The teams at HLW, IA Interior Architects, and Page discovered this for themselves when they added lower embodied carbon emissions to their set of goals on recent projects. Low-carbon choices resulted in cost savings for United Airlines, a healthier office for Lord Abbett, and a more harmonious fit between the base building and the organization’s needs in the case of Page’s own Austin office.

Read every story from our 2025 Products Issue:

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• Architecture
• Industrial Design
• Interior Design
• Reuse
• Sustainability
• Technology

• 2025 Products Issue
• Avinash Rajagopal
• biobased materials
• Circularity in products
• Design Trends
• Healthy Materials

Metals have long been a cornerstone of architectural innovation, prized for their durability, versatility, and aesthetic appeal. Today, a new wave of metal building products is expanding the boundaries of both performance and design, delivering less embodied carbon, improving energy efficiency, and equipping architects and designers with a broader, bolder creative tool kit. 

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• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Residential
• Technology
• Workplace

• Dinky Asrani
• Energy efficiency
• metals
• Prefabrication and Automation
• structural design

In 2025 textiles see a return to nature as inspiration. Sustainability remains at the forefront, with a continued focus on doing better for the planet. At the same time, we could all use a softer touch and gentler palettes to soothe us through stressful days. 

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• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Manufacturing
• Residential
• Workplace

• biobased materials
• Biophilia
• Design Trends
• Healthy Materials
• Murrye Bernard

In the past, successful acoustical treatments remained out of sight and out of mind. Today, product companies are offering innovative solutions that incorporate lighting and space-defining elements to enhance commercial interiors. Here are some of the latest offerings that dampen sound while amplifying design. 

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• Healthcare
• Hospitality
• Workplace

• Acoustics
• Circularity in products
• Design Trends
• Murrye Bernard

Minimalist Forms, Maximum Intent

Ronan’s design language, which underscores simplicity—peppered with subtly playful and sophisticated notes—is evident in the resulting product, which is “a reduction of the desk to a form that is essential and visceral.” Ronan calls it a “naked solution”: a thin wooden surface offered in a dark or natural oak veneer on a die-cast aluminum base in a choice of three colors. On the one hand, its stepped silhouette is thoughtful and whimsical: Viewed from the side, its metal frame, with non-perpendicular legs, evokes a serif typeface—hence the name Courier. But it also has a practical purpose: The lower desktop, measuring 47¼ inches wide and 20 inches deep, has enough surface area to hold a laptop and essentials like a cup of morning joe, while the slim raised platform at the back, which adds an additional 9.7 inches, can accommodate a separate screen. 

Erwan’s signature style—similarly simple, minimal, and functional, with a twist—is reflected in his Mynt chair. Its clean design comprises a thin seat shell and equally thin back that slopes downward to form armrests on a compact aluminum frame supported by a four- or five-star base. “Mynt is made of very few parts,” says Erwan. “It’s all incredibly optimized, and everything can be exchanged, repaired, and replaced because that’s the key to sustainability.” 

Dynamic Design for the Modern Office

The seat and back are available in either plywood with a natural oak finish or 100 percent recycled postindustrial polyamide in basic dark (black) or gray. A zipper-fastened upholstered seat and back covers are easily removable for washing and are offered in a wide array of fabrics—from recycled polyester to a wool-polyester blend—to further customize the chair’s appearance. Meanwhile, its aluminum base can be completed with casters or glides. The bases can all be finished in deep black, but the four-star base is additionally available in soft light, blasted aluminum, or bottle green. 

The aforementioned twist is Mynt’s patented mechanism, which enables the seat to move independently of the back. Weight-activated, it adapts to various sitting postures without any external knobs, dials, or levers to fuss with, save for the height-adjustment paddle. “Instead of having just a couple of settings, you’ve got a million positions—the body is surfing on the chair,” the designer explains. Like Courier, this chair was designed with the new office in mind, whether it’s at home or the workplace, with this mechanism specifically tailored for shared environments, where sitters may have a wide range of body types and postures. 

Although the Bouroullec brothers designed the two pieces individually, one can’t help but notice that they share a remarkably similar aesthetic and, in fact, look like a natural pair. But make no mistake: Ronan and Erwan are two peas in a pod who can create strong stand-alone pieces that are still universal enough to mingle with other furnishings.

