For the second year in a row, Condé Nast’s Architectural Digest is teaming up with the Black Interior Designers Network (BIDN) for a virtual showhouse.
This year’s digital residence, once again dubbed The Iconic Home, has sustainability as its theme and has landed Method, the green cleaning products brand owned by S.C. Johnson, as its lead sponsor. Arhaus, Beautyrest, Crate & Kids, Garage Living, Heat & Glo, Kohler and Rémy Martin are among the other supporting sponsors whose products will have a presence in the home. Doors will open on Sept. 27 at archdigest.com/iconichome; admission is free, though AD is encouraging visitors to make a donation to BIDN, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Amy Astley, global editorial director of Architectural Digest, tells Ad Age that she was eager to team up again with Keia McSwain, president of the Black Interior Designers Network; the two had previously worked together on 2020’s inaugural Iconic Home, as Ad Age reported last fall. Astley calls McSwain a “powerhouse” and “true change agent and talent supporter in the design industry”—and adds that the sustainability theme of 2021’s Iconic Home aside, the project’s core mission remains “drawing more and much-deserved attention” to the work of leading Black interior designers and architects.
“I’m always thinking of the future generation of designers,” McSwain tells Ad Age. “Will it be more diverse than this generation? Will they feel as if there is a place for them in the industry? To have a top magazine allocate resources to an all-Black program through a partnership with the leading Black design organization is extremely significant.”