The Comm Sheet

Enter the Quiet Zone: Meet Canopy by KFI Studios and Gensler

Canopy, a freestanding workstation by KFI Studios in collaboration with Gensler, rethinks open-office productivity with a compact, design-forward solution. Its fully upholstered hood—engineered with textiles and multidensity foam—reduces ambient noise, limits visual distractions, and creates a focused zone without isolating users from their team. Addressing widespread challenges around acoustics and privacy, Canopy supports diverse workplace needs, including neurodivergent and hearing-impaired users. With adjustable height, integrated lighting, and built-in power, it delivers comfort, control, and calm within a refined footprint.

Fab 5: Meena Krenek

In this Fab 5, Meena Krenek—global sector director of interiors at HKS and a Certified Design Futurist—shares her perspective on design as storytelling and strategy. Her work centers on “Return on Emotion,” emphasizing how environments shape behavior, performance, and memory. Rejecting trend-driven thinking, she advocates for spaces rooted in identity and intention. Krenek encourages designers to think big, trust intuition alongside data, and view emotion as a measurable driver of value, creating immersive, human-centered environments that leave a lasting impact.

Julia Watson Wants Designers to Rethink Water

Designer and educator Julia Watson believes some of the most advanced climate solutions are already thousands of years old. Her new book, Lo—TEK. Water. A Field Guide for TEKnology, published by TASCHEN, explores water systems developed by Indigenous communities around the world—and what today’s designers can learn from them. The book builds on Watson’s Lo—TEK framework, which recognizes ancestral ecological knowledge as sophisticated technology. We caught up with Julia to talk about sacred landscapes, climate resilience, and why the future of design may depend on learning to work with water instead of trying to control it.

Wyndham Grand Barbados Debuts “Treasures of the Tide” Art Experience

What if your beach walk ended in a work of art? At Wyndham Grand Barbados, artist Sheena Rose leads a sunrise shoreline experience where hotel guests collect treasures from the tide and transform them into keepsakes—part workshop, part storytelling session, and completely rooted in the island’s culture.

Cottagecore Meets Cali at This Ken Fulk Retreat

Laurel Canyon has officially entered the chat—via Healdsburg. The Cottages at Little Saint, designed by Ken Fulk, bring groovy ’60s and ’70s creative energy to Sonoma with four color-drenched, vinyl-equipped hideaways tucked behind the beloved plant-based restaurant. Expect checkerboard floors, hand-painted armoires, vintage records, and private porches made for deep conversations. Founder Laurie Ubben calls the project a “natural extension” of Little Saint’s community-driven ethos, and it shows. Equal parts whimsical and sophisticated, this is wine country with personality—and we’re fully on board.

Nothin’ But Smiles: SPAN Architecture Redefines the “Dental Visit”

Smile House by SPAN Architecture challenges everything you think you know about going to the dentist. Consider all bad memories history. Designed as a multispecialty destination for dental longevity and aesthetics in New York City, the space replaces clinical sterility with warm amber tones, wood textures, layered spatial depth, and spa-like comforts—including weighted blankets and facial treatments. Yes, please! Read how Smile House is positioning oral health as a gateway to overall well-being, proving that a trip to the dentist’s office can feel less like a procedure and more like a restorative ritual.

DIFFA’s Reinvention Into a Bold New Era

DIFFA has always thrown a great party—but now it’s throwing its weight behind an even bigger mission. Executive Director Dawn Roberson walks us through why the 42-year-old nonprofit has expanded its focus beyond HIV/AIDS to tackle risk factors behind the health condition, such as housing and food insecurity. She discusses how the design industry continues to power its magic and why this year’s Angels & Demons gala at St. John the Divine is more than just a creative black-tie affair. (Though trust us—it’s that, too.) It’s legacy, reinvention, and a whole lot of heart.

The Ultimate Office Lure? Allsteel’s Sleek, Productive Jetty:Mod Furniture

Since work can happen anywhere, the environment itself must be the lure. Dr. Lauren Gant with HNI Workplace Furnishings emphasizes that the office thrives on fostering socialization, mentorship, and innovation, which requires intentional considerations. Allsteel answers with the modular Jetty:Mod collection. Supported by the Work Geometry concept, this flexible furniture allows for intentional setups, creating pockets for both focus and collaboration. Jetty:Mod respects where and how people want to work, making the physical workspace a visual communication of trust that supports individual goals.

NYC Pokémon Store Makes Collecting an Art Form

Poké Court, a new Pokémon flagship in New York’s Meatpacking District, reimagines collectible culture through a refined retail lens. Designed by GAMPworks, the 2,000-square-foot space balances industrial architecture with a restrained Japandi sensibility. Organized around the geometry of a sports court, the store transforms trading into theater, anchored by a central Pack Bar. Banquettes double as a “Ripping Corner,” and rare cards are displayed like fine jewelry. From recycled materials to a walnut-clad VIP lounge, the design elevates fandom into a carefully choreographed spatial experience.

