A Never-Ending Story: 11 Intelligent Products Designed to Evolve Over Time

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It would be easy to treat flexibility as a failsafe. A soft response to a hard world. When faced with instability, uncertainty, contradiction, the instinct is often to prepare for everything all at once, as if design might shield us from the unknown through sheer range of possibilities.

But many of today’s most thoughtful and forward-thinking designers are taking a different approach. They are no longer hedging their bets nor concerning themselves with covering every contingency. They are designing products to remain open, to stay in flux. Their value lies not in being endlessly adaptable, but in resisting conclusion. These are objects that leave room. For change. For interpretation. For time to do its work.

Across this year’s A+Product Awards winners, that sensibility appears in different forms. Some pieces rearrange with mechanical precision. Others shift more subtly, through material behavior, light, or rhythm. In each case, adaptability is not a feature shoehorned in during development. It is the fundamental principle. These objects were never designed to perform a single task under ideal conditions. They were always designed to remain unresolved.

Perhaps that’s the point. In a time defined by impermanence, it is not versatility that stands out, but intention. Not the fact that a system moves, but how it moves. Who it moves for. What it allows or refuses. It’s clear to see that the best flexible designs are not those that chase every possible future. They are the ones who are simply prepared to change.

The Diplomat

By Henrybuilt

Jury Winner, Cabinetry & Millwork, 2025 A+Product Awards

The Diplomat kitchen island is a series of operational components rather than a single monolithic unit. Drawer modules, open storage and tool blocks are distributed around the perimeter, creating an active surface on all sides. Nothing is fixed in place unnecessarily. Henrybuilt’s stacking containers can move from worktop to wall and back again, depending on how the space is being used. The materials have been selected for long-term durability under heavy, everyday use. While still a beautiful centerpiece intended to anchor a scheme. It is also a working system that adjusts in response to real patterns of life and labor.

Lokum

By Acerbis

Jury Winner, Residential Furniture, 2025 A+Product Awards 

Each piece in the Lokum collection is produced through traditional glassblowing, scaled to the maximum volume the process will allow without compromising control. The result is a set of tables with consistent formal language but no imposed configuration. They can be deployed singly, as pairs or in a cluster, depending on the needs of the space. The palette is restrained, and the geometry avoids any specific reference to function. Sabine Marcelis has treated the “tables” as volumes rather than furniture types, allowing them to sit comfortably within a range of environments as area tables or artworks in their own right. Their flexibility comes not from movement but from use.

Seem Sweep 2

By Focal Point

Popular Choice Winner, Recessed & Mounted Lighting, 2025 A+Product Awards 

Seem Sweep 2 is a curvilinear lighting system that allows designers to trace movement through space without defaulting to straight lines. Its segments follow fixed radii, creating controlled arcs that can soften corridors, wrap corners or loop across ceilings without visual disruption. The light is continuous along its length, with no break at joins and no visible shadowing or pixelation. It is used to reinforce circulation, open up compressed volumes or unobtrusively organize a layout. The system allows for complexity without becoming overwhelming.

Take Me Lamp

By Lia Siqueira Design

Popular Choice Winner, Decorative & Free Standing Lighting, 2025 A+Product Awards

Take Me is composed of two parts: a disc and a base. The form is stable, but its role in the room is somewhat ambiguous. The light is diffused through opaline glass, softened further by the depth of the shade and the material finish. Color temperature and intensity can be controlled by rotating the disc itself. It’s tactile and intuitive with no app, no interface and no remote. The body is available in a palette of custom tones and materials, from brushed metal to warm-toned wood, so it’s adaptable for both formal and informal spaces. It’s a small lamp that feels visually present wherever it is placed.

