The jury is deliberating... stay tuned for the winners of Architizer's A+Product Awards! Register for the A+Product Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
An optimistic view of circular design would be to say the conversation is maturing. It seems to have taken a while, but increasingly top brands and names in the design industry are embracing, and even pioneering, innovation that takes sustainability seriously. That’s not to say that sustainability efforts are in vain if they fall short of the standards of true circularity; we must do all we can to improve our materials and extend their lives. However, genuine circularity, the practice of designing materials and products so that every ending becomes a new beginning, is now a more significant part of the conversation than ever before.
At this year’s 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen (10-12 June, 2026), flooring manufacturer Tarkett and design futures consultancy TILT Futures will stage Beginnings & Endings, an exhibition demonstrating how creativity and collaboration are necessary for success in circular manufacturing. The show will bring together designers Yinka Ilori MBE, Laurids Gallée, and Christian + Jade to explore how designers can be agents for change, ensuring the end of a product’s life is designed into the product design process.
Tarkett invited each designer to work with one of three materials from the brand’s core flooring collection — carpet, homogeneous vinyl and linoleum — not as finished flooring products but as starting points for new forms of creative expression. Rather than presenting circularity as a checklist of environmental metrics, the exhibition approaches it as a cultural, emotional and philosophical proposition, asking designers to reconsider how material lives begin and how they should continue long after their first intended use.
Linoleum for 3daysofdesign Exhibition, courtesy of Tarkett
“At Tarkett, we believe circularity starts with design,” says Thomas Leneveu, Vice President at Tarkett. “Design defines what something is made of, how long it will last, and what will happen at the end of its life. When we design for circularity, products and materials are created with their next life in mind.”
The resulting installations across the individual designers deal with permanence, form, space, ritual and joy. This is a shift from the usual tone of the conversation, taking the concept of circularity beyond supply chains and recycling systems.
“There’s growing awareness among emerging designers, but still many designers tell us they don’t feel properly equipped to engage with circularity,” says Caroline Till, co-founder of TILT. “It perhaps wasn’t part of their training, and the language around it can feel technical and exclusionary, and there’s a real fear of getting it wrong.”
Linoleum for 3daysofdesign Exhibition, courtesy of Tarkett
More worryingly, for Till, there exists a broader cultural context in which conversations around sustainability have become increasingly fraught. While accountability around environmental claims remains essential, she warns that some organizations are retreating from public commitments altogether. “We’re seeing brands pull back from sustainability commitments under economic pressure, teams being cut, and a cultural mood that seems to be losing patience,” Till suggests that this retreat could be driven by a deeper awareness of the complexities of developing genuine sustainability credentials, which is a positive but comes with a more insidious risk. “There is the chance we could tip from greenwashing into what some are calling green hushing,” she says, where brands go quiet on sustainability not because they’ve stopped working on it, but because they’re scared of scrutiny.
For Till, one of the industry’s biggest challenges remains educational. “Design education still largely trains people to think about the object in front of them, not the system around it. We need designers who can see materials not as fixed ingredients but as participants in a longer cycle — who understand where something comes from, what it’s capable of, and crucially, how to design its ending into its beginning.” Leneveu agrees, saying that “circularity cannot succeed in isolation.” For him, the whole concept relies on a functioning ecosystem of customers, suppliers, and regulars, too. “Without that alignment,” he adds, “even the most advanced solutions cannot scale.” Beginnings & Endings attempts to make those systems tangible by translating abstract circular principles into physical experiences.
Exhibition IQ Range Homogenous Vinyl for 3daysofdesign Exhibition, courtesy of Tarkett
The Beginnings & Endings opening gambit is its refusal to prescribe a single definition of circular design. Instead, each designer explores a distinct philosophical dimension of what it means for materials to have multiple lives. For Rotterdam-based designer Laurids Gallée, circularity is about permanence. Working with Tarkett’s homogeneous vinyl flooring, Gallée rejects the assumption that circularity must always be expressed through transformation. Instead, he asks whether the most sustainable object might be one that never becomes waste at all. The work challenges contemporary design’s wasteful relationship with material culture. Rather than focusing on recycling, Gallée’s interpretation of circularity centers on longevity, creating objects so meaningful that they remain desirable indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Danish-Singaporean duo Christian Hammer Juhl and Jade Chan will investigate circularity through disassembly. Their installation dissolves traditional distinctions between floor, wall, and furniture, transforming Tarkett linoleum into a series of blackened steel-framed objects draped with continuous surfaces. The result is a spatial approach to design without clear beginnings or endings. More significantly, the duo makes visible what design often conceals. Joints, connections, and assembly methods will be intentionally exposed rather than hidden, turning these mechanisms into aesthetic touchstones in their work. Their work suggests that circularity may require a shift in how we see beauty, perhaps a version that prioritizes repair and adaptation.
Finally, Yinka Ilori MBE approaches circularity through a wash of human experiences, including reflection, wellbeing, and joy. Known for his vibrant, community-centered practice and by his sobriquet, the Architect of Joy, Ilori will transform Tarkett carpet into a large-scale immersive environment designed for pause, reflection, and collective experience. The work will offer a powerful counter to received narratives about sustainability, which are often characterized by sacrifice and restraint. Instead, Ilori positions circularity as a source of joy.
ST carpet for 3daysofdesign Exhibition, courtesy of Tarkett
Together, the three installations will reveal a broader shift taking place within contemporary design culture. Rather than treating circularity as a check-box compliance exercise, designers are beginning to embrace it as a creative constraint capable of generating exciting new thinking.
“Design festivals like 3daysofdesign play an important role because they create space for dialogue,” says Leneveu. “They bring together designers, architects, customers, and industry partners to explore ideas, challenge assumptions, and share new approaches.” For Tarkett, an advocate for circularity, the opportunity to communicate these principles in a more engaging and accessible way is important to the cause. “Through materials, collaborations, and installations, we can help to make these concepts tangible,” Leneveu says.
The jury is deliberating... stay tuned for the winners of Architizer's A+Product Awards! Register for the A+Product Awards Newsletter to receive future program updates.
