The latest National Design Award returns to Feria Valencia with the exhibition ‘Héctor Serrano: The Journey In-Between. 25 Years Connecting,’ curated by Tachy Mora, showcasing his most unique works.
The exhibition includes the project ‘Raíces’ (Roots), a series of solidarity vases designed to support those affected by the DANA storm last year in Valencia.
Valencia, June 9, 2025.– The upcoming edition of Feria Hábitat València (September 29 to October 2) will host a very special exhibition: a retrospective celebrating the 25-year career of a remarkable designer closely linked to Feria Valencia—Héctor Serrano. The Valencian designer emerged from the prolific talent pool of the Salón nude, which each year feeds young design talent into the Spanish industry. In fact, Serrano chose to celebrate his 2024 National Design Award—granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation—at Feria Valencia last year, coinciding with the final day of Hábitat.
Serrano returns to what he has always considered his home with the exhibition ‘Héctor Serrano: The Journey In-Between. 25 Years Connecting,’ which explores his creative approach and design processes through a selection of nearly one hundred works across multiple fields. Curated by design journalist Tachy Mora, the exhibition—after being presented at Central de Diseño at Matadero Madrid with the support of DIMAD during Madrid Design Festival 25—gathers a collection of his most significant projects, offering an overview of the various creative paths he explores and the outcomes he achieves with his distinctive perspective.
It will undoubtedly be a special exhibition for Héctor Serrano (Valencia, 1974), a key figure in contemporary Spanish design, whose 25-year career has been both inspiring and influential to generations of designers and companies he has collaborated with.
Héctor Serrano’s designs stand out for their original ability to connect with people, often appealing with great sensitivity to our memories of objects and our surroundings. Notably, his approach is never nostalgic, but rather rooted in innovation and fresh perspectives.
The exhibition “Héctor Serrano: The Journey In-Between. 25 Years Connecting” aims to convey his design philosophy and processes, in which the journey between the starting point and the final outcome plays a central role. Often, this process includes what he calls “the unexpected ingredient”: that spark that defines his proposals, sometimes engaging users in a fun and creative way, or manifesting more subtly through innovation, research, or sustainability.
Designed by Héctor Serrano himself, the exhibition brings together nearly a hundred of his works for the first time, created for renowned brands and institutions such as A-Emotional Light, Ezpeleta, Faro Barcelona, Fontana Arte, Fundación La Caixa, Fundación Telefónica, Gandia Blasco Group, Kikkerland, Lékué, Lexon, Muji, Nagami, Porcelanosa, Roca, and Seletti, among many others.
Vases made from DANA roots
At Hábitat 2025, Héctor Serrano will also present a selection of 18 pieces from his solidarity project ‘Raíces,’ created to raise funds for the victims of the DANA storm that struck Valencia last October. The storm affected 85 municipalities and left beaches littered with trees, trunks, roots, reeds, and plant debris—powerful reminders of the water’s destructive force.
Serrano collected roots found on the beaches and transformed them into vases designed to hold plants or cuttings that could later be transplanted. One vase was created for each affected locality, and the project raised funds to help rebuild the area and support those struggling to reclaim their roots.
The proceeds from the sale of these vases were donated to CERAI, a non-profit association based in Catarroja that for 30 years has supported rural communities and producers working in agroecology, promoting alternatives to industrial agricultural systems. Funds were also used to restore the family orchards in the Sot de Chera area, where 80% of crops were lost and the river promenade was completely destroyed.
About Héctor Serrano
Héctor Serrano studied Industrial Design at UCH CEU University in Valencia before moving to London to specialize in Product Design at the Royal College of Art, an institution known for its disruptive teaching methods that influenced young designers in the late 1990s. This experience helped him understand and shape his creative process, laying the foundation for his distinctive design style.
After completing his studies, he stayed in London and founded his own studio in 2000. His studio quickly gained recognition for its innovative approach to everyday products, attracting the attention of the renowned Dutch collective Droog Design, which marketed his first design: the Superpatata latex lamp.
He remained based in London for over a decade before returning to Valencia, where he now works internationally for well-known brands such as A-Emotional Light, Ezpeleta, Faro Barcelona, Fontana Arte, Fundación La Caixa, Fundación Telefónica, Gandia Blasco Group, Kikkerland, Lékué, Lexon, Möwee, Muji, Nagami, Porcelanosa, Roca, and Seletti, among others.
Héctor Serrano’s work is highly valued both creatively and technically. In addition to his versatile approach to industrial design, he also creates temporary installations and exhibitions under the name Borealis. This medium, more focused on space and experience creation, allows him to experiment and reflect on new materials, technologies, and contemporary thought currents.
His honest design practice centers on the user, creating emotionally engaging and innovative products that represent progress. It is no surprise that his designs have been exhibited at major museums such as the V&A in London and the Cooper Hewitt in New York, and he frequently receives international design awards.
About the curator, Tachy Mora
Tachy Mora is a journalist and exhibition curator specializing in design and architecture. She has worked as a cultural journalist since 1998, focusing on design, architecture, and their interaction with other disciplines. She is a regular contributor to El País’s Sunday magazine and Icon Design, and previously wrote for outlets such as Neo2, Diario Design, Arquitectura, Elle Decoration, Visual, Citizen K, and El Mundo’s Magazine, among others.
In 2011, she published the book Artesanía Española de Vanguardia (Lunwerg) with support from EOI-Fundesarte, which later became an exhibition touring Spain, the US, Peru, Mexico, and Colombia from 2013 to 2016.
She also co-curated, alongside Javier Abio, the exhibition Madtastic! Fresh Design From Madrid, shown in 2013 at the Instituto Cervantes in Milan, and the smaller show Autoexpresiones for the Joya 2020 fair in Barcelona, which featured eight designers, artisans, and artists presenting deeply personal pieces.
Her most recent curatorial project was Scenarios of a Near Future, a look into the future of domestic design, on view from November 23, 2022, to March 19, 2023, at Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània as part of the World Design Capital Valencia 2022 program.
To accompany the exhibition, she published a second book with the same title, which not only served as the exhibition catalog but also explored and reflected on the potential changes in housing and its furnishings in the coming years.
Hábitat and Textilhogar: a unique offering with international reach
From September 29 to October 2, Feria Valencia will host the joint celebration of Spain’s leading trade fairs for furniture, lighting, decoration, home textiles, upholstery, and contract markets. Feria Hábitat València and Textilhogar Home Textiles Premium together form the country’s largest showcase for home and contract design, with a large-scale format and strong appeal to both national and international audiences. This successful formula spans over 90,000 square meters of exhibition space and draws more than 43,000 professional visitors from 70 countries.
