Didn't make it to Alcova Miami this year? These are our 10 favourite things

Alcova has quickly become one of the most exciting and hotly anticipated exhibitions of Milan design week calendar, showcasing both established and up-and-coming talent in architecturally striking venues since 2018. Three years ago, curators Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima brought the contemporary design fair to Miami Art Week, and for its 2025 edition, the show returned to the Miami River Inn — the city’s oldest hotel — to exhibit new work from across the globe.

From 2-7 December, the exhibition unfolded in and around the rooms, patios, terraces and hallways of four Victorian buildings, each identified by its pastel-toned façade. Meanwhile, the property’s central plaza was overhauled by Milan-based designer Patricia Urquiola, who applied a pink checkerboard across the grassy lawn to showcase Cappellini’s Thinking Man Lido chairs, and installed yellow Utrecht armchairs by Cassina along the edge of the swimming pool. Throughout the week, these outdoor spaces hosted a program of talks and conversations with the exhibitors, who represent a new generation of leading voices in design. Here is a selection of our favourite presentations from Alcova Miami 2025.

Adrian Cruz

Following in his grandfather’s footsteps, Mexican designer Adrian Cruz uses resin to mold sherbet-coloured lighting and furniture, pairing the translucent material with richly veined onyx. At Alcova, he debuted a console with three curvaceous legs and a swooping purple top, as part of a collaboration with interior designer Carmen Arechiga, titled ACCA Editions. Cruz also presented a lamp influenced by the proportions of Renaissance villas. A spherical ‘bulb’ with a carved centre contains the light source, mounted on lightly tinted parallel blocks that slot into a solid base.

Christine Kalia

Who knew that aluminium window frames could become sci-fi influenced furniture? Cypriot designer Christine Kalia partnered with Muskita to repurpose the brand’s window profiles, transforming the offcuts into the Mission chair and a bench that would look right at home inside a spacecraft. Bright orange cushions offset the cool industrial metal, and mimic the hue of re-entry heat shields, while seatbelts are provided for the sitter to buckle in and feel secure. Both of the pieces were packed tightly and shipped to Miami in an ultra-efficient metal cuboid.

Dace Suna

The Rayleigh scattering effect that makes the sky appear blue is also employed by Latvian designer Dace Sūna in her series of Sky-Set lights. Comprising layers of curved opalescent glass disks, the lamps recreate the optical phenomenon—appearing pale blue around the edges and sunset orange in the centre. Also on show, Sūna’s Ontara mirrors are formed by laying warmed recycled glass over a topographic mold, allowing the material to slump into a wavy shape reminiscent of a manta ray. The designer then applied silver sheen over the surface using a vacuum coating technique, enhancing the undulations with reflections.

Jensin Okunishi Studio

For her latest series of custom carpets, American designer Jensin Okunishi looked to the mesmerising striations of marbled stone. She hand-drew her own version and then recreated the sketches in hand-knotted patterns, and placed these two-tone designs at the centre of colour-blocked rugs. Made in Nepal using the Tibetan-style technique, the Formations carpets are edged with scalloped and zig-zag shapes, resulting in a bold Memphis-like aesthetic.

Objects of Common Interest

Expanding their Refract series of cast-resin vases for Tacchini, which are faceted to resemble cut precious gems, Objects of Common Interest designed a series of jewel-like lamps. The Brooklyn and Athens-based studio presented these richly hued pieces in an all-white space, allowing the colours to pop and the glow from the light sources to highlight the translucency of the material.

Ombia Studio

Los Angeles-based designer Cristina Moreno references her Colombian origins in her furniture and lighting, whether looking to ancient ornaments and ceremonial jewellery to influence her golden Quimbaya sconces and pendant light, or wood-carving techniques to add texture to her Mare dining table. Ombia Studio’s unconventional forms and warm materials feel deeply rooted in place, reminiscent of the past while strikingly contemporary.

Strat Coffman

A nomadic play system that turns safety infrastructure into ‘instruments of contact’ was installed by designer Strat Coffman. Each installation in The Railings series is constructed into the desired set-up using scaffolding-like stainless steel bars and connectors, which are wrapped in crash mats and padded cushions that are strapped into place. The system is intended to produce ‘tools for pleasure, friction and unexpected forms of touch,’ and was first showcased at Body Zone, one of Detroit’s last remaining gay saunas.

Studio Maerz

Artist Selma Alihodžic of Studio Maerz claims to have created the lightest-ever fabric, woven using a traditional technique on a machine that only a single remaining artisan is trained to operate. To preserve this dying art, Alihodžic recorded the sound of the process, and translated the audio in a visual pattern that she then projected onto the ethereal textile within a blacked-out room.

Terumi Saito

New York-based Japanese artist Terumi Saito combines ceramics and fibre art into vessels and wall-hangings that represent cross-cultural craft. She uses backstrap weaving — one of the earliest weaving techniques that’s used in both Asia and South America — to produce textiles that she wraps around rope sculptures and hand-made clay vases. After completing artist residency programs in Japan, Peru, Guatemala and the US, the resulting body of work melds together styles from all of these cultures into a unique aesthetic.

Undress House

A chair adorned with moveable screw-ball rings, another strung together like a medieval longbow, and a stool that evokes a cooled lava flow were among the pieces shown by artist Jaeho Lee of Undress House. The collection is awash with contrasts—metal and wood; heavy and light; shiny and matte interplay dynamically across each object, and a couple of tongue-in-cheek references offer IYKYK inside jokes.