Design Miami Seoul 2026: blending architecture, craft and tech

Design Miami Seoul 2026 – Courtesy of Ilda Kim.

Design, Crafts. Until September 6 at Design Lab 1F, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Design Miami Seoul 2026 unfolds under the theme Resonance — the idea that design doesn’t just sit in a room; it carries memory, knowledge and feeling with it, across time and place. Curator Hyeyoung Cho built the fair as a proper conversation rather than a one-way showcase, seating Korean design at the same table as the fair’s international galleries and collectors.

RELATED STORIES: Find out more about Korean architecture and design on Archipanic.

SIDE GALLERY at Design Miami Seoul.

Start with the hanok, the traditional Korean house, raised from natural materials in harmony with the seasons and their surrounding environment. Jungmo Kwon‘s el Techo reimagines its window in layered hanji paper, walnut and brass, glowing faintly from within. Hwan Tae Kim‘s Chimi Chair distils a hanok roof ornament into minimalist form. Teo Yang Studio adds a third reading of the same house within the partner programme.

Teo Yang Studio at Design Miami Seoul.

A handful of works leaned as heavily on process as on material this year. LEJE’s ME-IN sets a 3D-printed base against hand-applied mother-of-pearl and natural lacquer — over 300 hours of patient handwork on a single object. IN GALLERY‘s Crystal Series: Console Table 02 (2026), by Saerom Yoon, is cast entirely in acrylic, so transparent it seems to be dissolving into the room around it.

At Design Miami Seoul 2026, craft and technology aren’t rivals; they’re co-conspirators. Hyunhee Kim‘s After Image Series – Jang (No. 2) rebuilds traditional Korean material language in aluminium and acrylic through digital fabrication. Samsung Electronics paired Korean artists with custom frames for its OLED TV S95H. Japanese architect and ceramic artist Yuki Nara presents Bone Flower/Yayoi 08, a work that brings ceramic tradition into conversation with digital design.

London-based Charles Burnand Gallery presents Jan Waterston‘s Primitive Excavations, a series in bronze and stone with a weathered surface that plays directly into this year’s Resonance theme. SIDE GALLERY‘s Seoul Signs – Itaewon, by Gyuhan Lee is an illuminated sculpture built from the visual language of Seoul’s own storefront signage.

Charles Burnand Gallery at Design Miami Seoul.

The fair’s five LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize finalists, Coco Sung, Jieun Park, Jongin Lee, Somyeong Lee, and Soohyun Cho, celebrate craft and recognise it on an international stage, as it keeps absorbing new tools rather than resisting them.