Ekodome Geodesic Dome Systems

By Ekodome

Jury Winner, Best of the Year, Commercial Design, 2025 A+Product Awards 

The Ekodome system provides a rigid geodesic frame into which a range of panel types can be fitted — clear, insulated, solid, vented — whatever is needed for the function of the space. The structure is made from aluminum, lightweight and corrosion-resistant, with joints that allow for rapid assembly. Internally, the geometry creates a large open volume without columns or other supports. Yet it can be fitted with partitions, kitchens, bathrooms and mechanical systems as is needed, becoming pretty much anything you want it to be. It’s a structure designed for permanence, without permanence in use.

Marvin Connected Home

By Marvin

Popular Choice Winner, Smart Design & Technology, 2025 A+Product Awards 

Marvin Connected Home embeds motorization and responsive sensors within Marvin’s existing window, skylight and door assemblies, blissfully avoiding the visual compromises that often come with after-market automation. All the components are fully integrated into the frame, maintaining clear sightlines and consistent detailing. Control is layered — users can operate the system through the app, switch, voice, or programmed routine, depending on their preference. In practice, that means air flow, light and privacy can each shift over the course of a day without a need for intervention. The architecture remains visually static, but its environmental behavior is dynamic and evolving over days, weeks or even years.

CATIRPEL

By Targetti

Jury Winner, Best of the Year, Flexible Design, 2025 A+Product Awards 

CATIRPEL is a modular lighting system designed to move across irregular or organic surfaces. Each unit is connected via a ball joint, allowing for a wide range of vertical and horizontal articulation. Segments can be fixed around curves, wrapped along columns or deployed along uneven façades without the need for any custom fabrication. The components lock into place once aimed, so they can maintain precise positioning in outdoor or complex conditions. It’s a product that supports irregularity rather than fighting against it.

Element Bed

By Kalon Studios

Popular Choice Winner, Residential Furniture, 2025 A+Product Awards 

The Element Bed is built from solid Douglas Fir and aluminum, joined with clean mechanical fixings and no adhesives. Every part is demountable and materially distinct, allowing for straightforward recycling or repair. The form is simple but deliberate, with visual balance coming from the proportion of mass to void, not decoration. Kalon produces each unit through a batch-size-one model, meaning the bed can be adapted to individual specifications without altering the fundamental construction. Its materials will age, shift and weather differently, and the piece is designed to support that.

Novawood Ayous

By Novawood

Jury Winner, Best of the Year, Architectural Design, 2025 A+Product Awards 

Novawood produces thermally modified timber systems that hold their form in climates where untreated wood would warp or split. The modification process stabilizes the material at a molecular level, giving it the dimensional consistency required for façades, soffits and transitional areas that typically face variable conditions. The surface remains tactile, with visible grain and depth of tone, but the performance shifts. Architects specify it where interior and exterior lines blur, or where materials are expected to adapt across programs. It behaves predictably in unpredictable settings, which makes it perfect for buildings that experience constant change.

Hirt kinetics

By Kollegger Metallbau GmbH

Jury Winner, Windows & Skylights, 2025 A+Product Awards 

HIRT kinetics enables entire glass façades to retract vertically into the ground, clearing the threshold without folding, sliding or stacking. The movement is driven by a concealed counterweight system, keeping the envelope flush when closed and entirely absent when open. What you’re left with is a space that can shift from enclosure to exposure without any structural modification. It gives users control over openness without asking them to compromise on form or detailing. Where views, air or access are part of the program, the boundary is no longer fixed.

Sightline Flex Suites

By Sightline Commercial Solutions

Popular Choice Winner, Furniture Systems, 2025 A+Product Awards 

Flex Suites are modular seating units developed for venues where layout is in constant negotiation. They are used in stadiums and arenas where the program shifts daily, and where the boundary between audience, sponsor and guest is always changing. Each unit includes integrated seating, tables, railings and branding components, and can be relocated in one piece using standard equipment. There is no need for demolition, fit-out or reinstallation. The design allows for rotation of layout and user group without altering the surrounding architecture. In a typology where revenue depends on responsiveness, they consistently deliver the solution.

The winners of the A+Product Awards  have been announced! Looking ahead to next season? Stay up to date by subscribing to Architizer's A+Product Awards Newsletter. 

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