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As Madrid Design Festival is moving into its 9th year of exhibitions, a little sibling has been added to its family. Shape is a collective design exhibition that took place from March 4 to 8, 2026, immediately after the main exhibition was held. Coinciding with the city’s most famous art fair, ARCOthe last part of the festival attracted a new kind of audience, combining art and design together.
Collectable design has been on the rise in recent years, and as the general focus shifts towards artistic research practices rather than conventional industrial design, we can only predict that we will see more of this in upcoming exhibitions. This article covers a selection of highlights from the first edition of Forma, setting the tone for what’s been happening in the Iberian Peninsula so far.
Forma, Madrid Design Festival © Todomuta Studio
Forma, Madrid Design Festival: Leaky Collection © Studio Ejarque
Forma, Madrid Design Festival © Justino Del Casar
Forma, Madrid Design Festival: Reading board © Paula Rocio
Forma, Madrid Design Festival: Folded © Nani Marquina
Forma, Madrid Design Festival: Fun furniture for friends © Francisco Jordan
Forma, Madrid Design Festival: Madrid Chair © Jorge Vela
Folded, Nani Markina
Nani Marquina is a design company based in Barcelona, an international benchmark in contemporary rugs. In collaboration with Manel Molinahave revealed it Folded collection, seeking to disrupt the boundaries of traditional design by exploring the additional possibilities of a typically flat rug.
“With this bench, we wanted to explore new dimensions of the carpet concept, going beyond its usual use and giving it a three-dimensional presence in the space.” explains the company’s eponymous founder, Nani Marquina. Elevating the rug’s functionality beyond the floor, Folded joins other explorations currently happening in the rug industry, such as Sabine Marcelislast job for cc-filteror the Dune rye by Budde.
Leaky Collection, Studio Ejarque
If greenwashing makes something look sustainable when it really isn’t, what is the opposite? Studio Ejarque has developed a graphite bioplastic that looks so synthetic it’s hard to believe it isn’t. Evoking the image of an oil spill, it points to the precarious state of the environment, as well as offering the idea that biomaterials are not tied to a particular aesthetic and can look like anything.
The collection includes three unique pieces, whose peculiarities are also given by the randomized way in which the material is placed on the object, creating unique shapes. In contrast to the warmth of wood and the clarity of glass, bioplastic graphite becomes even more seductive.
Justino Del Casar
Any material holds memory, but paper, in particular, has a special value to it, as we use it to intentionally record memories onto it. Whether in the form of a diary, legal documents or a sketch, paper often ends up containing meanings that transcend its strictly material qualities. Justino Del Casar decided to use this memory and turn it into sculptural objects that can last a lifetime.
The collection includes sculptural objects, vases and a table, all made from waste paper combined with metal, cardboard or wooden structures to ensure stability. The paper used comes from all sorts of places, ranging from old exam papers to architectural plans and bank documents, the material memory of which will no longer be legible but will be preserved forever in these objects.
President of Madrid, Jorge Vela
If you could understand the essence of a place and translate it into a piece of furniture, what would it look like? This is the challenge back Jorge Vela‘s research, who has created chairs inspired by different regions of his country, for a collection called Spanish Suite. Presented as part of the Madrid City Council report, President Madrid is his proposal for the capital of the country.
The chair is a tribute to one of Spain’s greatest crossroads, a melting pot of different cultures. It is made of crystalline white Cadalso de los Vidrios granite, a traditional material from the city, telling stories that represent the complex fabric of the Madrid community.
Fun Furniture for Friends, Francisco Jordan
Fun furniture for friends is a creative work of the illustrator Francisco Jordana collection of objects that has been steadily expanding since 2022. It is primarily an exercise in style, where Jordan is free to experiment with different shapes and colors to then transform them into objects, finding a purpose for them.
The collection is clearly defined by the illustrator’s graphic style, evoking and celebrating the Memphis masters with their colorful and playful approach to design. The project reflects the needs of our new home spaces compared to the past, suggesting that we could all use more fun and lightness in our lives.
Todomuta Studio
Let’s get him is a collaboration between Laura Molina and Sergio Herrerawho have been exploring the boundaries between art and design since 2011. They define their practice as more than a design studio, as it is interested in ongoing narrative considerations that go beyond functionality and product form.
At the Madrid Design Festival they presented a collaboration with Cuellar Stonea company specializing in natural stones based in Almeria, Spain. Combining a mainstream aesthetic with a futuristic vision, their creations are unique and enchanting and leave audiences wondering what fantasy world they come from.
Reading Table, Paula Rocio
If every item in our home was designed to match our routines, habits and style, life would be so much easier. That’s what Paula Rocio she imagines with her newest furniture: Reading table it’s a steel table designed to fit exactly a book, a candle and a box of matches, for a quiet moment of reading designed just for her.
Presented with Diffusions gallery, the piece reflects on the meaning we attach to the objects that make up our daily rhythm, exploring how design can enhance and add value to our rituals and thus the quality of our lives. While collectible design often treated as an insignificant part of design due to its disconnection from industry, it’s products like this that show its true value: objects that show us how and why design is influential and allow us to see the field in new perspectives.
