MILAN — The evolution of Chinese luxury furniture has been in a deep slumber since the dawn of the socialist market economy, but a cultural awakening is fueling a design renaissance.
After opening its borders to the world, a real estate boom in the ’90s and 2000s sparked a revived interest in decorating the home. Since then, European brands have been satisfying the market’s appetite for foreign luxury goods, including interiors. But that’s rapidly changing, explained experts.
With recent advancements in smart home technologies, a rediscovery of traditional craftsmanship, and a rekindling of national pride, Chinese industry leaders said the number of luxury domestic furniture brands is expected to rise in the near term.
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Local Brands Rise Amid Lackluster Economy
While the global luxury home industry faces setbacks due to sluggish economic growth and a housing slowdown, Chinese furniture brands also stand to benefit from increased migration to urban centers.
According to Youju — a home and decor hub that provides digital marketing services to furniture, lighting, construction and home appliance brands — China‘s home furnishing market is projected to reach 4.76 trillion yuan, or $662.93 billion, in 2025, driven by a return in housing demand. Consumers in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are expected to show stronger consumption growth expectations in 2025, the report said.
Design Shanghai Sees Local Brands Emerge
Zhuo Tan, founder and director of Design Shanghai, said these figures also apply to the luxury industry. Since its inception in 2014, Design Shanghai has become one of Asia’s leading design events and boasts 50 homegrown Chinese luxury brands, among them U+, Why Garden, Urbancraft and the Frank Chou Collection.
The fair drew 76,000 visitors in its last edition in June, and a total of 600 brands.
China is not launching a luxury furniture industry, she is careful to point out. Rather, it has had one since the Ming Dynasty and even before that.
“I think that Chinese consumers are gradually rediscovering traditional Chinese luxury, which is deeply rooted in their historic lifestyle. When China opened up to global trade, Italian and other European companies dominated the market, and the Chinese middle class initially embraced their designs. But now, things are beginning to shift,” she explained. Tan, who obtained a master’s in business in the United Kingdom, also launched Talents in 2020, which is a program that supports the trajectory of young designers in the industry, in part by showcasing their designs at a curated section of Design Shanghai.
Government, Nonprofits Promote Antique Techniques
The central government and non-governmental agencies are also trying to safeguard and promote Chinese artisan techniques. One such organization is the Róng Design Library, founded by Pinwu Design Studio in 2015. It is a nonprofit welfare organization and the first library in China dedicated to preserving traditional handcrafts and materials. Pinwu was founded in Yuhang in 2004 by Lei Zhang from China, Jovana Zhang from Serbia and Christoph John from Germany. Today they continue to focus on stimulating design creativity through education about Chinese traditional handicrafts and materials.
With the mission of helping designers and companies incorporate traditional practices and materials into modern daily life, they collaborate with a number of firms including Muli, a company that makes furniture and storage, bath and kitchen systems. Lian Feng, who had been the owner of a furniture factory since 2008, started Muli after visiting Salone del Mobile.Milano, where he noticed the absence of Chinese brands.
“After visiting Salone, we refined the brand’s direction. Today, it is rooted in Chinese culture and incorporates ideas like the five color system and other traditional philosophies,” he said. The five color system is based on the Yin Yang Five Elements theory that aims to purify the heart and spark joy. Water, fire, wood, gold and earth correspond to the colors black, red, blue, white and yellow.
Chinese Consumers Demand Smart Technology
Lian contends that Chinese brands like his have a leg up on European ones when it comes to tech-savvy Chinese consumers. They’ve developed their own smart technology that connects traditional craftsmanship with modern functions and design. “It makes our furniture more adaptable to how people live today. Not just for convenience but to create pieces that feel both rooted in heritage and forward looking. This blend of tradition and innovation is what sets us apart.”
Muli’s special smart technology features intelligence residence functions that control the shades, lighting with unique settings for morning and evening, air management and is outfitted with a sophisticated security system. Its closets, for example, are made with built-in air functions that support the care and longevity of clothes and shoes.
Recruiting Foreign Names to Fuel Growth
Muli recently made a splash in May after they presented their renovated The Muli Palace in Beijing, which was designed by New York- and Toronto-based Yabu Pushelberg.
The showroom is situated in the Siheyuan courtyard beside the Forbidden City and has been transformed into a contemporary high-end living space that blends modernity with China’s rich cultural heritage and artistic charm.
Yabu Pushelberg’s approach offers a new kind of experience — one that doesn’t separate function from feeling or tradition from innovation — inviting visitors to feel and connect rather than just observe, explained cofounder George Yabu.
Striking a balance between modern and functional and traditional roots was key in this project, said cofounder Glenn Pushelberg. “China is also investing heavily in design innovation, aiming to become a leader in creative experimentation particularly in architecture and design. China is focused on reconciling its past with the present, recognizing the value of its heritage in shaping the future.”
The studio has a few upcoming projects in China, including a collaboration with Beijing-based innovative design firm HC28 and its sub-brand HC28 Cosmo. Their pieces will debut at CIFF Sept. 9 to 12 in Shanghai. They are also developing a lamp for smart-home firm Moorgen that will be unveiled later this year, he said.
