Habitat 60 Years of Design: ​
​Meet the Designers

To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Habitat has launched the 60 Years of Design collection, a series of 60 exclusive design stories covering furniture, tableware, textiles and accessories. Habitat’s in-house design studio is made up of talented homeware and furniture designers who have conceived over 160 new pieces that represent the next generation of design. Harnessing a range of styles and aesthetics, each piece is united by exceptional craftsmanship and a consideration for unique, practical and enduring design. 

Alongside Habitat’s in-house team, the collection includes pieces created in collaboration with esteemed designers in the industry, bringing icons of the design world to the high street. Sebastian Conran, Felix Conran, Margo Selby and Tord Boontje join the exciting roster of talent, along with artist and designer Simone Brewster, ceramicist Silvia Kamodyová, furniture makers Planq, and former New Designers exhibitors Callum Hall and Guy Selwood-Miller. 

Introducing Habitat's In-house Design Team

Andrew Tanner

Andrew Tanner, Head of Design at Habitat, leads the team of 28 talented homeware and furniture designers. Leaning on his strong ceramics background, he has designed Crate for the 60th anniversary, a platter inspired by fruit packaging which serves anything from ice-cream to oysters. 

Will Hudson

Habitat 60 Akari 4 Poster Metal Double Red, £350 (1)Habitat 60 Tuva Curved Occasional Chair, £225

^{Habitat 60 Akari 4 Poster Metal Double Bed, £350; Habitat 60 Tuva Curved Occasional Chair, £225}

Furniture designer Will Hudson is an accomplished industrial designer who is passionate about simplicity in design and material honesty. Based in Sheffield and with an appreciation for its heritage, Will is best known for using metal in his selected works. Will’s designs for Habitat’s 60th anniversary include the statement Akari bed frame, Lattice SS chair which emulates the cone styles of the 70’s and the Tuva chair which pays homage to the futuristic aesthetics of the 1980’s.

Tom Sullivan

Tom Sullivan is senior lighting and home accessories designer at Habitat, with an honest approach to design. Tom is led by form and function when designing but often integrates a touch of charm into his creations. His playful Portobello lamp has an on-off touch function that casts an ambient light and was inspired by the Button lamp originally released in 1979.

Kate McCormack

Kate McCormack joined Habitat as a furniture and product designer after exhibiting at New Designers and likes to explore the way in which narrative plays a part in function design. Her Lucinda outdoor set for the 60th anniversary was designed during winter to evoke the feeling of summer, precise plasma cutting was used to cast captivating shadows across the garden as the sun moves throughout the day. The Wiggle vase series is formed from blown glass and plays with the layering of coloured glass and architectural forms.

David Hutcheson

Habitat designer, David Hutcheson, takes a simple approach to the design process, seeking to eliminate all unnecessary noise from his products in order to create something that is eye-catchingly simple. For his 60th anniversary collection pieces, David was inspired by 1930's tubular furniture to design the oak framed Acciaio table range and Duomo chairs. Featuring a glass top, the Acciaio tables act as a large picture frame to be filled with memories and collectibles and are available in dining and coffee table styles.

Ross Mountford

Ross won the Habitat New Designers Award in 2022 and is now part of the Habitat in-house design studio. His Primaro candle holders are created from lead-free tinted glass and nod to the Memphis Art Movement with their simplified geometric forms and primary colours.The tealight holders and tapered candle holder can be stacked or used individually.

James Cottingham

^{Habitat 60 Poulet Chicken Brick, £20; Habitat 60 Trac 3 Seater Sofa, £595}

Habitat furniture and product designer, James Cottingham, draws inspiration from innovative manufacturing and materials to ensure that each item possessed its own distinct personality. For the 60th anniversary collection, he has reimagined the iconic Chicken Brick, a transformative vessel designed for steam cooking, which was originally introduced in 1964. Also for the collection, James’s Trac sofa and armchair take inspiration from 70’s Habitat upholstery, designed with arms that extend to the floor making the seat appear as though it’s floating.

D’Arby Mawson

D’Arby Mawson is a product designer who loves to create objects with a sense of joy and personality. For the 60th anniversary, D’arby has created the Cayan salt and pepper grinders with a striking silhouette inspired by the twisting action of traditional grinders. Her Cirro light shade is a nod to Habitat’s classic paper shades, evoking dreamlike clouds with its soft, billowing curves.

Introducing Our Guest Designers

Sebastian Conran 

Habitat 60 Hub Table Lamp, £75Habitat 60 Ellipse Ceiling Light Brass, £115

^{Habitat 60 Hub Table Lamp, £75; Habitat 60 Ellipse Ceiling Light Brass, £115}

Designer, inventor and entrepreneur, Sebastian Conran has conceived engaging and thoughtful designs that enhance everyday life. Partnering with Habitat, in the role of Designer in Residence, his innovative creations for the 60th Anniversary collection herald the future of lighting. His series of eight unique lighting designs each harness a different technological form of channelling light in the home. 

