New, rising talent has a way of recognizing and disrupting what the design industry has gotten too comfortable with. A fresh pair of eyes can more easily recognize what—or who—has been missing from the spotlight. These four designers and architects not only do so by carving out their own, distinct visual language, but they are also all interdisciplinary. While each draws from their own culture and context, these designers do more than architecture, from working with film as a medium to studying art, furniture making, and carpentry. Here are the four emerging stars AN has their eye on this year.
Giles Tettey Nartey
Giles Tettey Nartey is a British Ghanaian designer, researcher, and architect. His research-based design practice encompasses filmmaking, installation, performance, and object design deeply rooted in West African culture, fostering a dialogue between craft and ritual. Nartey made his debut at Milan Design Week this year with the Communal Table, a piece made from maple that is designed for making the West African staple fufu. Much like the architect’s work at large, it appreciates the myriad ways objects enrich the everyday.
Michael Bennett
Former NFL star and founder of Studio Ker, Michael Bennett works within an African diasporic language. His 2024 inaugural furniture exhibition, We Gotta Get Back to the Crib, opposes Western design traditions in favor of explicitly African and African American motifs. On the heels of this success, he’s now collaborated with Gantri on a table light: The form references African architecture and history, namely the Little Dipper constellation, which guided many enslaved people escaping the South. Recently, the designer and architect-in-training debuted new work at his Houston exhibit. This included the irregularly curved Pew, a sofa that puts church seating in conversation with couch design and, like much of Bennett’s work, meditates on Black bodies in sacred spaces.
Jialun Xiong
Hailing from Chongqing, China, and now based in Los Angeles, Jialun Xiong is a designer exploring ideas of duality and creative restraint. Having studied interior architecture and furniture design, Xiong’s approach artfully balances positive and negative space, always considering the relationship between objects and spatial volumes. Inspired by the mountainous landscape and high-rise architecture of her hometown in Chongqing, as well as the functional minimalism of the International Style of architecture, Xiong creates spatial environments and furnishings with an abstract geometric bent that precisely frame the human experience happening within.
22RE
Founded in 2021, 22RE is a Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary design and architecture office established by principal Dean Levin. The practice brings together Levin’s multicultural worldview (he was born in South Africa and raised in California) and his background in art and architecture. With respect for craft and traditionalism, 22RE creates new sensory experiences and modern environments that endure. Driven by an unwavering commitment to creative ideals, 22RE provides a full range of services, including ground-up architecture, interiors, and furniture design. In fact, much of the firm’s work incorporates custom furniture made by its in-house carpentry studio. Many of these pieces, inspired by past projects, will be rolled out as commercial collections later in the year.
