Revealing Interior Design’s 2025 Sustainability Giants

Discover how sustainability-driven firms are designing with both people and planet in mind in Interior Design’s 2025 Sustainability Giants report.

*Blank cells indicate no data reported

Editor’s Note: Rankings are based on firms’ total fees deriving from sustainable projects. Gensler has the leading dollar amount, and Arcadis NV has the highest percentage of fees.

Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2024. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, Hospitality, or Sustainability Giant, firms must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of its interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalents. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

Presenting Interior Design’s 2024 Sustainability Giants

Of the 100 Sustainability Giants, one-third are new to the rankings, which we attribute to increased recognition of this newest Giants category initiative, now in its second year. To be considered for the list, firms need to report fees garnered from projects that had “measurable” sustainability goals—a somewhat flexible definition that includes both official certification and other assessments.

In both the inaugural year of data-collection and this one, the percentage of projects attaining WELL or LEED certification was low (although the latter is up from 2 to 5 percent), which we chalk up to clients’ interest in environmental consciousness—but not in investing extra for the rubber stamp. More specifically: Designers said 37 percent of their clients follow LEED or WELL principles but don’t want to pay for the certification, an increase of 10 percent year-over-year. Mentions of ESG as the client’s primary project goal is flat as well, at 29 percent.

As for fees: Defying this group’s expectations, sustainability income is solid, having risen from $1.8 to $2.4 billion between 2022 and 2023—a 33 percent year-over-year increase, surpassing predictions. Sustainability Giants do forecast a small 8 percent decline for 2024, a figure that’s in line with Giants’ overall predictions.

Other metrics indicate how tough sustainability efforts remain in our industry. For instance, percentage of projects tracking embodied carbon is 7 (up from 5), so not many folks onboarding. Last year, when we asked Giants what was interfering with their ability to do so, most responded they didn’t have the technology or a system in place, or even the right team of people. (Perhaps relatedly, the percentage of LEED- or WELL-accredited staff is flat at about one-quarter of employees.) We do know anecdotally that Giants are seeing an uptick in projects designed with the health of people and planet in mind, but the certification and tracking numbers don’t reflect that enthusiasm—yet. We’re encouraged, however, by No. 1 and 2 firms Gensler and Perkins&Will reporting that more than 88 percent of their fees derive from projects with measurable sustainability goals, and by Giants’ and urgent commentary regarding the importance of working together to address climate change—and how well positioned the industry is to be a leader in that cause.

Sustainability Giants Rankings 2024

“blank cells” = did not report data

Top Firms Based On Fees From Projects With Measurable Sustainability Goals

Note: Rankings are based on firms’ total fees deriving from sustainable projects. Gensler has the leading dollar amount and Perkins&Will the highest percentage of fees.

Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2023. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, Hospitality, or Sustainability Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

Sustainable Design Reigns Supreme at the Adidas HQ

2023 Best of Year Winner for Environmental Impact

Sustainability is embedded in the sporty scheme for Adidas’s expanded North American headquarters. Green roofs, adaptable layouts, and repurposed or renewable materials reduce the carbon footprint while expressing the brand’s values. In the two new buildings by Lever Architecture, totaling nearly 300,000 square feet, structures of precast concrete, glulam beams, and CLT panels create warm, spacious interiors that Interior Design Hall of Famer Primo Orpilla and his O+A team devised to evoke athletic stadiums, with an eye toward the planet. Reclaimed basketball court flooring, for instance, became a conference table; fabric-wrapped acoustic panels are made of excess textiles from Adidas products. Elsewhere, dining tables are crafted of wood from trees felled during construction, and art installations incorporate recycled-content yarn. Among O+A’s environmental graphics are a staircase’s chevron stripes derived from sneaker sole patterns.

Studio O+A: primo orpilla; lisa bieringer; mindi weichman; elizabeth vereker; chase lunt; lauren perich; sean houghton; alex pokas; lauren harrison; marbel padilla; kaylen parker; chelsea hedrick; sarah hotchin.