“I have always been fascinated by lighting; light gives life. For this collection I was inspired by the inner child and his curiosity with how things work and are made, as well as basic science and geometry.”
​Sebastian Conran

Felix Conran 

Felix Conran is the third generation of Conran designers, a product designer who fuses sculptural creations with everyday function. For Habitat, his mirrors, shelves and accent tables take shape from the tranquil contours of river stones, accentuated by splashes of colour for a contemporary take. 

“While these tables are perfectly happy apart, together they create a special and unique combination: one leg of the side table can adjoin with the coffee table, creating distinctive multi-height surfaces that are perfect for social moments when serving informal food.”
​Felix Conran

Margo Selby

Award-winning British artist and textile designer, Margo Selby returns to the Habitat fold following her first collaboration in 2008. ​ Having delved into the Habitat archive of print and patterns, Margo has brought her characteristic flair for colour and joyful pattern to a series of textiles and lighting, including bedlinen, cushions, hand-tufted rugs and towels. 

“We wanted to celebrate our love of graphic design and typography, so in addition to our own works, we looked to Habitat catalogues from the 1970s and 80s. Incorporating the number ‘60’ into the cushion felt like a triumphant way to celebrate the relationship between textiles and typography, and the 60th birthday.”
​Margo Selby

Guy Selwood-Miller

Product and Furniture designer Guy Selwood-Miller is a former winner of the Habitat New Designer award. In his creative practices, he celebrates the diversity and natural characteristics of each material he uses. Crafted from solid FSC oak, the Yakker sideboard boasts liberal proportions, on show joints and generous spacing between elements which highlight the harmony and beauty of the tactile wooden grain and craftsmanship. 

“My earliest recollection of Habitat is my dad showing me pictures of his house in his twenties, fully adorned with the distinctive pieces that defined Habitat's aesthetic. Little did I know that these images would leave an enduring imprint on my own design journey.”
​Guy Selwood-Miller

Tord Boontje

A multi-disciplinary designer of product, furniture, and lighting, former Habitat collaborator Tord Boontje has returned to the studio to create elegant hand-blown glassware and a utilitarian nesting barware set for the 60th collection. Inspired by the natural world, he has drawn on his love of organic forms and botanicals. 

“Habitat has for me always signified good and affordable design. It also stands for a kind of relaxed, joyful, informal way of living, an attitude capturing the spirit of the 1960’s, which I can identify with.” ​
​Tord Boontje

Simone Brewster 

Strongly grounded in craft, London-based Simone Brewster uses her creative output as a voice to celebrate and share windows into varied Black female narratives and histories. Her works continuously play with scale, materiality and architecture. Having delved into the Habitat archives, she painted a harmonious narrative of colour, shape and pattern, translated into these abstract hand-tufted wool rugs made in India. ​ 

“I really wanted to take the opportunity and look at how the design language had evolved over the years to become the household name that it is today, and to become a contributor to the family of objects that I've grown up following.” ​
​Simone Brewster 

Planq 

^{Habitat 60 XY60 Side Table Yellow, £150; Habitat XY6 Coffee Table Blue, £325}

Planq is led by Anton and Dennis Teeuw, a forward-thinking design duo that specialise in the exploration of innovative materials and technologies. Their family of tables for Habitat’s 60th anniversary collection have been constructed using a material made from textile waste called Rezign® that has been developed by Planq, and invigorated by accents of colour from 1960s Habitat collections. 

“We united outspoken colours for this collection, looking to today’s streetwear fashion trends combined with contemporary hues from the 1960s that reflect Habitat’s origins. The sharp colour palette brings playful appeal to our functional pieces.”
​Anton Teeuw, Planq Co-Founder 

Silvia Kamodyová

Habitat 60 Radica Tall Vase Wide Base, £25

^{Habitat 60 Radica Vase with Handle, £15; Habitat 60 Radica Decorative Bowl, £20}

Silvia Kamodyová is a Brighton-based ceramicist committed to authenticity, individually creating handmade pieces that each have a story of their own. Inspired by the mark-making and vivid colour palette of Habitat’s Graffiti Sofa made in the 1980s, she worked with artisans in Portugal to create this terracotta collection which employs tactile brush strokes. 

“In a time dominated by software and technological advancements, my design practice remains firmly rooted in tangible processes where sketchbooks, pencils, paints or collages take centre stage.” ​
​Silvia Kamodyová

Callum Hall 

The talents of Callum Hall were discovered at New Designers in 2023, where he won a Habitat Love award for his work. As a textile and print designer, he combines illustration and textile prints to create bold and graphic aesthetics. This has been brought to life in contemporary packaging for the 60th Anniversary fragrance collection, which champions the brand’s much-loved blue colour palette seen throughout many of its designs over the decades. ​