The prestigious AD100 list for 2026 has been unveiled, showcasing the most influential interior architects and designers of the year. These creative visionaries have transformed spaces across Europe and beyond, offering bold, innovative approaches that continue to inspire the design world. From Parisian apartments to Mediterranean villas, their work demonstrates mastery of materials, color, and spatial dynamics that will define interior design trends in the coming year.
Marika Dru has demonstrated exceptional skill in her restoration of a majestic Parisian apartment, using sophisticated rosewood paneling to recreate intimate spaces with a precious 1940s spirit. "We recovered an apartment without soul, filled with fake antiques. Moldings, ceilings - everything was fake, but from these false ceilings and panels, incredible volumes were revealed during demolition," Dru explains. Her approach involves creating visual horizons through wood paneling, restoring human scale, defining spaces, staging furniture, and creating intimate atmospheres. The rosewood panels visually elongate the apartment while emphasizing its verticality through wood grain that shows delicately under ultra-glossy lacquer.
The interplay of reflections created by wood combined with lacquer forms a fascinating mirror-like effect through a sophisticated pivot door system. Dru's material palette creates rhythm throughout the space, with the prominent dark rosewood contrasting beautifully against soft pink Paloma stone used in arch frames and deliberately high baseboards proportional to wall height. The Versailles parquet flooring in light tones responds to a careful tonal system: off-white ceilings, dark wood-paneled walls, and light stone or wood floors - a tight but powerful trinity. "The lacquer is triple gloss - it's beautiful because it requires special care. This sophistication that demands precious attention reminds us of our love for beautiful things," Dru notes.
Stéphane Parmentier's renovation of a Mediterranean villa in Marseille showcases the importance of choosing the right color palette. His project features a seaside pool, marble colonnades, marmorino walls, and touches of Roman red and solar yellow. "The first thing I did was respect this house," Parmentier explains. "I wanted to preserve its soul, its absolute vibration, because a villa like this, by the sea, is unique in Marseille. I looked at this villa first." His color approach emphasizes what designers call "l'assiette" - the first reddish preparation layer applied to a surface before gold leaf gilding. This base color served as the foundation for lacquering the library in the living room, creating a somewhat Roman, somewhat Greek furniture gesture dressed in burnt red, like an ancient bas-relief.
The CLAVES studio has masterfully transformed a century-old residence into a guest villa, emphasizing theatrical interior design according to historical periods. Built between the wars for operetta composer André Mauprey, the house maintains extraordinary theatricality with interior mezzanine balconies "like at the opera" and bas-reliefs proudly adorning fireplaces. "This house had an intuition," reveals CLAVES studio. "The vestiges from André Mauprey's era, like mosaics, entrance niches, and stair ironwork, wanted us to speak of music and surrealism." The architects fully embraced this inspiration suggested by the location itself, implementing a subtle return to 1930s Art Deco codes through eloquent lacquers found throughout rooms, precious exotic woods, and Art Deco motifs like the Viennese-style kitchen stained glass.
Pierre Lacroix has created a stunning Left Bank apartment renovation that showcases brushed stainless steel as a recurring theme throughout the 18th-century space. The apartment features a typical period floor plan characterized by an enfilade structure completely reimagined by the architect and designer. "What's interesting here is the absence of corridors and the omnipresent symmetry in all rooms," he explains, noting that a full year of construction was necessary to restore its noble character - no work had been done for almost a century. The all-over metal treatment in the kitchen serves as a connecting thread, climbing as gilding on woodwork, adorning the guest bedroom headboard and the brushed stainless steel living room sofa designed by Lacroix for his Timeless collection.
Humbert & Poyet's renovation of Villa Pineda on the Côte d'Azur demonstrates the principle of renovation without denaturation. Set among olive trees, cacti, and palm trees, the agency renovated a family villa designed by architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni in the 1950s. Emil Humbert explains: "For me, Villa Pineda is above all a family home, the privileged refuge of my in-laws, their children and grandchildren. I wanted to give this place so dear to my family-in-law and my husband new breath while paying homage to its designer, architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni, for whom I have the greatest esteem." The architect redesigned window and French door frames using travertine and bronze while opening the park to the exterior landscape and modernizing interior space arrangements.
Festen's approach to creating timeless spaces is exemplified in their renovation of a six-story West Village townhouse for fashion entrepreneur Yael Aflalo and her husband, Swedish art director Ludvig Frössén. "I had them in mind and spent a lot of time studying their work," Aflalo explains. "When we bought this house, I didn't hesitate to call on them." In this 700-square-meter house, the style is refined, measured, and slightly Mid-Century. The mix of custom and vintage pieces transcends eras and stays away from trends. "Our goal is to create a place that will cross generations and patina with time," continues Hugo Sauzay. Using durable materials such as travertine, oak, bronze, and brass, everything was designed to reflect the family's lifestyle.
Hugo Toro's complete redesign of a nearly 1,000-square-meter family mansion on the Left Bank represents a pharaonic project that lasted almost three years. "They came to me to completely redo this 1911 private mansion that had been abandoned for fifteen years and, not being inhabited, was very damaged. We could still feel a certain soul there. The couple then asked me to build a new story, to create something warm and family-oriented with real identity," Toro explains. His approach involves mixing textures, eras, and creating dialogue between ancient woodwork and gilding and patina techniques, combining them with aluminum, drawing maximum custom pieces, and associating vintage pieces.
Dimorestudio's renovation project in Saint-Tropez pays homage to Bauhaus, naval aesthetics, and Italian design within a former luxury Tropezian building. The duo Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran worked within the walls of one of the most avant-garde palaces of its era, restoring splendor and majesty to the most prominent architectural codes of the 1930s. Located on the building's fifth floor, the renovation project reinterprets the historical codes of the place to create a space that is both current and anchored in its origins. "Our expertise allows us to maintain the history of a space while making it contemporary," explains Salci, utilizing references to Bauhaus as well as celebrated post-war Italian architect Gio Ponti to emphasize the Mediterranean ambiance of the location.
Finally, Studio AKADEMOS demonstrates the winning combination of lacquer and mahogany in their transformation of an 18th-century pink granite traditional house on Brittany's Emerald Coast. "We completely restored an 18th-century house located on the edge of the village, steps from the beach. We completely emptied it of everything because it was in too poor condition. The only things preserved were the wooden staircase and the old framework. We completely rebuilt everything inside," the architects explain. The entirely custom-made furniture multiplies nods to the marine universe, like lacquered wood recalling 1940s-1950s yachts or mirrors adorned with elegant ivory shells, creating an elegant boat metaphor in full sea even down to stair carpet bars shaped like ropes.