Lever Architecture: thomas robinson; doug sheets; dannon canterbury; chris grosse; george-michael rusch; katie o’connell; kevin lee; alexa cano.

Fernando Laposse Takes a Sustainable Approach to Furniture Design

If an exhibition exploring the negative social, economic, and environmental impact of global trade on rural communities sounds like a high-minded lecture you don’t want to attend, think again. Mexican furniture designer Fernando Laposse’s recent one-man show, “Ghosts of Our Towns” at Friedman Benda gallery in New York, was so delightful that its serious themes—the loss of biodiversity, the destruction of rural culture in his homeland—became an energizing riff on engagement, possibility, and the power of collaboration.

Born to Mexican parents in France, raised there and in Mexico, and trained at Central Saint Martins, Laposse is himself a son of globalization. He saw the consequences of international trade agreements and industrialized agricultural methods when he returned to Santo Domingo Tonahuixtla—a tiny indigenous community he’d visited frequently as a child—and found its traditional heirloom corn–growing practices abandoned, its lands eroded, and its inhabitants forced to migrate elsewhere. As the exhibition title suggests, it was fast becoming a ghost town.

Since 2016, Laposse has collaborated with the townspeople on reestablishing the economic viability of the ancient crop by turning the multicolor husks, regarded as waste, into an innovative product called Totomoxtle, a marquetry veneer that clad some pieces in his show. The sustainable material not only generates new skills, jobs, and income for the community but also helps preserve its social and cultural fabric. Another native plant, the agave, which the village grows in bulk to fight soil erosion, provides fibers for the luxuriant “hair” on some of the other displayed objects. And monumental textile portraits of actual villagers offered a preview of what Laposse will show at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria Triennial this December. He tells us more.

Fernando Laposse Talks Sustainable Furniture Design

Interior Design: You’re known for your innovative use of humble natural materials such as corn husks and agave leaves. How did that begin?

Fernando Laposse: With the Central Saint Martins foundation course, a year in which I was able to try a bit of everything and really get my hands dirty in the workshops learning a lot of practical skills. We were encouraged to do a project using a material from our own country and I chose loofah. I got to understand the anatomy of the fibrous fruit, navigate its limitations, and “domesticate” it to the point where it could be worked into a piece of furniture. I developed a methodology—filleting it with a knife like a fish, then flattening it—that I still use.

ID: What was your next important material discovery?

FL: Corn husk, which came out of my residency at an Oaxaca foundation started by the artist-activist Francisco Toledo. At the time, there was a lot of pressure to ban GMOs to protect our native corn, but I began to look for ways to create more revenue for the small farmers growing it that didn’t involve the grain itself. I found the answer in the leaves, which are as colorful as the maize kernels. Pre­viously, I’d worked for London designer Bethan Laura Wood, an experience where I learned about marquetry. That led me to treat the dried husks like cardstock, cutting it into small shapes to form a continuous patterned veneer—not too dissimilar to what we’re doing today.

ID: Did that result in your ongoing collaboration with Santo Domingo Tonahuixtla?

FL: Yes. When I first revisited the village, which in many ways had become a ghost town, I was inspired by the 70-year-olds planting agave in the mountains, trying to reverse the erosion. Similarly, we began working on reintroducing ancient varieties of in­digenous corn with the help of Mexico’s largest seed bank, using the old ejidos system of communal farming from the 1930’s. We set up a community workshop in the abandoned casa ejidal—the meeting hall where collective decisions were made—to which farmers bring corn husks to be transformed into the final product, including cutting out the shapes with a laser machine. I’d say the bulk of my work over the last nine years has been de­signing that whole production system. Most of the veneer applications are done in the village workshop, but more complex pieces are finished in my other studio in Mexico City, where we have bigger machines and better electricity!

ID: You presented your Conflict Avocados project, which uses waste skin and pits to make dyes, at this year’s World Around Summit. Tell us about it.

