became visual expressions of each designer’s interpretation of home — blending fabric textures, imagery, and instinctive associations into personal yet collective narratives.

Ranging from quiet comfort to bold nostalgia, the boards revealed how furniture and space can hold emotion, memory, and meaning beyond function.

Moving forward, these creations will continue to inspire Lux Casa’s design direction and collaborative spirit. Each Critique Room will remain an open invitation to explore how design becomes a dialogue — between people, spaces, and the stories we live.