Markus Töll is the founder of SUPERSEDIA, a Vienna-based studio dedicated to the hand manufacture of seating objects. He grew up in his father's metalworking workshop in Bressanone, trained as a metalworker, and went on to study architecture at Vienna's Technical University. The practice brings structural rigour and craft intimacy together in chairs and objects that sit somewhere between furniture, sculpture, and small architecture. Since 2022, SUPERSEDIA has collaborated with Stone Island across more than 20 flagship stores worldwide, and was named in Wallpaper's Future Icons 2026.

What if the most honest thing a chair can do is have no front, no back, no upside, and nothing to hide?

Töll's practice is built on the constant dialogue between an idea and its immediate realisation. He works slowly, plans obsessively, and insists on making everything by hand, including, until recently, the screws. He sources materials exclusively from four traditional artisan workshops in Vienna. He chose a studio across the Danube so that no one passes by coincidentally. His furniture is reduced without being minimalistic. Made from true materials. Built to be inherited.

In this episode, Markus speaks about growing up beside his father at the workbench, the physical and emotional cost of going fully independent, and what it means to build a practice on patience rather than urgency. We talk about Carlo Scarpa, the Stone Island collaboration that started with a Shanghai daybed he redesigned, why he believes the handmade detail lives in the moment you stop, and what it means to work in silence every day toward something you are not yet ready to show.

Basile Fournier is a French creative director and founder of Studio Basile Fournier, working across art, visual identity, digital environments, and spatial storytelling. His practice develops visual ecosystems for brands, institutions, and independent voices seeking clarity, including Balenciaga, Chanel, Marine Serre, and Off-White.

What if design is not about style, but constructing a system that can evolve without losing meaning?

Basile’s work is rooted in arts, structure, research, and iteration. From early explorations in graphic language to building flexible visual ecosystems for contemporary brands, his approach resists decoration and focuses instead on coherence over time. He speaks about independence, long-term thinking, and why a visual identity should behave more like architecture than advertising.

In this episode, Basile reflects on building a studio without shortcuts, navigating doubt while protecting creative standards, and the tension between intuition and methodology. We discuss discipline, authorship, collaboration, and why visual culture today demands systems that can absorb complexity rather than fight it.

Stian Dahl Sommerset is a Norwegian ultrarunner, public servant, and Satisfy pro athlete, balancing life between long-distance endurance racing and working on environmental and infrastructure policy in Norway. Raised north of the Arctic Circle, his relationship with darkness, nature, and solitude has shaped how he approaches effort, ambition, and meaning.

What does endurance reveal when winning is no longer the point?

Stian’s path moves from football and law school into ultra-distance running, where effort stretches beyond performance and into psychology, community, and shared experience. He speaks openly about fear at the start line, the privilege of chosen suffering, and why motivation cannot survive on ambition alone. We talk about racing as a social act, why finishing together can matter more than finishing first, and how support systems carry athletes long before the race begins. Stian reflects on unlearning competitiveness, processing failure, running through darkness, and advocating for dark-sky preservation in a world that rarely slows down.

This episode is about endurance as a way of relating to others, to nature, and to yourself — especially when the outcome is uncertain.

René van Dijk is the founder of Rene.Studio, and a scenographer and visual artist, working at the intersection of music, light, and large-scale live experience. Based in Amsterdam, he creates visual and lighting shows for electronic music artists and festivals, including Camelphat, Charlotte de Witte, Adriatique, and Tomorrowland, as well as for fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Moncler — from intimate clubs to stages holding tens of thousands of people.

What happens when learning takes place in real time — without the safety of pause, reset, or a second take?

René’s path moves from a rural childhood in the north of the Netherlands, through gaming and early animation experiments, into Amsterdam’s nightlife — where projection, music, and space collided for the first time. Without formal mentors, he learned by doing, failing, and slowly earning responsibility. A personal breaking point led him away from commercial work and into months of solitude in the Himalayas, where stillness, walking, and self-observation reshaped his approach to creativity and ambition.

