Wallpaper* January 2025: meet the Next Generation

Dear readers,

As we get set to welcome 2025, the first quarter-milestone of the 21st century, we might have been tempted to look back and reflect; instead, we forge on, with our annual Next Generation issue, marking not only the regenerative power of a new year, but also the fresh voices and bold ideas we are likely to meet along the way.

The aim of this issue is to highlight those under-the-wire individuals and barely-there practices that nevertheless point to where the world might be headed. Our architecture & environment director Ellie Stathaki has put together an edit of young architects from India whose work addresses the issues caused by the rapid pace of development in the country.

For our ‘Stars Ascending’ story, acting global design director Hugo Macdonald worked with head of interiors Olly Mason to collate a list of designers forging their own path across five continents, alive to the opportunities that present themselves to the truly gifted, yet mindful that a one-size-fits-all approach to advancement doesn’t necessarily fly. As Hugo notes, ‘One of our subjects guffawed when asked about a career highlight to date: “Sorry,” she laughed: “to describe what I do as a career sounds so old-fashioned.” Amen.’

Elsewhere, we meet Lev Tanju, co-founder of cult skatewear brand Palace, who was recently announced as the creative director of Fila+, an offshoot of the lauded Italian sportswear brand; George Rouy, one of the youngest artists ever to sign with Hauser & Wirth (with a dazzling new exhibition to show for it); and Johanna Seelemann, who is busy carving a new chapter in the history of German woodworking.

We also corral five contemporary photographers whose work deftly crosses the borders between art and commercial, and travel to the Mexican city of San Miguel de Allende, a thriving centre of craft and culture that’s playing host to a new wave of creative thinkers.

Finally, congratulations to 31/44 – the London-based architecture practice that we first flagged for greatness in our 2016 Architects’ Directory – winner of 2024’s RIBA House of the Year for practice co-founder William Burges’ new home in Crystal Palace, south-east London. The tricky site required a striking resolution that the RIBA jury (which included Ellie) rightly praised. But it is Burges’ desire to design a family dwelling that will adapt to the changing needs of his family that strikes a chord with this issue, one that we believe, in its own way, builds for the next generation.

Bill Prince
Editor-in-Chief