Rockwell Group’s first foray into products came courtesy of Maya Romanoff. “I always respected Maya, and he respected me. He had never worked with an outside designer before, and it was a new thing for him, too,” recalls David Rockwell, founder and president of the New York-based firm.
When Rockwell and the late Romanoff, founder of his eponymous luxury wallcoverings company, first met to discuss a potential collaboration, they both had planes to catch afterwards. But their conversation was so engaging, they lost track of time, and those flights were inevitably missed. Instead of boarding as they should have, Rockwell and Romanoff lingered at the conference room table and laid the groundwork for the 2007 release of Stitched. An evolution of Maya Romanoff’s beloved Weathered Walls design, it showcased elegant horizontal and vertical stitching on hand-dyed paper.
Splash Salmon for the Rug Company captures soft brushstrokes of water in motion
It was a thrilling process for Rockwell, who at this time was best known for his dramatic restaurant and hotel interiors. While he had dreamed up goods for the customers frequenting Monkey Bar, Vong, and Nobu—all buzzy New York restaurants he designed—to bring home as eye-catching remembrances of their night savored at a hotspot, a full-fledged product launch was something entirely different for him. Quickly, he discovered these creations were another way for him to embrace texture and forge meaningful connections, elements that were also crucial in bringing to life his hospitality projects.
That same year, Rockwell Group joined forces with Italian lighting producer Leucos, conceiving the Stacking collection of floor lamps that referenced Japanese lacquered stacking cups. The handblown cylinders of glass, in juxtaposing hues of amber, tobacco, white, fume, and orange, were bolstered by shimmering gold and silver mirror finishes. Most importantly, they could be stacked in multiple permutations as users saw fit. “The idea was that you could customize it. So much of my work is about flexibility,” Rockwell says.
Nearly 20 years later, Rockwell’s ideas for Maya Romanoff still flourish, manifesting in collections like Porto, a range of geometric patterns composed of thin die-cut cork veneers handlaid over metallic foil released in 2022 and 2023.
Casa Cork by Rockwell Group was an immersive living laboratory that debuted clad in cork at Salone del Mobile in Milan
Likewise, Rockwell Group continues to push boundaries with Leucos. Coinciding with the brand’s relaunch in 2023, Rockwell Group conceptualized pendants and chandeliers, and at Euroluce 2025, the international lighting exhibition held at this year’s edition of Salone del Mobile, Rockwell Group introduced a ribbed glass finish that now enlivens a table lamp and sconces. Another Rockwell highlight at the show was Casa Cork, an immersive, living laboratory and atelier conceived to celebrate cork.
So many of Rockwell Group’s product designs grow out of relationships with “the people I want to be with and experiment with,” says Rockwell. Over the years, these collaborators have expanded to include the likes of Shaw Contract and the Rug Company. For the latter, Rockwell Group recently rolled out Flow as Form, three graphic designs expressing rippling water through lines, curves, and brushstrokes, and Rockwell relishes how the Rug Company team let him “go as deep as I want to go in terms of research,” he adds.
The Falls Graphite Shaped rug for the Rug Company presents the fluidity of water in organic lines
Rockwell Group also recently unveiled its second collection for Italian hardware company Gessi. Following Inciso, an assemblage of versatile taps and accessories, comes Colonna—fixtures fusing travertine, crystal glass, and metal. Taking cues from modernist sculpture, it’s centered on the classic column, balancing that architectural rigidity with a soft waterfall component that forges an “interesting organic relationship,” Rockwell says.
Stackabl, which transforms waste into configurable lighting and furniture, has turned Rockwell’s head at numerous design fairs. So, it was serendipitous when he and his team were tasked with Tilt + Shift, a series of table and floor lamps anchored by bases of 100 percent post-industrial cork blocks reimagined from the remnants of wine stopper production. The cantilevered lighting fixtures also feature layers of felted wool discs.
Stackabl’s Tilt + Shift lamps are made from post-industrial cork and felt
Long a fan of French furniture company Roche Bobois, Rockwell has incorporated its signature Mah Jong pieces in his own home. Then, in 2019, Rockwell Group partnered with Roche Bobois on the Sunset outdoor furniture collection, which “grew out of an observation that in many of the hotels we did, like the Belvedere in Mykonos, people want to use the pool by day and night, whether to lounge or to eat,” he says. “But we kept at it and wanted a deeper connection.”
That contemplative period resulted in the new seven-piece Dream collection, which takes lounging to another level with a relaxing yet poetic sink-into sofa and daybed as well as two sizes of ottomans, a coffee table, a side table, and a rug that nods to Vladimir Kagan’s own sinuous Comete sofa for Roche Bobois. Dream, says Rockwell, explores “what we think is the best of what Roche Bobois does, which is making these beautiful forms with curved corners. There’s real precision.”
All of Rockwell Group’s spaces and theater sets are underpinned by strong narratives and the firm’s products follow suit. They are always embedded with “some version of a story,” points out Rockwell, “which excites me.”
Furnishings were made almost entirely of cork at Casa Cork
This article originally appeared in HD’s August 2025 issue.
