Decorex Africa 2026: The Soft Life with Alan Hayward & Garreth van Niekerk

As Decorex Africa and 100% Design Africa prepare to unveil The Soft Life at Decorex Africa 2026, The Soft Life at Decorex Africa 2026 emerges as more than a trend—it is a reflection of how people want to live, connect, and experience the world around them. Rooted in an African cultural movement that celebrates comfort, wellbeing, community, and intentional living, the theme invites designers, brands, and visitors to rethink the role design plays in shaping everyday life.

At the helm of this year’s creative vision are Alan Hayward and Garreth van Niekerk, Executive Creative Directors of Decorex Africa and 100% Design Africa. Tasked with curating one of the continent’s most influential design platforms, they have crafted a narrative that explores everything from sensory experiences and wellness-focused spaces to the growing global influence of African design through the lens of “soft power”.

In this exclusive conversation, Hayward and Van Niekerk share the inspiration behind The Soft Life, discuss the standout features shaping Decorex 2026, including the highly anticipated Ten x Ten installation, and reveal how design can create richer, more connected and more meaningful ways of living for the future.

1. The Soft Life has emerged as a powerful cultural and design movement. What does The Soft Life mean to you personally, and how did it evolve into the defining theme for Decorex Africa 2026?

When thinking about the theme for this year’s Decorex Africa and 100% Design Africa, they tried to find something as emotive as possible. It needed to be a theme that everyone could put their own spin on – something that felt open, generous and layered.

They realised just how nuanced The Soft Life concept could be. Everyone had their own idea of what a soft life meant to them. For some, it is about beautiful, comfortable interiors. For others, it is about creating meeting places and spaces for community, both at home and at work. And for others, it is about sustainability – making sure that the choices they make now help create a softer future, where things are not so damaged or depleted.

They also loved that The Soft Life had grown from a Nigerian TikTok trend. There was something really exciting about an African cultural idea shaping the wider design conversation. It reminded them that African philosophies, ways of living and ways of gathering are not just part of the conversation – they are setting the trends.

2. The Curator’s Pick: The Soft Life Edit highlights comfort, tactility, and intentional living. What were the key qualities you looked for when selecting products and brands to represent this year’s design direction?

They really wanted to look at the now – what is happening now, what people are interested in, and what they are passionate about. Not only the future, but the present moment.

For them, the key quality was design excellence with a human focus. They were drawn to brands and designers who think carefully about how people live, gather, rest, work and feel in a space.

One to One by Martin Doller in the Floodlight feature is a great example of this, with outstanding thinking around lighting that is comfortable, considered and intelligent for both commercial and residential spaces.

LRNCE, their Designer of the Year, brings warmth, comfort and Moroccan culture into everything they create, with a very clear sense of hand and personality.

Then their 10 x 10 stand, which looks at 100 of the best objects of 2026, allows them to celebrate so many different expressions of The Soft Life – plush fabrics, expressive wallpaper, handmade tiles, beautiful ceramics, seating, lighting and craft. Each object has its own personality, and together they show how design can bring warmth, character and emotional value into a space.

3. Many of this year’s feature areas explore wellness, sensory experiences, and emotional connection. How do you see hospitality, residential, and commercial design evolving to support people’s wellbeing in the years ahead?

They think wellbeing starts with community. The rise of wellness spaces, gyms, running clubs, brunch spots and social food spaces all point to the same thing: people want to spend quality time with friends, family and loved ones. They want spaces that help them connect.

In residential design, they think the home will continue to carry more responsibility. Many people are working at least part-time from home, so home offices need to become real places of concentration and comfort – not just a laptop on a bed or a desk squeezed into a corner.

In commercial and office design, the shift is also about community. If people are coming into an office, it needs to offer something meaningful. It needs to feel like a communal space where people want to be, where they can thrive, collaborate and connect. The future of wellbeing in design is not only about soft furniture or calming colours – it is about designing spaces that make people feel supported, comfortable and more human.

4. The concept of “soft power” appears throughout the Decorex 2026 narrative. How can African designers and brands use design as a tool to influence culture, build connections, and create opportunities on the global stage?

Soft power in design has never been more apparent to them than when they visit Milan Design Week each year. It is a celebration of ideas, imagination and concepts dreamed up by designers – and those ideas then lead to manufacturing, visibility, collaboration and opportunity.

This is what they want for South Africa and for Africa more broadly. They have one of the cheapest and most abundant resources available to them: imagination. Design gives them a way to use that imagination to reimagine how the world is seen, and how that world is conveyed to everyone else.

For African designers and brands, soft power is a way to build influence through ideas, beauty, culture and originality. It is also a way to break through some of the inequalities that still shape global design, because good ideas should never run out when it is practised, shared and given the right platform.

5. Looking beyond trends, what lasting shift do you hope visitors, designers, and exhibitors will take away from Decorex Cape Town after experiencing The Soft Life?

They are excited to see how design professionals take up The Soft Life mantle. Every year, they feel almost like visitors to their own show – constantly surprised and wowed by the great ideas, beautiful stands and ambitious thinking that exhibitors bring into the space.

Beyond the trend, they hope The Soft Life makes people feel more present. They hope it encourages visitors, designers and exhibitors to be more grateful for the things they have, the materials available to them, the people around them, and the spaces they get to create.

For them, The Soft Life is not about luxury in a narrow sense. It is about noticing what makes life feel richer, more connected, more comfortable and more considered and then asking how design can help bring more of that into everyday life.

6. Decorex’s new Ten x Ten installation brings together 100 of the most compelling design objects of 2026 across ten categories, creating both a showcase and the foundation of a growing Design Library. What inspired the concept, and what do you hope visitors will discover about the future of African and global design through this immersive exhibition?

Within Decorex Africa, the Ten x Ten feature sits within their 100% Design portfolio – so it made perfect sense that they would look at 100 objects.

With Ten x Ten, they broke this down into ten categories: fabrics, wallpapers, tiles, stools and side tables, lamps, pendants, ceramics, glassware, seating and craft. It gives them a way to look closely at the objects that are shaping how people live and design right now.

What they love about the installation is that it brings together a real mix – high and low cost, loud and subtle, polished and handmade. These are the kinds of objects that can completely change the feeling of a home, a hospitality space or a design project. They are also objects with personality.

They hope visitors discover that African design is not one single look. It is layered, tactile, expressive and full of different voices. Ten x Ten is both a showcase and the beginning of a growing Design Library – a way to document what is happening now, while also creating a resource for designers, decorators, brands and visitors to return to.