Wilén-Jong Named Designer of the Year 2026 by Elle Decoration — Burnout Chair Leads the Way
Stockholm-based creative duo Ash & Johan Wilén-Jong have been named Designer of the Year 2026 by Elle Decoration Sweden — recognition that arrives in the wake of their striking debut at Design Miami/ in December 2025, where their work Burnout stopped visitors in their tracks.
Burnout is a sculptural armchair and companion side table made from two materials rarely combined at this scale: cast recycled glass and charred solid wood.
The piece debuted at Design Miami/ through Wexler Gallery alongside a second body of work, We Are Not the Custodians of Earth, a ceramic series questioning human dominion over nature.
The chair’s concept is direct: exhaustion made material. Cast recycled glass forms the seat — semi-translucent, with dark inclusions embedded within, described by the duo as internal scars that carry the weight burnout leaves beneath the surface. The structure is built from burnt maple, chosen to evoke the moment just before collapse — the illusion of continued function when reserves are already spent.
What makes the piece remarkable from a craft perspective is its engineering. The glass and wood components are joined through only four precision-engineered joints, creating the visual impression that the cast-glass seat floats free of its charred frame. It is a genuinely rare approach in furniture-making: cast glass at this scale, fused in a custom mould from crushed recycled material, then combined with a brutalist timber structure in a single coherent form.
Ash & Johan Wilén-Jong are the founders of Studio TOOJ, based in Stockholm. Their backgrounds bridge Hong Kong and Sweden, and their practice sits at the intersection of art, design, craft, and narrative. Their work has been exhibited in Milan, Miami, New York, Paris, Brussels, Melbourne, and Copenhagen, and has appeared in Wallpaper*, Dezeen, AD, Hypebeast, and Elle Decor. They are represented by Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia.
The Elle Decoration Sweden Designer of the Year 2026 award places Wilén-Jong among a lineage of Scandinavian and international practitioners recognised by the title — and underlines the growing attention on work that merges conceptual weight with genuine material craft.
Design Miami/ in December 2025
Images and content courtesy of Studio Tooj.