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• Education
• Manufacturing
• Residential
• Workplace

• Bouroullec brothers
• Courier Desk
• Design Trends
• Mynt Chair
• Sheila Kim
• Vitra

The Forces Behind Wool’s Decline

But intensive farming and the invention of synthetic fibers have ruptured this symbiosis between humans, other humans, and the environment. Colonists took merino sheep to Australia in 1797, where flocks grew rapidly, trampling native ecosystems and establishing the country as the dominant producer of wool. Meanwhile, the rise of mass-produced manmade fibers in the midtwentieth century has rendered all but the softest merino yarns nearly worthless, decimating processing infrastructure in Europe, America, and elsewhere.

“Wool is either a luxury or a waste material,” says Netherlands-based designer Beatriz Isca, whose project Wool Matters explores local wool as a “weaver of people, animals, and land.” She explains, “If farmers can’t get money for their wool, they don’t care for it and the value plummets. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Today, clean wool fiber accounts for just 1 percent of the world’s textile trade, compared to polyester at 57 percent, according to the Textile Exchange. And in Europe, where colder climates mean coarser fibers, mountains of wool get burned or buried each year.

Revaluing Wool Through Story and Craft

But Isca is part of a new breed of designers who are reexamining the material. For her project Wool Matters—exhibited at Dutch Design Week last autumn—she met farmers, weavers, and processors who are part of the Dutch arm of Fibershed (the U.S.-based nonprofit developing regional fiber systems that build environmental and community health) and documented their stories in a book. 

Isca sees craft as a tool to shift people’s mindset. “When people make something with their hands, it changes how they perceive a material’s value,” says the designer. She worked with Holland’s Leidse Deken Foundation and the local community to coproduce a blanket from Dutch wool, the short yarns giving it a fluffiness that is ideal for the task. “A blanket to the soil,” as it is called, symbolizes the “ideal last stage in wool’s life” and addresses the issue of wool being buried illegally. Craft can’t change the world, she says, “but it can create momentum.”

European rules dictate that wool (deemed a “special waste” of animal origin) must be discarded in dedicated facilities after cleaning—costly for shepherds who cannot sell their flocks’ fleece. As a result, some sheep are now bred to lose their mantle without human help—a fact that fascinated the Italian design studio Formafantasma when researching Oltre Terra, its ongoing investigation into the ecology and global dynamics of wool. “We’re interested in how the biological development of a species corresponds to product development and the intimate yet intricate relationship between humans and animals,” says cofounder Simone Farresin. 

European Brands Breathe New Life into Wool

At the center of its 2023 installation at the National Museum in Oslo, Norway, was a carpet produced by CC-Tapis made from the “neglected wool” of 12 Italian sheep breeds.

Even for carpets and upholstery, however, European wool has its challenges beyond infrastructure. “British wool contains black hairs that are difficult to hide in plain fabrics,” says Ian Burn, director of marketing and sustainability at West Yorkshire–based international brand Camira Fabrics, which makes products for interiors from wool and plant fibers. It uses British wool for transportation upholstery, where black fibers can be hidden among rich patterns, but imports virgin wool for its interior collections from New Zealand, a country with “strong animal husbandry practices,” he says, alongside higher flock numbers and better cleaning facilities to ensure consistent quality.

But Camira Fabrics is among the brands revitalizing wool recycling, using the “shoddy” technique invented by Benjamin Law in Yorkshire in 1813 to transform its own waste. Popular until the arrival of cheap synthetic fabrics, it saw machines with sharp teeth chomp through the fibers, before they were blended with virgin wool, carded, spun, and woven into new fabric.

The brand is giving “shoddy” a new shine by teaming up with recycling specialist Dr. John Parkinson and bringing his textile reprocessing machines to its Huddersfield spinning factory. The first collaboration was Revolutionary by Camira: a ten-shade collection of fabrics made from 26 percent recycled wool, with the materials’ past lives evident in the flecks of color on the fabrics’ surface. Camira has now upped the ante with ReSKU 2.0, made from 66 percent recycled wool with flax fibers for added flame retardancy. 