FL: The avocado trade in Mexico—the world’s largest exporter of the fruit, all of which comes from Michoacán—is impacting the country terribly in regard to violence, deforestation, and loss of biodiversity. The textile portraits in the Friedman Benda show, which were made with avocado-dyed cotton, are just a taste of what’s to come.

For the NGV Triennial, we’re currently making a 130-foot-long tapestry telling the story of a Michoacán village that stood up to illegal logging. I’ll also show the original version of Resting Place, a chaise covered in avocado-dyed cotton patches embroidered with guns and knives that com­memorates Homero Gómez González, an activist who was murdered for protecting the monarch butterfly’s forest habitat. I want my work to be more than just nice materials I can present at design fairs. I want it to have lasting impact.

Gantri Spotlights the Work of 4 Emerging Designers

The California maker of affordable, sustainable 3D-printed lights, Gantri, showcases four emerging global designers in its latest independent creator release. Berlin-based Simon Schmitz presents the sculptural Figra table lamp, a balance of contrasting geometries available in three colorways. Kids can do schoolwork in any corner of the house if they tote around Field Trip, a portable table light with a caddy at its base from the Baltimore- and Barcelona-based Joey Zeledón. BEBOP, a collective located in Seoul and San Francisco, dreamt up Squish, a bulb-shape table light as compact as it is playful. From Brazil, Romulo Temigue offers the delectable Macaron, a table light with a 360-degree diffuser sandwiched between two halves. Like all Gantri creations, they’re made in San Francisco from a biodegradable sugarcane-based material.

Meet the Emerging Designers Featured in Gantri’s Latest Release

The Architecture of a Winery in Czechia Fosters Its Growth

Move over Napa, Bordeaux, and Tuscany. A new terroir, actually two, are experiencing a resurgence within the Czech Republic. Yes, you read that correctly. The zones, southern Moravia, where most of the country’s wine is produced, and Bohemia, both had a history of wine-making that fell off during the postwar era. Revival came after 1989, and “The industry is experiencing significant growth accompanied by architectural expressions of the ambitions of new winemakers.” This from Czech architect Aleš Fiala, who’s well-versed on the topic. For starters, his namesake studio created a superlative establishment in Kurdějov for Gurdau Winery—the label named after the village’s original German moniker, Gurdau—the structure a gob-smacking entity presumably like nothing wine aficionados had previously seen.

Simultaneously bold and stunning yet equally recessive, the building, at its most basic, is an arch of reinforced concrete and glass carved into the center of a landscape encompassing 17 acres of vineyards, the grapes ultimately transformed into Riesling, Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, and Merlot varietals. In a sense, the wine and winery’s launch and growth were entwined. Founded in 2012, Gurdau introduced its inaugural vintage in 2021, just a year prior to its building opening its doors following two years of construction.

Gurdau Winery Nods to Winemaking Traditions in Czechia

“Intervening in the landscape through construction is always a significant responsibility,” Fiala introduces his initial concept. “Regardless of the size of the building, we aimed to connect it with the old, local, modest cellars, often just adorned ‘holes’ in the hillside, yet full of life and fulfilling all necessary functions.” Rooted in tradition though it may be, Fiala’s contemporary creation taking form as a gentle curve or “a hill between hills” is anything but a humble hole in the hill. It stands at over 13,000 square feet on two levels as the ne plus ultra of production and hospitality.

One level, below-grade with its own separate entrance for shipments and deliveries, is dedicated to Gurdau’s annual production of 39,000 bottles fermented and matured in stainless-steel tanks and oak barrels. Here, too, is a room for tasting archive wines, plus a pair of intimate apartments for overnight guests. The accommodations, entered from the heart of the winery, “are situated within two elliptical, reinforced-concrete tubes” opening onto terraces, Fiala explains.

