Best of Design Miami Paris 2025: animal sculptures and musical ping-pong tables

Design Miami Paris 2025, the fair's third edition, brings the habitual curation of contemporary design, shown within the Hôtel de Maisons (51 Rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris, until 26 October).

The fair as usual does a great job of showcasing some of the best contemporary and modern collectible design from the industry's key players, but it also renews its commitment to a new generation of creatives, with newly launched initiatives such as the Designers of Tomorrow, in collaboration with Apple, and the Perrier-Jouët Design for Nature Award, inviting designers 'to explore the concept of sustainability as a driving force for meaningful cultural and environmental progress'.

2025 is a year of celebrations, with the concurrent centenary of the 1925 art deco exhibition high on exhibitors' agenda, but also of whim, as evinced by the multiple zoomorphic pieces on display across different galleries, a sign of playfulness within the contemporary collectible design conversation.

Here, we share our highlights from Design Miami Paris 2025

Carl Auböck at Patrick Parrish

The work of legendary Viennese designers Carl Auböck ll (1900-1957) and Carl Auböck lll (1924-1993) is presented by Patrick Parrish, who collated 150 pieces, 25 of which are from his personal collection. The display elevates designs that are 'typically considered as everyday small objects: bells, dishes, baskets, and bookends, revealing each piece as a unique and prescient objet d’art'.

The Soul Garden by Sissel Tolaas and Vikram Goyal

At Design Miami Paris, an artful menagerie by Vikram Goyal and Sissel Tolaas tells a story of scent and nature. ‘The Soul Garden’ features India’s ancient Panchatantra animal stories in the form of sculptural embodiments of empathy and coexistence. Crafted in the designer’s signature burnished repoussé brass and copper, each animal contains a hidden compartment depicting a fable hand-carved in miniature relief. Alongside each sculpture, there is seating to encourage visitors to lower themselves to the animals’ level and sit with them, reflecting on the messages in the fables. In doing so, they also get closer to the ground – both the grass and the stools are embedded with nano-scent activators conceived by Tolaas. Read more.

Surface Narratives by Fornasetti

Surfaces become a meeting point of material and vision in this series of works by Piero Fornasetti. For these pieces, the Italian artist employed a trompe l'oeil treatment and his brilliance is best exemplified by the Trumeau Riflesso di Panoplie sideboard: a reinterpretation of a 1950s piece, its surface features a wunderkammer of musical, scientific, architectural, astronomical and naturalist instruments.

La Déclive by Paulin, Paulin, Paulin

A modular seating concept designed by Pierre Paulin in 1966, ‘La Déclive’ 'embodies one of the designer’s most radical approaches: to eliminate traditional furniture in favour of a shifting, inhabitable floor'. The display is a living reflection of Paulin's vision for a design approach that revolutionises domestic arrangements, fusing architecture and furniture into a novel spatial experience.

Resonating Ping Pong Table, Song no. 1 by James de Wulf

James de Wulf's 'Resonating Ping Pong Table, Song no. 1' is a multisensory piece that works sound into a ping-pong table's typically playful function. Set within the Hôtel de Maisons' gardens, it invites visitors to play, and in return it offers an A-minor pentatonic scale as the ball hits its aluminium plates.

Céramiques 1890–1930 by Galerie Maxime Flatry

Ceramic vases by Jean Besnard, Ernest Chaplet and Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat are shown here with floral arrangements by Thierry Boutemy. The works of the three pioneering names of French Art Nouveau and art deco ceramics 'stand out for the boldness of their forms, colours, and textures: these rare works reflect a moment of exceptional innovation in the decorative arts'.

Also read: the best design exhibitions to see in Paris this week