But if we can dress our bodies and furniture in wool, why not cocoon our homes in this “inherently over-capable material,” as Legge puts it? He hit upon the idea of starting a U.S.-based wool insulation business while building his vacation home in New Zealand, itself lined in the material, but was unaware of the ten-year uphill battle he would have to fight. 

Wool for Healthier, Sustainable Insulation

“The construction industry is dominated by products that are not only toxic but don’t perform well,” he explains, referring to synthetic insulation materials that lack wool’s breathability and moisture control. “If you enter with a high-performing product and tell tradespeople that they can use it similarly—but not exactly the same way as others—it doesn’t work. It took me years to figure that out.”

Havelock Wool recently swapped its old fiber carding machines for Italian company Cormatex’s airlay technology, which enables uniform production of nonwoven fibers. If you squash one of its new wool batts, it will spring back into shape. Precut for standard framing, The batts also fit into place without adhesives or tacks.

Legge’s dream is for every American school to feature wool insulation and acoustic panels, helping to “protect young minds” from harmful chemicals that pervade the built environment. To aid this, he would love to “hoover up” waste wool in the U.S., but the country lacks the infrastructure to guarantee quality, he says, so Havelock Wool imports product from New Zealand “due to the country’s expertise in cleaning and grading wool.” 

But to boost more than just our own health, we need to support farming practices that care for both animals and soil. Thankfully, change is taking root. In New Zealand, regenerative agriculture platform ZQRX collaborates with merino wool growers across five million acres of land to produce regenerative wool, while in the U.S., Fibershed uses its Climate Beneficial Wool to verify sourcing from land stewards who are restoring soil health. Meanwhile, to bolster the market for recycled wool and raise the standard, international wool authority The Woolmark Company has launched the Woolmark Recycled Wool certification, indicating whether a product is made from 100 percent recycled wool or a blend containing at least 20 percent recycled wool. 

If momentum builds, it will add to our comfort as we relax in our wool-lined cocoons, inhaling the healthy air.

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• Education
• Infrastructure
• Making
• Preservation
• Research

• Art and Craft
• biobased materials
• Circularity in products
• Healthy Materials
• Malaika Byng
• Textiles and Acoustics
• Wool

Manufacturers are drawing inspiration from nature and iconic designs of the past for 2025 workplace flooring and seating introductions. Alongside new releases, existing collections get updates focused on enhanced ergonomics, versatility, environmental responsibility, and style—all while fostering connections between occupants.

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• Manufacturing
• Workplace

• Biophilia
• Circularity in products
• Design Trends

In the pursuit of healthier and more sustainable workspaces, Kaiterra introduced the Sensedge Go last fall—an indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring system that represents a significant advancement in the company’s more than ten years of operation. The monitors are battery powered and fully wireless, with up to eight years of battery life. These new devices offer peel-and-stick rapid installation that doesn’t require IT support or an electrician.

The monitoring technology has expanded to cover 14 air quality and environmental parameters, including PM1 (particulate matter), PM2.5, PM10, TVOCs, CO₂, nitrogen dioxide, temperature, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure. It also offers the option to add carbon monoxide and ozone—features that are in high demand to meet additional requirements from building certifications such as WELL and Fitwel.

Engineered with a modular sensor design that allows for quick model swaps, the system reduces waste and eliminates data gaps. Kaiterra’s adaptive sampling—powered by artificial intelligence (AI)—adjusts data collection in real time across a network of devices, optimizing energy efficiency and performance in decentralized operations. This allows users to understand the overall or space-specific air quality within office environments.  

Sensedge Go supports major building certifications, including LEED, Fitwel, and RESET. It measures all parameters required for WELL certification, eliminating the need for manual testing and lab analysis. 

More than just a compliance tool, Sensedge Go aims to promote occupant health and well-being—a greater priority in the postpandemic era. Improved IAQ in the workspace has been shown to reduce absenteeism, boost productivity, and enhance talent retention, all while contributing to energy savings and emissions reduction.  

Kaiterra’s approach reflects an integrated, data-driven outlook that meets the rising demand for healthier spaces—powered by the latest innovations in battery technology and AI.