An Inviting Tasting Area, Plus Dining Room

The ground floor, though including some wine production, is primarily for customers. There’s no doubt about that with the blackened-steel bar standing front and center just past the entry. In the tasting area beyond, oenophiles can stimulate not only their palettes with samples of current production but also their minds, learning about soil profiles where the vines grow. Then, guests can transition through a pair of massive pivoting oak doors to the dining room. Up to 40 people can participate in dinners paired with Gurdau wines. The space spills over to an adjacent acacia terrace accessed via 33-foot-wide sliders, surrounded by vistas of the vineyards. Terraces, in fact, overflow from interiors throughout the project, including the apartments, “to bring a variety of natural moods and seasons to the experience of the space while further embedding the building in the terrain from which the wine comes,” Fiala waxes poetic. “The interplay of views, landscape, greenery, and wine is the most cherished aspect of Gurdau.”

Minimal materials pervade as a consistent palette. “The nature of the project necessitates the use of concrete, reinforced for both structural and aesthetic reasons, in the aboveground arch,” Fiala continues. “From a structural perspective, it’s not a shell but an arching ceiling slab that supports an arching green roof.” That, in essence, is really a third floor, one that’s crucial to the winery’s conception. Ultimately, it will become a completely green field, almost invisible as a building aspect, with a few of the surrounding area’s newly planted 150 shrubs and mature trees poking through openings in the roof. As for the rest, Fiala and his team chose local acacia, oak, and gray cement screed for wall and floor finishes. Visible interior structural elements are blackened steel and aluminum. Meanwhile, sparse contemporary furnishings by the likes of Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec and Piero Lissoni mix with the firm’s custom pieces.

Given Fiala’s immersion in the area and viniculture, we couldn’t help but ask the Brno native about his favorite wines and food pairings. “If I had to pick one, it’d be the 2021 Vesnice Kurdejov Grüner Veltliner, which harmonizes well with classic wiener schnitzel.” But more importantly, Fiala’s Gurdau tells a sustainability story. First, the winery’s very location within the vineyard minimizes the transport of raw materials and workers. Passive energy considerations come from having most production zones located belowground, and customer areas open to the sun through large spans of glass. Along with thermally insulated triple glazing, oak slats in front of windows and an overhang of the curved roof ameliorate summer heat. Rainwater is collected and stored for irrigation. To which we add, na zdravi, or cheers!

Explore the Winery Design

aleš fiala: tomáš bílek; bronislav bureš; dalibor klusácek.

zdenek sendler: landscape architect.

daniela hradilová: interior details.

mylight: lighting consultant.

navlácil stavební firma: structural engineer.

category: mep.

drevostyl: millwork.

omelka: steelwork.

atelier originál horánek: custom furniture workshop.

bentglass: glasswork.

dedon: chairs (dining terraces, dining room).

hay: tables (dining terraces, deck).

living divani: sofa (deck).

vispring: beds (apartments).

ton: tables (dining room).

georg bechter licht: ceiling fixtures (storage room).

belevey: decking.

pozvek: barrels.

Kona Villa is the Peak of Chic in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

2023 BEST OF YEAR WINNER FOR DOMESTIC RESORT

In 2011, a tsunami destroyed the beloved Hawaiian resort Kona Village. For five decades, the Big Island hideaway was known for its paradisal location on Kahuwai Bay and a relaxed, convivial vibe; families returned year after year. Frequent collaborators Greg Warner, cofounder/partner at Walker Warner Architects, and Nicole Hollis, creative director and principal of the eponymous interior design studio, had the formidable task of formulating the next iteration of the property: Kona Village, A Rosewood Resort.

“We felt we had a responsibility to honor the memories of the old Kona Village, but also look at it with a new vision for future guests,” Hollis recalls. That meant keeping the summer-camplike environment but rethinking the architecture to better reflect the island’s heritage and meet modern sustainability standards. The original resort had a Polynesian theme, but Warner sought to nod to the Hawaiian village that preceded it. He and his team looked at old photographs, talked to descendants of the inhabitants, and came up with a concept based on thatched-roof shelters called hale. “When you come to Kona Village, it’s not about the architecture,” Warner says. “You see right through the architecture to understand the place.”

