What interiors+sources Editors Are Watching at Chicago Design Week
Threads We’re Following in Chicago
- Modularity with staying power: Products that can flex, adapt, and avoid becoming throwaway solutions.
- Privacy without isolation: Furniture and zones that support focus, conversation, and acoustic comfort.
- Material intelligence: Deeper questions about carbon, chemistry, transparency, sourcing, and circularity.
- Craft with a point of view: Product stories that connect beauty, performance, and purpose.
Here at interiors+sources, we’ve been rolling out the Chicago Design Week content as next week’s events get closer.
Editor’s note: Cue that commercial blasting “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”—except instead of dad celebrating back to school, it features our A&D media team twirling amid commercial furnishings, surface materials, wallcoverings, flooring, lighting, and more. You’re welcome for the visual!
The May/June Chicago Design Week 2026 Preview spotlights a few themes we expect to hear everywhere. In fact, staff writer Lauren Brant recently saw many of these design themes in action: During her visit to the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, she noted particular emphasis on modularity with a purpose, craft and story, and more concrete sustainability conversations.
Those threads have been showing up all over our recent coverage. In the latest “Product Talk” episode of the I Hear Design podcast, Lauren’s chat with BIFMA leaders Steve Kooy and Anthony Serge revealed that privacy furniture is a good example of how modularity, craft, and sustainability are starting to overlap.
Steve and Anthony noted the advance of booths and furnishings with surrounds that bring a hospitality feel and don’t necessarily close users off from the larger interior space. They are part of the nearby action, but also enjoy some acoustic dampening in adaptable individual or collaborative micro-environments.
Lauren neatly summed up the conversation around adaptability, comfort and sensory management, and environmental responsibility:
“Nothing is static anymore—we need environments that are functional for us today. And tomorrow, when we need something else, it can flex and bend in that way without making the product outdated or being a throwaway piece.”
The Product Talk episode is a smart listen before the week gets loud. It ties in well with our feature on five reasons why materiality deserves closer attention during specification discussions between designers and manufacturers. Market content director Robert Nieminen and I broke down an interview in which Material Intelligence founder Kenn Busch and sustainability consultant Jon Strassner pushed the conversation from materiality into “material intelligence.” This means a deeper but more accessible exploration of embodied carbon, supply-chain accountability, material transparency, and circularity, which are part of a bigger story that travels from supplier to manufacturer to designer to client.
You can expect more first looks, event takeaways, and interior design insights from interiors+sources during and after Chicago Design Week. We’ll see you there!
About the Author
Carrie Meadows
Head of Content
Carrie Meadows is Head of Content for interiors+sources, where she leads editorial strategy, content development, and brand storytelling focused on the people, projects, and innovations shaping the design industry. With more than two decades of experience in B2B media, she has built a career connecting technical expertise with creative insight—translating complex topics into meaningful stories for professional audiences.
Before joining interiors+sources in 2024, Carrie served as Editor-in-Chief of LEDs Magazine within Endeavor Business Media’s Digital Infrastructure & Lighting Group, guiding coverage of emerging lighting technologies, sustainability, and human-centric design. Her earlier editorial experience spans across Laser Focus World, Vision Systems Design, Lightwave, and CleanRooms, where she managed print and digital publications serving the optics, photonics, and semiconductor sectors.
An advocate for clear communication and thoughtful storytelling, Carrie combines her editorial management, SEO, and content strategy expertise to help brands and readers stay informed in a rapidly evolving media landscape. When she’s not crafting content, Carrie can be found volunteering at a local animal shelter, diving into a good crime novel, or spending time outdoors with family, friends, and her favorite four-legged friends.