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• Research
• Technology

• Air Quality
• Artificial Intelligence
• Francisco Brown
• Indoor Air Quality
• Kaiterra
• Software

Reclaiming the Value of Materials, United Airlines HQ, IA

As the first airline committed to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 without carbon offsets, United Airlines needed the renovation of its Chicago headquarters to embody its values. Housing more than 3,000 employees across 650,000 square feet and 13 floors of the Willis Tower, the office was refreshed by IA Interior Architects with a new lease on circular economy.

“Our goals were to demonstrate United’s commitment to pursuing environmentally conscious design, reducing utility consumption, and implementing resourceful construction practices,” says IA senior director of sustainability Brett Gardner. “We employed circular economy strategies with an emphasis on reuse, recycling, and diverting materials from landfills to reduce the embodied carbon for the project by 3,333 metric tons of CO₂e.”

Metal frames and fabric panels of 2,254 existing workstations were used to create new hybrid workstations, diverting more than 500,000 pounds of material from landfills in the process. Another 793,000 pounds of furniture was also diverted by recycling other existing elements like acoustic ceiling tiles. “Reusing existing architecture and furniture is a challenge,” Gardner says. “But it was worth the extra time, as it delivered dividends on both carbon and cost reductions.”

United also looked to resolve its carbon footprint beyond the workplace by integrating out-of-service airplane parts. The most notable appearances include engine-inspired light fixtures, a turbine coffee table, and a winglet room divider. Playful artwork composed of seatbelts and runway batons brings character to a project distilled by Gardner in a succinct phrase: “Keeping materials simple optimizes future reuse.”

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Using Diverse Material Strategies, Austin Office, Page

After more than 20 years at its original Austin address, the architecture firm Page was long overdue for a fresh start. So, when space opened up in a local building from its own portfolio, the firm leveraged its intimate knowledge of the building systems to craft an interior that complemented the LEED Platinum tower. “We knew how sustainability was embedded into the design core and shell. We knew how water was reclaimed, about the green space that was adjacent, about the terraces,” says Wendy Dunnam Tita, Page’s chief practice officer and commercial & mixed-use sector leader. 

In the new office, textural concrete ensconces a mix of open studios, quiet zones, private meeting rooms, and communal hubs. Biobased or reused ceiling panels and recycled carpeting dampen noise, as do the renewable felt wall panels. Homasote wraps the exterior of collaboration pods to double as a seamless pinup surface while also absorbing sound. Other highlights of the sustainable materiality include locally fabricated terrazzo countertops and the circulating staircase composed of sustainably harvested wood. Page also opted to redeem some of its existing furniture, reupholstered in sustainable leather. “If you were moving your house, you would not want to throw away the whole piece of furniture, because it means something to you,” says Page associate Julien Brown. “That mindset actually is very important to the principles of sustainability and reuse.”

Page conducted a carbon assessment of the project, with preliminary data suggesting that its furniture selections would have a ten-times greater impact on embodied carbon than all other interior finishes combined. “We were able to quantify that we saved eighty-three metric tons of carbon,” Brown adds.

Such considerations resulted in a 78 percent diversion of construction waste, not to mention a 16 percent decrease in embodied carbon emissions and a 17 percent energy cost savings. And what’s good for the planet is good for its people: “Delight and choice and human connection—it didn’t really cost more to do that,” Tita says. “It was just better planning.”

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Relying on the Power of Nature, Lord Abbett HQ, HLW

The investment management firm Lord Abbett tapped HLW to realize a modern workplace inside the Goldman Sachs Tower in Jersey City, New Jersey, centered on wellness and transparency. With support from sustainability consultancy BEYOND, the firm conceived of a biophilic office design predicated on circadian lighting, air quality, and employee comfort that is already paying dividends. “We also had a really big focus on decarbonization, especially focused on embodied carbon,” says HLW principal and global director of sustainability and wellness Jonce Walker. “The original target was ten percent reduction, and we’re trending to thirty to thirty-five percent, which is pretty high for a project like this.”

Across 178,000 square feet, a palette of natural materials yields sumptuous, sun-drenched interiors. Drop ceilings and flooring were reused, while low-carbon carpet and chipboard complement the airy space. Alongside collaboration spaces and versatile nooks, “serenity rooms” offer employees reprieve through meditative bonding with plants. The plentiful greenery underscores a 34 percent reduction in embodied carbon—the equivalent of planting 24,000 trees and nurturing them for a full decade. The LEED Platinum design reduces water use by 40 percent and energy consumption by 20 percent as well. 

