Alcova at Heimtextil explores the impact of AI on contemporary craft

This week, Alcova returned to Frankfurt to curate a space within the Heimtextil fair, exploring the act of making in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. The Milanese itinerant fair and creative platform was called upon to both explore the dichotomy between human and artificial creativity, but also to demonstrate how textiles remain central to our idea of home, and what future scenarios they can inhabit.

Craft is a Verb: Alcova at Heimtexil 2026

Depending on how they enter the installation, visitors find two radically different scenarios: on one side, a 'material-data farm of samples', with textiles curated from across the fair shown on shelves in curated clusters, offering an overview of the wide range offered by the fair. On the other side is a house, flanked by digital screens and containing a series of futuristic-looking domestic ideas led by fabric and craft.

The Alcova team, led by founders Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima, identified six trends which they explored through the materials and patterns. The progressive trends displayed across the space include Re: Media, Visible co-work, Sensing Nature, A Playful Touch, Crafted Irregularity and The Uncanny Valley. These clusters, explains Ciuffi, help them demonstrate how 'designers and creators are going against uniformity, contrasting the notion that AI could shape our creative process into something plain.'

This theme is exemplified by the objects shown within the Visible co-work space, like Natalia Triantafylli's ceramics which combine human and digital craft: 'AI enhanced, human-finished,' explains Ciuffi. But other themes explored by Alcova include a return to nature, a desire for imperfection, and are divided into colour palettes that reflect both the natural world and the lurid, neon spirit of machine-made objects.

'It's an experiment in radical contemporary domesticity,' explains Grima of the space, which includes a dystopian-looking armchair by Jean-Baptiste Durand, tapestries by Sonia Góecka, lamps by Anna Resei and Jonas Hejduk's digitally-powered rugs. They paint a picture of optimism, of emerging design cultures embracing the disruptive effect of technology on creativity. 'Throughout our history, we have had examples of how technology has been counterbalanced by emotional forms of creativity,' adds Grima. 'Creatives are increasingly looking for meaning, something that speaks to us as human beings. The rise of AI is closely linked to a rise of craftsmanship.'