C Next Designers EMEA brings together over 250 professionals for design conference in Almería

For the ninth edition of the C Next Designers design conference, Spanish brand Cosentino brought together designers from Europe, Africa and the Middle East for three days of talks focused on “design as a driver of change”.

The event was held from 13 to 16 October in venues across Almería, Spain and included talks by designers such as Ron Arad, Karim Rashid and design studio Studiopepe.

It is the fourth iteration of the event held in Spain and the ninth worldwide.

This year’s conference focused on the theme Design to Transform, which champions “design as a force capable of reshaping society and adding value to it”, according to the team.

The first day opened with a welcome at the Cabo Gata Beach Hotel.

On Wednesday, the event moved to Cosentino’s industrial park in Cantoria, where Cosentino CEO Pilar Cosentino gave opening remarks.

Architect and designer Ron Arad then spoke with Cosentino commercial director for Europe, Jorge Lope about his career and collaborations with the brand, before the day ended with a guided tour of Cosentino’s facilities, including a local natural stone warehouse.

The day also featured the presentation of the latest product innovations by Valentín Tijeras, global vice president of product.

The second day took place at the Almería Science and Technology Park (PITA) and included presentations by brands Novara, Jung, Speho, TECE and Gaggenau.

Karim Rashid and Studiopepe then gave keynote speeches, which were a highlight of the day.

Dezeen editorial director (special projects) Max Fraser also moderated two panels as part of the event.

The first, held with Dornbracht, focused on hyper-personalisation as a creative tool and featured C’est Ici Design founder Monica Arango, founder of Black Architecture Danko Lekic and head of global channel management at Dornbracht Sascha Bialoian.

The second panel examined how design is changing our everyday habits, and featured Fran Silvestre Arquitectos founder Fran Silvestre, ZHA associate director Bidisha Sinha and founder of AS Architect Ayşin Sevgi Karakurt Macit.

Studio Haus closed the panels, and the event concluded with a gala dinner in the Cloister of Almería Cathedral, which was informed by the Dekton Artik Nodes collection, a new Cosentino material.

Cosentino previously launched Nara, a beige-toned porcelain surface designed to celebrate natural stone and Éclos, which was designed to be free of crystalline silica.

Last year’s C Next Designers conference featured talks by Sabine Marcelis and Peter Ippolito or Nini Andrade Silva.

To learn more about C Next Designers, visit the conference’s website.