Strike a Pose: 5 Pendants That Deserve a Close-Up

Commercial interiors can express more interesting lighting plans by incorporating pendants in the earliest stages. These decorative focal elements go beyond eye candy to divide space into functional zones, create private conversation areas and even help retailers focus consumer attention on specific products. These five brands—Lodes, Ingo Maurer, Arteriors, RAD Furniture, Shailesh Rajput Studio—are at the forefront of what’s hot in pendant lighting. Each fixture expresses a different mood through its unique style and materiality.

Peter Marino Spins Watercolors of Italian Painter Tiepolo into New Rubelli Silk Line

Peter Marino continues his Venetian love affair with Rococo, a new capsule collection for Rubelli inspired by its namesake style of painting and watercolor drawings by 18th-century painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. The line of nine reversible silks, woven at Rubelli’s Como mill, transforms fragments of Tiepolo’s work into abstract, free-flowing compositions threaded with gold and silver. The classic artform reimagined through Marino’s unmistakably modern lens results in something playful, luminous, and just downright beautiful.

Fab 5: Karen Stonely

Architect, artist, and SPAN Architecture co-founder Karen Stonely has built a career shaped by creativity, curiosity, and civic engagement. Trained as a glassmaker and illustrator before turning fully to architecture, her multidisciplinary background informs both her design work and her commitment to public service. Today, she balances leading an award-winning practice with mentorship, philanthropy, and socially minded projects. In this Fab 5, Stonely shares the ideas, places, and discoveries—from Paris to the quiet beauty of sunlight through trees—that continue to inspire her work.

Inclusive by Design: A Women-Led Vision for Humanscale

Designed by architect Suchi Reddy of New York City–based Reddymade, Humanscale's San Francisco showroom opened in January. The new, light-filled space features garden views, a flexible layout, and material choices reflecting the City by the Bay’s culture of sustainability, innovation, and well-being. It also serves as a hub for the local community while setting a standard for how inclusive design can be practiced as thoughtfully as it's produced.

5 Small Tables With Even Smaller Carbon Footprints

This international selection of eco-friendly tables from Loope, Knoll, Haworth, KFI Studios, and Andreu World represents the vision of designers from Poland, Denmark, Finland, Spain, as well as the United States. These products offer smaller proportions for office lobbies, cafes, hotel lounges, and other intimate commercial spaces, while also introducing sustainable features such as FSC-certified wood, biodegradable components, and recycled and recyclable content, bringing a truly circular design to the table.

No Fuss, No Muss: How the Zenith Retractable Screen from Corradi USA Protects Our Coveted Outdoor Spaces

Outdoor space is no longer optional—it’s expected. The Zenith Retractable Screen from Corradi USA accommodates openings up to 23 feet wide while resisting winds up to 75 mph and offering sun, heat, glare, and bug control without interrupting sightlines. With automated zoning capabilities and a sleek, zip-guided system, Zenith helps designers create flexible, comfortable environments that blur the line between indoors and out. And no swatting required!

A Chair Designed to Disappear: PEEL by PROWL Studio

What if furniture were designed for its death as thoughtfully as its birth? With the PEEL chair, PROWL Studio does exactly that, working backward from the end of its life to eliminate waste at every stage. Developed with M4 Factory and finished using hemp bioleather by Studio Veratate, the stacking chair replaces plastics that take centuries to break down with a hemp-based bioplastic that decomposes in about six months. By mimicking how hemp is harvested and reused, the project challenges the fast-furniture cycle, suggesting the most responsible product might be the one designed not to stay forever.

A First-of-Its-Kind Preschool Is Rewriting the Future

The Woodlands in Los Angeles is redefining transitional housing by transforming a former motel and a Denny’s into a vibrant, 100-unit community with a community center and preschool. Designed by Kadre Architects, the project features a radical prototype: the net-zero Betty Bazar Community Center and Preschool, which provides free childcare and case management for resident families. By integrating bold design with passive sustainability like solar chimneys and reflective paint, the site reduces utility costs to fund essential social services. Inspired by founder Nerin Kadribegovic’s own experience with displacement, the center proves that high-quality architecture and built-in support systems are the keys to breaking the cycle of housing insecurity.

A Century Deep: Inside the Jonathan Club’s Thoughtful Revival by Tim Barber Architects

The Jonathan Club is officially 100 years old—and looking very good for its age. As Downtown LA’s Renaissance revival icon hits its centennial, Tim Barber Architects has been quietly (and carefully) modernizing the landmark since 2013. From restoring the jaw-dropping indoor pool with historically accurate mosaic tile to reimagining a 1920s barbershop as a modern internet lounge, every update balances preservation with real-life use. The result? A living, breathing club that honors its storied past while evolving for today’s members—proof that good design, like a great club, only gets better with time.

The Brodins Double Down in LA With a Studio—and a Gallery to Go With It

Two spaces, one vision. Gavin and Kelley Brodin are expanding their sculptural universe in Los Angeles with two new spaces: a dedicated monumental sculpture studio for their practice Formed For, and Brodin Gallery, a platform for conceptual and collaborative exhibitions. Launching during Frieze, the dual debut signals a deep commitment to immersive, emotionally resonant art.