The Design of Kona Villa, A Rosewood Resort Hints at the Island’s Heritage

His firm selected traditional-looking materials that are durable and sustainable. For the thatch, the architects replaced native pele grass with recycled plastic; aged red cedar siding evokes coconut-tree wood. On the interiors, Douglas fir walls and ceilings—treated to resemble driftwood—can withstand humidity. “The wood looks like it has been in the sun and scrubbed by ocean breezes,” Warner notes.

The design of the 150 guest structures depends on where they sit on the site. Yellow and blue tones define those by the ocean; the north village, built over lava flow, has a red-and-black palette. Furnishings include oak beds inspired by the shape of a boat, rugs with Hawaiian motifs, and dark concrete bathtubs that echo the rugged volcanic landscape outside. Hollis notes that furniture and finishes were chosen to evoke the feel of an upscale residence on the island, on which many she and Warner have collaborated.

Over 200 artworks across the 80-acre property—nearly all by Hawaiians—evoke the island’s history and culture. An installation of three pe’a, or canoe sails, by Kaili Chun, hangs from the vaulted ceiling of the main restaurant. Multiple pieces by Roen Hufford introduce guests to the ancient Hawaiian art of kapa (dried bark cloth). Outside the spa, two cast-bronze sculptures by John Koga sit atop a field of lava, referencing a molten flow and making a powerful connection with the landscape.

Inside a Hawaiian Hotel That Showcases Local Art and Materials

sutherland furniture: armchairs (reception), chair (king suite).

lgs studio: lamps (reception, living area).

atra: banquettes (restaurant), drink tables (living area).

kamuela hardwoods: mahogany table (restau­rant).

suzanne wang: sconces.

fong brothers co.: armchairs.

saniharto through bridge collective: tables.

espasso: woven chairs (restaurant), chaise lounges (pool areas).

paola lenti through dzine: ottomans (living area, spa pool).

blaxsand: coffee table (living area), side table (outdoor living room).

itz furniture: chair, ottoman (treatment room).

dumais made: desk lamp.

palecek through the ferlin group: mirror (king suite).

uniqwa: lounge chair (outdoor living room).

luteca: ottoman.

native trails: tub (bathroom).

waterworks: Tub fittings.

de santana stone: side tables.

sika design: chairs (guest room).

flitterman collection: rugs, wall­hangings.

delawie: architect of record.

vita: landscape architect, MASTER PLANNER.

ruzika: lighting designer.

c2c designs: custom furniture work­shop.

nordic pcl construction: general contractor.

3 Green Projects by 2023 Sustainability Giants

Sustainable practices are top of mind for today’s designers. Just ask the 2023 Sustainability Giants. INTERIOR DESIGN’s carefully researched report turns the spotlight on the top 100 environmentally-conscious firms of 2023. While the scope of environmental practices can vary, from use of sustainable materials to achieving LEED and other environmental certifications, green design is undoubtedly big business. See three eco-friendly projects by INTERIOR DESIGN’s 2023 Sustainability Giants.

Sustainable Building Designs Leading the Way Forward 

A Cultural Hub Designed to Incorporate Salvaged Materials

Adaptive reuse and redesign were used to give a citrus greenhouse on the former Rockefeller family estate in Tarrytown, New York a face-lift courtesy of FXCollaborative. The result is the new David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center. Salvaging as much of the existing structure as possible, the team created a revitalized community hub, complete with theatrical lighting, retractable indoor seating, a terrace, and advanced MEP systems enabling the building to achieve net-zero annual energy consumption. Read more

A Former Mall is Reinvented into a Modern Office Design

Every building saved benefits the environment. One standout example is a former retail emporium in Los Angeles that was recently converted into a creative campus by HLW International. Previously a Macy’s department store, the firm turned the property into a 240,000-square-foot speculative office complex. Read more