During 3daysofdesign in Copenhagen in June, Yabu Pushelberg revealed designs with Stellar Works, which makes its furniture in Shanghai and operates under the creative advisory of renowned architects Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu of Neri&Hu.
A New Future for Ancient Practices
Finding go-to luxury brands is a task in China, explained Jennifer Altehenger, a professor of history of modern and contemporary China at the University of Oxford, who is writing a book on socialist design, which traces the nation’s design development throughout the 20th century. It was a time in which the Chinese government was focused on developing people’s living standards and functional modular design models to maximize small spaces. Today, she explained, Tiantan Furniture Co., which was founded in 1956 as a state-owned company, remains one of the influential producers in a market that is growing every year.
The secrets to the future lie in the past, she asserted. Chinese companies still rely on furniture heartlands like Shandong and Fujian province, the latter of which is a bamboo producing area. Craft techniques from the 17th century are re-emerging. One of the most prominent is the joinery techniques used during the Ming Dynasty, which influenced midcentury modern furniture producers like Danish design icon Hans Wegner. In 1950, he debuted the Wishbone Chair, which was directly influenced by elements from the Ming Dynasty and cemented Wegner’s status as one of the biggest names in midcentury modern style.
“Chinese furniture has been influencing global furniture production for a long time. Chinese manufacturers are going back and trying to see how they can build on these traditions. A Ming Dynasty chair design does not need glue or nails and it is long-lasting because the joints are so well-crafted that they can endure over time,” she explained.
Luxury Chinese Brands Eye Global Expansion
Jinan-based contemporary furniture brand U+ has also embraced this joinery process as one of the pillars of its ethos grounded in the concept of “Contemporary Orientalism.” The firm employed the traditional mortise-and-tenon joinery technique, which has been perfected over millennia. This nail-free woodworking technique underpins the structural logic of its signature tables and chairs, ensuring durability and an understated elegance.
The firm continues to explore materials and finishes unique to China, most notably Guangdong silk (xiangyun sha), a precious textile from the Lingnan region produced through a plant-based dyeing and unique finishing process. “By pairing this silk with solid wood, glass and oil-tanned leather, we allow the cultural symbolism it carries to enter contemporary living spaces with renewed vitality and artistic value,” its cofounder Baohong Shen said.
Looking ahead, internationalization is a strategic imperative for companies across the board. U+, for example, is preparing a comprehensive brand presentation for key trade shows Salone del Mobile.Milano and IMM Cologne in the near-term. “At an opportune moment, we aim to appear at these venues under our own banner, presenting a complete narrative of U+’s ‘Contemporary Orientalism’ and engaging the global design community in deeper dialogue,” Shen said.
Como is an Italian-Chinese firm that was born on the edges of Lake Como in 2001 and was started by Fabio Song and Fausto Proserpio. The two came together, striving for interiors that contradict the “Icy functionalism of 21st-century furniture…disconnected from traditional handcraft,” said Song.
Since then they have pioneered a “cultural return” to ancient craft. “It’s not a simple nostalgia for the past, but a reconstruction of traditional aesthetic codes in contemporary language,” Song said, referring to cultural movements in design throughout history. He recalled how the U.S. integrated European craftsmanship through the Bauhaus movement in the early 20th century, and Japan reshaped its local aesthetics through the Mingei Movement in the 1970s. Both eras were sparked by a period of economic prowess that led to a cultural identity awakening and finally, a global expression of local culture.
“The wave of localized design is now being catalyzed by Generation Z — as a group that grew up with globalization and digital technology. It possesses cultural confidence and an international vision, becoming the core force driving the exploration of localized design,” he said.
Song pointed out that since 2018, the field of local design has begun to collaborate with a new generation of Chinese designers with a global perspective. Among them: Ricci Li of Urbancraft and Hongchao Wang of Benwu Studio, who was named among AD’s ” AD100 Young” list.
“Their works feature distinct design vocabularies and better meet the needs of China’s younger generation of customers,” he said.
Drawing the Global Design Community to China
Another testament to the home industry’s potential is the ceramic culture in Jingdezhen, whose kilns have been running consistently for 900 years. Today, however, the porcelain capital in the Jiangxi Province is becoming an international hub and boasts a David Chipperfield Architects-designed performance art center and artist residency cofounded by American artist Ryan Mitchell.
Launched in 2016, the 6.5 billion renminbi, or $906 million, multifunctional creative hub quickly became a gathering ground for creative transplants, or what city officials call “Jing drifters.”
For Zhou, the challenge that lies ahead for Chinese firms involves communication. Chinese home firms are still struggling to represent themselves on a global stage. “China was really under developed in the past 40 years, We don’t have a voice and then we cannot present ourselves properly. So the rest of the world looked at China as an under developed country, quite poor and not very sophisticated. I think luck comes with the economic status of the country and also luxury comes from the general public’s affordability with respect to that.”
Looking ahead, modest growth is expected for the world’s second most-populous nation. The Chinese government targets gross domestic product growth of 5 percent in 2025, the same growth rate as 2024.
— With contributions from Denni Hu in Shanghai