October 23, 2026 | Art & Culture
INSIDE MARKA LONDON:
the WAY WE WANT to LIVE
words Onur Baştürk
photos Richard Heald
After more than 20 years in Istanbul, MARKA took its first international step in London. Held at the Design Museum on 13 October, with STEPEVI as global partner, MARKA London Capsule Edition brought together figures from design, architecture, fashion, art and hospitality.
HOW DO OUR TASTES SHAPE OUR CHOICES?
Es Devlin was a particular draw. Her newly opened exhibition, Other Worlds, was in the same museum, giving us the chance to hear her discuss her approach, then see it take shape in her work.
BJ Cunningham, MARKA’s long-standing moderator, set the tone for the day: “How do our tastes shape our choices? What does luxury mean today?”
The circular seating arrangement in the museum’s lofty central space helped shape these discussions. Speakers and listeners sat close together, with the programme unfolding through a series of 15-minute sessions. Subjects changed quickly, but it was easy to hear the connections between an interior designer’s observations and a fashion designer’s thinking.
In conversation with the museum’s chief curator, Johanna Agerman Ross, Devlin spoke about finding a space of her own. For me, her words made for a particularly powerful start to the day: “Every child tries to work out how to fit a piece into the right space. But there was no space for me. This exhibition is for people like me. People who have tried glassmaking, mapmaking or bookselling, only to be told they don’t belong anywhere. Yet not fitting in can be a powerful impetus to create a new space that fits your own shape.”
Anyone who has had to keep explaining why they work across disciplines will recognise the feeling. Devlin described a shift from seeking a place to belong to creating one of her own. It was a thought to carry into the rest of the day: how do the spaces, objects and experiences we design help people find a place for themselves?
ALEX EAGLE: LUXURY IS HAVING WHAT YOU NEED CLOSE AT HAND
In her discussion with Çağdaş Ertuna, creative director Alex Eagle offered an answer rooted in everyday life. Talking about the interiors of London’s 180 The Thames, she also described how her understanding of luxury had changed: “I’ve asked myself many times what luxury means. When I first became interested in fashion, luxury meant ease. It was having something you could put on at six in the morning and wear comfortably. In fashion, luxury was about fabric, but also effortlessness. Later, when I moved into spaces and interiors, it became about environments that allow you to live your life with ease.”
Eagle’s idea of design making life easier extended to the city itself: “Luxury is having what you need close at hand. You can be curious and excited, and it’s all within reach. Being offered new experiences is a real luxury.”
She was just as specific about what she looks for in an interior. “I’m usually fascinated by the bones of a space,” she said, before turning to materials: “Anything that feels alive in some way appeals to me. If you have a good floor and a beautiful colour on your walls, you’ve already done much of the work.”
Her advice on developing an eye was to treat looking as a form of research: “When you see something you like, ask yourself why. Find out about its history, explore what lies behind it and put in the work.”
SHAYNE BRADY: THE KEY TO LIGHTING IS SHADOW
When we remember a place, which details can we actually recall? The floor, lighting, sound or the chair we sit in can make us feel at ease, even if we cannot quite say why. I had this in mind as I listened to interior designer Shayne Brady, founder of Studio Shayne Brady, discuss lighting:
“In every bar we design, you’ll see a table lamp placed between two people. It creates a cocooning atmosphere, perfect for a romantic evening. The key to lighting is shadow. What makes restaurants inviting is having enough dark spaces.”
Brady’s emphasis on shadow suggested why a room’s effect is so difficult to explain simply by listing what is in it. Journalist and author Dylan Jones approached the same idea from another direction: “Value for money is about how you feel, not what it costs.”
JEREMY KING: A GOLDEN AGE FOR RESTAURANTS
For restaurateur Jeremy King, creating that feeling begins with knowing what you want: “To anyone who creates anything, I would say this: be clear about what you want. Otherwise, you lose focus and become confused.” It is a question worth returning to with every decision that shapes a place: what kind of experience do we want people to have here?
King’s optimism was striking. Even as the discussion turned to Brexit, the pandemic, tax rises and changing habits, he resisted the idea that these were the worst of times:
“I live by a motto: don’t get upset today about something you won’t remember in a month or a year. The only thing missing in London right now is positivity. I think people will look back on this period as a golden age for restaurants.”
That optimism did not stop him questioning the growing sameness in hospitality: “The downside of the world today is that everything is becoming increasingly alike. You walk into a five-star hotel and have no idea where you are. Everything looks the same.” A reminder that a place should bear traces of its city, the people who run it and those who come to it.
The influence of a city on its spaces and creative life was also the subject of “The Istanbul Effect”, a panel bringing together Lucca and Cantinery founder Cem Mirap, İrem Kınay and Seda Gazioğlu. A point raised during the discussion captured the constant need to adapt when working in Istanbul: “Creative people living in Istanbul don’t have the luxury of settling into a fixed way of thinking. They generally have to keep changing and questioning how they think, because they cannot predict what tomorrow will bring.”
KENT JACKSON: IF IT ISN’T SUSTAINABLE, IT ISN’T BEAUTIFUL
Architect Kent Jackson of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill extended the discussion of design’s impact beyond the building, to its neighbourhood and environment:
“We wanted to see whether we could create a building that behaved like a tree. One that draws in air, filters and stores carbon dioxide, and ideally contributes to its neighbourhood. Simply achieving net-zero carbon isn’t enough; we need to give something back to our surroundings.”
Designers’ responsibilities also came into focus when industrial designer Sebastian Conran discussed AI and robotics. He questioned the ambition to make robots that are exact replicas of people, asking instead what we actually need the technology to do. As he put it: “We must make sure AI is our servant, not our master.”
WHAT WE TAKE AWAY
What stayed with me from MARKA London was less a single definition of luxury than a set of questions about how people want to live. What makes a place feel good? How well do we understand the reasons behind our choices? What does the work we produce give back to its surroundings? For me, the value of this first London gathering lay in the opportunity to think through these questions together.