HLW’s space planning also reduced Lord Abbett’s dependence on artificial lighting, with 60 percent of regularly occupied spaces enjoying natural illumination. Accessed via the prime staircase, an upper level amenities suite beckons with even more daylight and a backdrop of sprawling vistas. “It ties back to Lord Abbett’s goals,” says Melissa Strickland, HLW principal and managing director, “and what they wanted to give to their employees.”

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• Workplace

• Circularity in products
• Embodied Carbon
• Goldman Sachs Tower
• Healthy Materials
• hlw
• IA Interior Architects
• Lord Abbett
• Page Austin Office
• Page think
• Responsible Renovation
• United Airlines
• Will Speros

Haworth

With the Fern chair as its first product to fully achieve closed-loop manufacturing, Haworth is proving that environmental responsibility and ergonomic excellence go hand in hand. The process reuses plastic generated during production stages and from end-of-life chairs to create new Fern models, optimizing existing resources and reducing waste to deliver brand-new products without sacrificing quality or increasing costs. 

But Haworth’s closed-loop process goes beyond smart manufacturing—it reflects a broader vision of forging lasting business collaborations. “It’s important for others to understand our sustainability journey. It’s not just about Haworth. It’s also about bringing our suppliers and community along with us,” notes Katie Chapman, senior sustainability engineer. One breakthrough, for instance, was connecting injection molded plastics manufacturer Royal Technologies with recycler Padnos, so that scrap plastics could be processed. “This was a great step in the direction of involving the rest of our supply chain and partners in Haworth’s sustainability journey to help them advance theirs as well.” 

By embedding closed-loop principles into its core offering and then expanding these practices across more products, Haworth is not only reducing its carbon footprint but also empowering its entire network to move toward a more sustainable future.

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Steelcase

A pioneer in design for disassembly, Steelcase is taking the next step with its bold Circular by Steelcase program. This initiative aims to give products a second life and redefine sustainability in the workplace. Instead of conforming to industry norms, Steelcase is designing for longevity, repair, remanufacture, and recycling at every stage of a product’s life cycle. Through this program, worn or damaged chairs—from lines such as Gesture, Leap, and Amia—are disassembled, refurbished, and returned to clients with less than half the carbon emissions of a new product, plus a full 12-year warranty. 

But this shift is more than operational—it’s a new way of collaborating with clients and industry partners. “Circular by Steelcase provides our customers with a range of solutions when it’s time for a change,” says Kaila Bryzgalski, product sustainability marketing manager. “Just like it extends the life of our products, Circular by Steelcase is helping us extend the life of our client interactions! It’s a way to find new value.”  

The company’s commitment to circularity is also central to its path to net zero by 2050. “Designing for circularity is critical to our future success and an area to focus our innovation efforts right now,” adds Michael Held, vice president of global design. In a world where the carbon impact of repeated interior renovations can eclipse that of a building’s structure, Steelcase’s approach signals a necessary industry change—one that values reuse, recycling, remaking, and a future where furniture never becomes waste.

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Flokk

Flokk, the parent company behind the renowned HÅG Capisco chair, has reimagined its design icon in a limited-edition collection made entirely from recycled materials. “By including recycled components in such an iconic product, we are signaling that sustainability and high performance can coexist,” says Henning Karlsrud, CEO of Flokk. “It sets a precedent for other product lines and reinforces our internal sustainability culture. This move also serves as concrete evidence that it is possible to facilitate the change from virgin to recycled materials in existing designs.” 

This shift has also deepened Flokk’s relationships with supply chain partners, sparking new collaborations to develop new sourcing methods and enhance material traceability. By keeping production close to key markets and prioritizing local suppliers, Flokk is cutting transportation emissions while building resilience and transparency throughout its value chain. The result is a chair that’s as sustainable as it is iconic—and a business model that’s paving the way for a circular future.

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• Making
• Manufacturing
• Research
• Workplace

• Circularity in products
• Design Trends
• Dinky Asrani
• Metropolis Likes
• office furniture