Sustainability Guides the Redesign of a LaGuardia Airport Terminal

With soaring interior spaces and abundant natural light courtesy of Corgan, Delta Airlines’ Terminal C is a warm and welcoming space for travelers. Site-specific art commissioned in partnership with the local Queens Museum connects various areas. Look up and see the work of sculptor Virginia Overton who suspended an assemblage of salvaged skylights from the atrium ceiling to create Skylight Gems, an installation that encourages visitors to celebrate the sen­sation and spectacle of flight. The design includes a vast thermal storage system and electrochromic smart glass to control glare and heat gain. Read more

Want to learn more about sustainable design? Check out the most recent projects, products, news related to eco-conscious A&D here. See who tops the list of the 2023 Sustainability Giants and discover current trends in the sector.

A Kyiv Tech Incubator With a Sleek Yet Earthy Entrance Hall

Defying all the odds, Kyiv, Ukraine, is rapidly emerging as a hub for technological advancement. Helping to lead the charge is the recently opened Unit City; a sprawling workspace campus fashioned out of a former industrial district. Serving as a first entry point to the complex, the 700-square-foot Unit Space reflects a sense of inclusive sustainability articulated throughout the repurposed office park. Award-winning designer Victoria Yakusha treated this double height lobby by masterfully combining aspects of mechanical efficiency, comfortable minimalism, and contrasted texture.

“We managed to represent the soul of Unit City,” she explains. “The most interesting part of the project was the inclusion of three 13-foot Soniah lamps emerging like flower stems high above the reception desk. These are the largest I’ve created to date. The word soniah means sunflower in Ukrainian, a visual correlation that is best expressed in this context.”

Upholding Tradition Through Contemporary Design Experimentation

The local talent made headlines this spring by debuting her Faina product line at New York furniture fair ICFF. Deeply rooted in Ukraine heritage, Yakusha harnesses the full potential of hyper sustainable materials and reinterpreted handicraft traditions to create substantial furnishings and luminaires that maintain the imprint of the human hand at work. Much of the formal language she employs harkens back to folkloric symbolism but with a paired back sensibility that aligns with contemporary taste.  

It’s a similar approach the multifaceted designer tapped into when, under the auspices of her eponymously-named Yakusha Design architecture practice, she conceived Unit Space. While Unit City’s progressive mandate is expressed in the implementation of a large transparent glass screen displaying different digital holographic sculptures and informational widgets, viscerally-hewn Faina ceramic lamps—inspired by celestial shapes—play off the curvatures of arched mirrors affixed to rear walls. Richly upholstered pill-shaped sofas arrange in different modular configurations; juxtaposing geometrically-patterned surfaces throughout. Patinated and semi-iridescent metals render monolithic desks and wall-cladding panels, adding additional depth.

The spatial intervention centers on a biodynamic lighting system that illuminates the space in four different modes, evoking different times of day. A palette of muted earth tones perfectly accommodates this feature. A peppering of indoor plants factors in as a calming and grounding counterpoint. “In modern society when technology and design are evolving so fast, it’s important to maintain a connection with nature,” Yakusha concludes. These seemingly opposed themes neatly coalesce in this cautiously layered and laid-out entrance hall; a sophisticated calling card for the rest of the workspace complex.

Inside Unit Space, a Tech Lobby Designed by Victoria Yakusha

Umu’s Founder Creates a Sustainable Family Home in Belgium

There may be no such thing as a living, breathing house. But the Belgian residence that Sven Bullaert has conceived for him and his family comes close. Its timber walls are filled with lime hemp, their sides shaped by willow branches that have been smoothed over with loam. The flooring starts with a layer of crushed seashells. The roof is covered with straw. Bullaert approached the creation of the 5,400-square-foot home the same way “a bird makes his nest,” he begins, piecing together natural materials with an eye for comfort and functionality. An artist and a designer, Bullaert has also infused the setting with a quiet beauty.

