Pharrell Williams delivers a lesson in architecture and design

Last night in Paris, the Louis Vuitton menswear show for the Fall Winter 2026 season was unveiled. The creative director of the men’s line, Pharrell Williams, once again managed to push the boundaries of his versatility, and this time to captivate the audience with his reflections on architecture and what it actually has in common with fashion.

In this case, fashion and architecture merge into a remarkably impressive combination from Williams’s creative mind, especially when we know that the futuristic dandy of the French fashion house has this time also found his futuristic home. The striking set design of last night’s Vuitton show included a sustainable home of the future, built especially for the occasion and placed at the center of the runway, set beside the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne. All eyes were focused on this architectural moment, the house through which the models moved, and beyond the clothes, Vuitton bags and trunks were omnipresent, symbolically finding a place to rest after countless journeys. The entire dramaturgy of the fashion show revolved around the concept of a sustainable home and lifestyle.

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What exactly lies behind the idea of Pharrell’s house?

The moment when Pharrell personally went to shake hands with guests in the front row last night made me aware of how much I admire him, and if we add to that the fact that he is a designer, producer, musician, and investor, one has to wonder where his creativity ends, as I am still a big fan of his music. Last night, however, he briefly became an architectural visionary. “I’m not an architect. I build solutions,” Pharrell Williams told Architectural Digest on this occasion. The house that was installed is called Drophaus, and the innovative residential concept was developed in collaboration with the architectural and design firm NOT A HOTEL, led by Shinji Hamauzu. Over the past few years, they have realized a series of vacation homes in Japan that, instead of a traditional rental model, offer users the possibility of partial ownership. Last year, Pharrell and his close collaborator Nigo were appointed investors and creative advisors to the company, and several projects are already in development. We are eagerly awaiting what comes next.

Courtesy of Louis Vuitton

Water as the foundation of a design vision

The Drophaus residence seen last night stands out for its expansive glass surfaces, which erase the boundaries between interior and exterior space, evoking architectural futurism and a vision of future living environments. The architecture of the house recalls the work of Kengo Kuma, which is particularly evident in the project he designed for fashion designer Kenzo Takada. From the outside, visitors can also see the Homework furniture collection that Pharrell designed especially for the show, exploring a concept the designer calls “10 percent imperfection.” Irregular forms and surfaces create the impression of the craftsmen’s handprint, with the intention that the human hand, or the idea of handmade, remains a design imperative.

Here, craftsmanship is intertwined with functionality, without an excess of furniture or objects in the space, instead focusing on innovation and a functional approach. With this, Pharrell has brought us closer to the future of living. As he told Architectural Digest, the foundation of it all is water. “I grew up in a world surrounded by water. Water instinctively draws me in, and it is precisely in contact with it that I create what I do best. By removing the roof and the ceiling, Drophaus takes on the shape of a water droplet. Drophaus embodies my vision of the future: a project that makes sense today and in twenty years’ time, because it is based on functionality, craftsmanship, and real human needs.”

In Pharrell’s “concept of future living,” interiors, music, and clothing become one, three different directions that bear his signature and that together offer us an introduction to a lesson in lifestyle. The fact that the Homework furniture line is also Pharrell’s creation leaves open the question of whether the fashion house Louis Vuitton will step into signature decor, furniture, and interiors. We hope that might be the case, as a logical move. We will see. With Pharrell, anything is possible.