Fresh Focus for 2026
nw year & a new strategy
The new year has begun.
After a holiday filled with ice, snow and winter fun, the laptops are open again and the kilns are fired up.
We’re looking ahead to a fresh year, and a slightly different way of working. A change in rythm, so to speak.
It may be a subtle shift from the outside, but for us it feels like an important moment of recalibration.
Designing solutions for the everyday
Traditionally, brands are encouraged to sell as many products as possible, through as many shops as possible, across the world.
House of Thol has followed that path too.
We’re proud of our stockists, both at home and abroad, and grateful that our designs have found a place in so many everyday lives.
It still feels special to imagine that somewhere in Pennsylvania someone is growing microgreens with the Patella Crescenda, or that a plant in Berlin is being watered with “our” Waterworks set.
Reclaiming time
At the same time, we began to notice our daily work had slowly shifted towards sales, marketing, logistics, inventory and investment, leaving less and less room for what lies at the heart of our practice: content, research and design.
In the lead-up to Dutch Design Week, we decided to do things differently. We shifted our focus back to research and the development of new ideas.
The result: the Cibus Domus research table and card game, alongside prototypes of four new concepts within the Poma/Olera series.
Context & Connection
What stayed with us most were the conversations during the exhibition.
Food is something everyone encounters every day, something people care about, question and talk about.
Those exchanges reaffirmed something we had already sensed: our way of designing goes beyond the objects themselves.
It lies in trying to understand everyday habits, and in translating scientific knowledge into something tangible and accessible, not only for design critics, but for people navigating everyday life.
Rethinking Growth
In 2026, we are consciously shifting our focus. Less emphasis on promotion and scale, and more space for research, concept development and a freedom to create.
Not every House of Thol design needs to be made for retail.
Some will exist as one-offs or small, handcrafted series, available exclusively through our own webshop.
Retail collection
Of course, we remain proud of our approachable Easy Green Living collection, our growing series of everyday tools designed to support conscious habits.
This year, it will grow with the addition of a new sprouting kit for microgreens: Patina Germinanda.
The project is taking shape behind the scenes, and we’ll be sharing more about how you can be part of it next month.
Researching the mundane
Next to developing new concepts and ptototypes, we’re discovering that this research-driven way of working doesn’t have to stay confined to our own practice.
We’re open to collaborations with others who share a curiosity about everyday habits and how design can help shift them.
Conversations are always welcome.
Room for conversation & collaboration
Finally, while we may attend fewer trade fairs this year, we will continue to show up in exhibitions.
Places where there is room for context, for slowing down, and for meaningful exchange.
These are the environments where we can share not only finished objects, but also the ideas, questions and processes behind them, and where direct conversation feels most natural.
It would be lovely to see you there!