The esteemed 10 recognises influential voices in the architecture and design community in 2025. Criterion is based on approach, notable achievements and completed and anticipated projects.
This piece originally appeared in est magazine issue 55: ‘Faces of Design’.
Kallos Turin
Founders Stephania Kallos & Abigail Turin
London, England & San Francisco, North America
Our design work is best summed up as:
Restraint and rigour interwoven with a distinct sense of individuality and eccentricity.
What aspects of your work are people most curious about?
We have created a large body of work around the world and managed to remain a very personal boutique firm. We have also maintained a transatlantic partnership for 20 years, from faxing sketches back and forth to the onset of video conferencing. We have enjoyed the benefits of collaborating across continents and how it helps to keep our work fresh as we merge the mindsets of California and Europe.
What has recently challenged the way you think about design?
In our careers, we have seen the design world move from a “less is more” mindset back toward a more layered “more is more” mindset. While we are thrilled to see the return of the hand, of texture and exuberant design ideas, we also find ourselves gravitating back to our roots – to simplicity and to trying to reduce the complications and clutter that has built up in our lives.
What person, building, product or art piece has had a lasting impact on your work?
Adolf Loos’s ideas, Lina Bo Bardi’s sketches, Mies Van der Rohe’s plans and Carlo Scarpa’s whimsy. We both gravitated to their work while in architecture school and find ourselves returning to their projects for inspiration and reference again and again.
The three words I would most like people to attribute to our work are:
Rigorous, contextual, personal.
"Rigorous, contextual, personal"
– Founders Stephania Kallos & Abigail Turin
What is the one piece of advice you would share with an emerging designer?
Keep looking at everything. Then, forget what you saw and find your own voice.
Where do you go to appreciate exceptional design?
Milan’s Salone del Mobile – it freshens our eyes every year and gives us a week of conversation with fellow designers from around the world.
Something you want to see more of in 2025? And less of?
Our motto for both architecture and interiors remains “Fewer, Better Things.” We believe that trendy and cheaply delivered ideas will ultimately just be landfill. We are hoping to see more high-quality, long-term design thinking and fewer disposable materials.