Hsiang Han Hsu x Tenderflame

Reimagining Fire at Milan Design Week 2026

As mirror-finished stainless steel, smooth as water itself, emerges from the surface and reflects shimmering ripples before suddenly igniting into a bright flame, the beautiful yet conflicting tension instantly captures attention. It challenges the perceived incompatibility between water and fire, while stripping away familiar contexts of use, allowing both “flame” and “fireplace” to move beyond function and exist instead as pure aesthetic forms — ones that feel at once unfamiliar and instinctive. Perhaps this is what design does best: not to reinvent objects, but to allow them to be experienced differently.

In everyday life, fireplaces have long existed as functional objects. They are used for cooking, outdoor gatherings, or simply fulfilling the practical need for warmth during winter. Open flame remains inseparable from the rituals of daily living, yet its significance and danger have always existed side by side. Since humanity first learned to harness fire, it has marked the threshold of civilisation. And yet, despite such a long shared history, few have paused to consider whether fire might exist in another form — one that still offers warmth and light, while becoming safer, more controllable, and even a medium for atmosphere and emotion.

Tenderflame offers one possible answer. Through the use of a safe fuel, the brand tames the wild nature of fire — highly resistant to spreading due to its elevated flash point, while remaining smokeless and odourless. Enhanced further by patented airflow technology, the flame can be shaped freely: dancing, intertwining, even forming thin mountain-like silhouettes that seem to sketch across space. Fire becomes something almost sculptural — composed, choreographed and controlled. This year, the brand collaborated with Taiwanese industrial designer Hsiang Han Hsu, marking his seventh appearance at Milan Design Week. Known for his longstanding sensitivity towards materials and his precise understanding of the essence of objects, Hsu’s approach blurs the conventional identity of the fireplace as an industrial product, repositioning it within a broader contemporary lifestyle.

Presented at the Deoron exhibition during Milan Design Week, the new collection transforms a reflective pool into a fire installation. Each of the three fireplaces — distinct in form, materiality and scale — responds to Hsu’s exploration of the primordial meaning of fire. Fire was humanity’s first source of light, giving rise to mirrored stainless steel sculptural volumes reminiscent of primitive caves. Fire was also the torch that illuminated the unknown, expressed through suspended compositions crafted from glass and metal. At the same time, fire embodies the pulse and explosive vitality of the earth itself, translated into recycled cement surfaces with warm, tactile textures. For Hsu, design is never merely about creating a beautiful product. Aesthetics and function are only the starting point; what matters more is the act of establishing a spiritual vision — one that encompasses not only form itself, but also brand values, manufacturing craftsmanship, and the ways objects inhabit contemporary living.

➤ Halo

➤ Torch

What, then, does fire truly mean to people? When gazing upon these three fireplaces, new forms of imagination begin to emerge. Unlit, they resemble crafted objects embedded with narratives of materiality. Once ignited, however, the warmth of the flame carries with it an added sense of reassurance, while its flickering movement feels more alive than ordinary lighting itself. From large-scale fireplaces to tabletop ambient lights, these objects gradually move beyond pure utility, becoming creators of atmosphere and spatial mood. In doing so, they reveal Hsiang Han Hsu’s distinct approach to design: an attempt to reach towards possibilities not yet defined through objects untethered from fixed expectations.