In this episode, René speaks about intuition over planning, learning through mistakes, and why growth often arrives later than you expect — but stronger because of it. We talk about live decision-making under extreme pressure, trust within teams, losing clients to make space for better ones, and why beauty, emotion, and shared experience still matter in a world obsessed with optimisation and speed.

Anne Kremers is the director of FENIX, the new migration museum in Rotterdam. Her path began at 24 as the youngest museum director in the Netherlands, moved through years in Hong Kong, and eventually led her back to Rotterdam. Today she leads a museum unlike any other — combining contemporary art, public space, architecture, and personal stories into a single, living institution.

What if building a museum teaches you more about yourself than about art and the museum itself?

Anne’s story unfolds between two moments: months before FENIX opened, and months after the world finally walked through its doors. She speaks about leadership under pressure, the emotional layers of parenthood and grief, and why impatience can be both a weakness and a force for movement. She shares how Hong Kong taught her to listen, why humanity is inseparable from good management, and how a museum becomes real only when visitors step inside.

Across both conversations, Anne reflects on ambition, doubt, resilience, and the responsibility of telling stories that belong to many. This is a portrait of someone building something unprecedented — while growing, learning, and recalibrating in real time.

MORE INFO

www.fenix.nl

Ben Wright is the co-founder and creative director of Pretty Soon, working across brand, culture, music, and sport. His path moves from Perth’s tight-knit creative scene to New York’s intensity, to Kuala Lumpur, and by moments that opened doors, including collaborations with brands and people like Nike, Puma, Under Armour and ASAP Rocky. Today, he leads a studio built on instinct, clarity, and care for the people he works with.

What if confidence isn’t something you arrive at, but something you rebuild, again and again, as life changes around you?

Ben’s philosophy centres on emotional awareness, leadership, and creative responsibility. He believes good work emerges when you understand your limits, recognise the signs, and create from presence rather than fear. His approach is shaped by fatherhood, stretches of self-doubt, and the discipline of learning to trust his own judgement.

In this episode, Ben talks about the weight of performance, the years he spent overworking, and the moment he realised ambition needed a new definition. We explore confidence, imposter syndrome, the pressure of raising a studio from scratch, and the quiet work behind rebuilding a creative identity. A conversation about resilience, emotional maturity, and the courage to lead with honesty.

Tim Hooijmans is a light designer, building custom pieces for brands like Stone Island, Off-White, and On Running and Antwerp restaurant The Jane, to name a few. His work is defined by honesty and manufacturing discipline. Not trends, not aesthetics, but light itself. From designing in a small Utrecht workspace to producing hundreds of bespoke fixtures for global flagships, he has built a practice rooted in values, independence, and extreme commitment to craft.

What if the real work is not the lamp, but the person you have to become to make it?

In this episode, Tim speaks openly about resilience, burnout, and the physical toll of caring so deeply about your craft. He explains why his process begins with light rather than objects, why he refuses to compromise on values, and why manufacturing is inseparable from design.

Tim shares how boxing shaped his honesty, why becoming a father sharpened his time and focus, and why independence allows him to stay close to his values. A conversation about fear, self-belief, craft, and the courage to build the life you want, one lamp at a time.

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MORE ABOUT TIM

www: www.de-studio-standard.com

IG: www.instagram.com/timhooijmans

Chiara Tomassi is an architect and designer based between Milan and Rome. Her career spans some of Europe’s most ambitious cultural and fashion projects, from MVRDV, AL_A, and MCA Architects to the Victoria & Albert Museum, Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Nike EMEA Campus. Today, at 2050+, she focuses on transformation over new construction, creating meaning through restraint, awareness, and time.

What if balance isn’t found in doing more, but in learning to do less, with care and intention? Chiara’s story is one of rebuilding and redefining ambition. She shares how she learned to slow down, to stop proving herself to others, and to treat time as a material in itself, something to shape rather than chase. Her perspective turns architecture into a reflection of life: a discipline where awareness, empathy, and adaptability matter as much as vision.

In this episode, Chiara speaks about the pressures of performance, the role of presence in design, and the art of finding rhythm between work and recovery. We talk about leaving cities, returning home, and the power of being gentle with yourself, your collaborators, and your process.