He didn’t start from scratch. After decades of living in rented homes—over the course of a career in the fashion industry that included eight years as the creative director of accessories company Kipling—Bullaert had been looking for a place of his own where he could settle down and focus on projects he had long dreamed about. He found a property in Eksaarde, about an hour north of Brussels, that was next to a river and a bike trail. On it was a 120-year-old Flemish long-gable farm, a type of hardworking building that had combined living quarters for the farmers with a barn for their animals. Bullaert admired the structure’s sturdy timber construction and the way it had been oriented to take advantage of the sun. He decided to transform it into a home for his family, drawing inspiration from the architecture of Antoni Gaudí and César Manrique as well as nature-based construction methods he’d learned on travels to countries along the equator.

A Sustainable Home That Blends In With Its Surroundings

Organic Forms Add Warmth to the Home

The two-story building had been divided up to segregate livestock—sections each for horses, cows, and smaller animals like pigs and chickens. As Bullaert rebuilt walls, he left some where they had been and eliminated others to create spaces that flowed into each other. Furthering the flow—and fostering family interaction—he opened portholes on walls so that, say, the smell of soup bubbling in the kitchen would waft about. Skylights and generous windows were added to open the house to the outdoors. Bullaert hired sculptors who took a break from their own artistic endeavors to hand-trowel the loam mixture onto the curving willow branches so walls have an adobe effect, yielding the interior’s many arches and rounded corners—organic shapes that Bullaert believes make the home “warm and embracing.”

Work on the house was very much still in progress when Bullaert and his wife and collaborator, author Angel Patricks Amegbe, moved in with their toddler and Bullaert’s two older sons from his previous marriage. Living in the house and using its rooms, which encompass three bedrooms and two bathrooms but will ultimately have five and three, respectively, they began fine-tuning the spaces, a process that continues to this day. “It has a bit of the wabi sabi, the joy of the unfinished,” Bullaert notes. The hanging iron fireplace in the living room, for instance, was carefully positioned so that the sight of its crackling flames could be enjoyed while seated in the conversation pit. An amoeba shape was cut out of the carpet under it, the flooring there topped with surfacing made from flattened pebbles. “We never have a dirty carpet.”

Niches for displaying artifacts are carved out of walls, and the furniture, none of which was purchased new, is either designed by Bullaert or from the 1970’s, ’80’s, and ’90’s—decades he feels had good design “vibes.” Vintage pieces in the living room include Michel Ducaroy’s Togo seating, an Eames Lounge chair, and sculptural standing speakers by Ivan Schellekens, a Belgian audio engineer. When Bullaert was fresh from earning his master’s in product design from the University of Antwerp, he had advised Schellekens on the shape of the speakers. Although they gained great renown and were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the speakers later went out of production. But recently Schellekens and Bullaert have been collaborating again to reissue them with improvements, such as using sheep’s wool as a damping material inside and Corian for the outside. The Bullaert clan has been trying them out in the house’s music room.

Uma’s Founder on Building on Eco-Conscious Lifestyle

The speakers are one of several projects the designer is pursuing with his firm, Umu. Bullaert, who, after Kipling, founded an eco-conscious fashion company, has dedicated Umu to advancing ventures that encourage a simpler, more sustainable and spiritual life—he chose the name umu because he feels the word connotes a wave; he later learned it means sharing common beliefs in Arabic. Another Umu endeavor is an eco-village under development in Akosombo, Ghana, a partnership with a local chief who cofounded the Royal Senchi resort there, that will be devoted to art, meditation, and making products like Belgian chocolate infused with African and Asian medicinal herbs. The village residences will be far more modest in size than Bullaert’s, but the plan is to build them using the same carefully considered—and, now, time-tested—construction methods.

Inside the Nature-Inspired Home of Uma Founder, Sven Bullaert

UMU: angel patricks amegbe.

ligne roset: sofas (living room).

focus: fireplace.

herman miller: chair, ottoman (living room), chairs (dining room, bedroom).

balta industries: carpet (music room).

elco: sconce.

umu: speakers.

hansgrohe: sink fittings (bathroom).