Bad Bunny’s halftime show was a history-making moment, “Wuthering Heights” gets the Airbnb treatment, and Hospitality Design announces the 2026 Women in Design honorees. All that and more in this week’s Five on Friday.
The design behind Bad Bunny’s historic halftime show
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As far as nearly 135 million viewers were concerned, the main event at Super Bowl LX was Bad Bunny’s halftime show performance—and they’re right! Hot off his Album of the Year win at the Grammys earlier this month, beautiful Benito partnered with Yellow Studio to fashion an immersive set that paid homage to his native Puerto Rico. Yellow Studio director Julio Himede talked with Surface about collaborating with the multihyphenate superstar on the project, drawing inspiration during a visit to San Juan. The team translated the city’s warm surfaces and natural materiality as well as its authentic Latin American landscapes rich with high grass, sugar cane, and plantains into the backdrop of unprecedented storytelling. Muses further north were also recreated for the sprawling design; most notably, the Brooklyn institution Caribbean Social Club received prominent spotlight even in the backdrop for 400 dancers. Electrical poles alluding to Puerto Rico’s frequent blackouts were also a key fixture from which Bad Bunny descended into a parade of all the flags of the Americas.
Longing looks good at Cathy Earnshaw’s Airbnb
The “Wuthering Heights” Airbnb in West Yorkshire; photo courtesy of Airbnb
If you’re a fan of the Brontës or the early music of Kate Bush, you’re in luck. Thanks to Airbnb, you can now book an overnight stay in a recreation of Catherine Earnshaw’s bedroom based on Emerald Fennell’s latest adaptation of “Wuthering Heights.” Fashioned by production designer Suzie Davis to embody repression as well as respite, the transportive space in West Yorkshire is crafted to evoke “psychological resonance over historic fidelity,” Wallpaper reports. Details invoke bodily presence more than decoration, with padded, skin-toned walls detailed with vein-like patterns. Strands of hair are even woven into furniture (yikes!). The stay also includes horseback riding, a candlelit dinner, a visit to the Brontë Parsonage, and an intimate listening session of Charli XCX’s accompanying soundtrack. Why on earth anyone would want to embody Cathy is beyond me, but hey—it looks cute.
A new Noguchi exhibit goes deeper
Isamu Noguchi, Red Cube, 1968. Photo: Miguel de Guzmán and Rocío Romero / ImagenSubliminal. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS)
One of this writer’s favorite New York cultural institutions, the Noguchi Museum in Queens, has unveiled a new exhibition focused on the namesake sculptor’s career and legacy in New York. Projects both realized and unrealized by Isamu Noguchi will populate the show, tracking his time in the city from his 1922 arrival until his death in 1988. Collaborative works like anti-fascist posters will be on display along with models of his more ambitious visions activating public space with play. His Play Mountain concept will even be visualized through newly commissioned animated films shown onsite, Designboom reports. However, the centerpiece of the exhibit is “News,” which most New Yorkers better recognize as the stainless steel relief adorning the facade of Rockefeller Center. “Noguchi’s New York” is on view through September 13th.
The history of heart-shaped tubs in the Poconos
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There’s nothing like Valentine’s Day to get you in the mood…to join your betrothed in a heart-shaped bathtub. Dwell dives into this quirky design trend’s legacy, which originated in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania as far back as the early 19th century. Post-WWII proliferations in marriage and honeymoons were the real catalyst, as the region began attracting couples and steadily building a fleet of inns bedecked with wholesome, rustic, and even kitschy interiors distinctly American. At the threshold of the sexual revolution in the late 1950s, Poconos hotel Cove Haven introduced the iconic heart-shaped bathtub, igniting a new precedent of design innovation. From mirrored walls to over-the-top mattresses, sinks, and even rugs, the region is synonymous with the kitschy sort of romance we can all find room for—in our hearts.
Happy Galentine’s! HD announces the 2026 Women in Design Honorees
Top row (L to R): Grace Escaño-Maniatis, Heather Holdridge, Kavitha Iyer; Bottom row (L to R): Amy Jakubowski, Kelly McFadden, Suchi Reddy
Hospitality Design has named the six honorees it will recognize at the fourth annual Women in Design Awards. Hosted in partnership with NEWH at HD Expo + Conference, the ceremony celebrates women who helped shape the industry. The 2026 honorees include Grace Escaño-Maniatis, senior director of design, Auberge Collection; Heather Holdridge, design performance partner, Lake Flato; hospitality design leader Kavitha Iyer; Amy Jakubowski, hospitality practice area leader, Gensler; Kelly McFadden, director of development and design, Left Lane Development; and Suchi Reddy, founding principal, Reddymade.The annual Women in Design Awards breakfast will be held Tuesday, May 5th at 8 a.m. at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Click here to buy tickets.
