Focus/25 in Review: A Landmark in the Interior Design Calendar
Between the 15th and 19th September, Design Centre Chelsea Harbour once again opened its doors to another landmark date within the annual Interior Design calendar – Focus/25 on Design. Across five days, more than 135 showrooms, 600 global brands and 100+ lectures, workshops and masterclasses converged to create a vivid tapestry of creative energy.
Piers Thurston Home was fortunate enough to attend this union of makers, clients and designers, with ample opportunities to wonder from textile launch to lighting demo, to pop-up ‘House Guests’ and even enjoy a moment at the Design Restaurant for a little lunch in between.
Pop-Ups and House Guests: Fresh Voices in Design
One of the most compelling and informative features of Focus/25 is the ‘House Guest’ curation – a number of brands, designers and artisans who are invited to occupy a temporary space within the Design Avenue to showcase their works and offerings, in a manner that is intentionally a little more raw and less polished than during London Design Week.
Of course, it’s essential for any designer to stay ‘in-the-know’ and maintain their knowledge of an ever-evolving industry, and events like this are a great way to discover new suppliers and form fresh professional relationships with smaller voices who are often the ones to disrupt conversation within the field. Moreover, it is within such spaces that we can identify trends, and spot the next texture, finishing detail or team of makers before the mainstream.
Standouts on this occasion included The Vale, London and Jessica Osbourne.
The exterior of the Jessica Osbourne stand at Focus/25
The sample boxes and fabrics of Jessica Osbourne
Spectacle & Dialogue: Conversations in Design
The ‘Conversations in Design’ series is the intelligence and knowledge behind the spectacle of Focus/25, where tensions are aired and the industries trajectory is debated. Unsurprisingly, the most popular talk of the series this year was ‘Thinking Differently: How AI is Revolutionising Interior Design’. Billed as a window into how the design world is recalibrating to accommodate such technological advances, the panel explored both the opportunities and limitations of AI in Interior Design.
Speed & Exploration: One of the most practical appeals of AI is speed and efficiency, allowing designers to generate variants, push colour palettes and reinterpret designs within minutes, allowing additional breathing space to think and explore on a deeper level. However, the consensus was clear: AI is best reserved for early-stage concepts and mood boards - NOT for final 3D renders, which still demand human refinement and accuracy. (For more on this topic,I have explored it at length in my article “How AI is Redefining the Interior Design Industry, and What Clients Should Consider Before Hiring an Interior Designer”).
AI as Collaborator, Not Replacement: Speakers made a clear distinction – AI is not here to replace a designers eye, but to compliment it. Where we, as designers, bring empathy, context, emotion and intuition, AI can bring iteration, data crunching and option generation, and thus should be framed as a thinking partner or co-pilot. Yet, a note of caution: whilst designers are not at risk of being replaced by AI, those who fail to engage with these tools may see themselves replaced by those who master them.
Data, Ethics & Intellectual Property: If AI draws on millions of images, how do we respect and honour original authorship, and who owns the output? The legal and moral architecture around AI is still nascent, and in an industry where narrative, provenance and craft matter, these questions are not peripheral—they are foundational.
Workflow Integration: Perhaps the most compelling point - AI succeeds best where it is embedded smoothly, across specification, sourcing, cost checking, lighting simulation, and furniture matching etc - not as a flashy add-on but as an invisible scaffold behind the scenes.
What This Means for Piers Thurston Home
At Piers Thurston Home, we see opportunities to integrate AI thoughtfully and responsibly:
Ideation Acceleration: Whilst (admittedly) a little sceptical in its use further along in the design process, we may start to pilot AI-driven concept sketching or material suggestion tools within the early stages, to fast-track draft designs, allowing additional time for nuance, and refinement.
Bespoke Prompts & Archive Training: Rather than generic prompts that will be adopted throughout the industry, when in use, we’ll feed AI with our own archive of past projects, mood boards, client narratives, and regional vernacular to keep outputs unique and aligned with our ethos.
Balanced Transparency: Where AI is used, we’ll always be explicit with clients to preserve both the human craft and our client relationships.
Closing Thought
Focus/25 felt like a moment of converging currents – human craft and digital technology; tradition and speculation; established names and upstarts. The “Thinking Differently” talk on AI reminded us that the next decade of interior design will demand more than just beautiful finishes, but also agility, narrative clarity, and a willingness to think with these tools rather than just react to them.
For a studio like ours, rooted in the tactile, the personal, and the soulful home, AI is not a shortcut. It is a lever — a way to amplify intent, enhance storytelling, and free time for the human connection at the heart of every project.