Just moments away from the bustling area of Bonifacio Global City is 171, a multi-level villa set on a 302-square-meter lot. M.CAL ArchitectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to create Design Studio, headed by Ar. Monique C. Albert-Lopez, built the residence as a minimalist modern sanctuary surrounded by landscaped gardens. This creative direction was drawn from the homeowners’ brief to create a […]
Ito Kish on Balancing Minimalism and Depth This Season
Born and raised in San Pablo City, Laguna, Ito Kish made a name for himself through residential and commercial design, as well as curatorial work. This new season, built on the idea of Filipino Culture Meets Global Curiosity, unfolds both as a composed showroom environment and a new collection shaped by stillness and balance.
A Prelude: Keepsakes from Around the World
Ito Kish’s eponymous brand, I T O K I S H, now lives in an experiential space in Makati City. Visitors enter through a black room filled with unique pieces handpicked from his travels: Murano glass, coasters from the Guggenheim Museum, and playful animal erasers. These objects formed the brand’s 2026 launch assemblage entitled From the Neighborhood of Venice. The star of this collection is the framed cards featuring reproductions of technical design sketches associated with Venini’s Murano glass tradition that depict glass forms rendered with measured proportions and construction notes.
“These pieces bring a sense of travel, curiosity, and design history into the home, adding another layer to the season’s story,” Kish describes.
From the anteroom, the main showroom offers an immersive experience through the mindful dressing of contemporary, timeless, and vintage pieces. Guests are open to the beauty of everyday living in quiet rituals of gathering and careful placement of objects in the home.
Kubyertos, a sculptural nod to the giant spoon-and-fork emblematic of Filipino dining rooms in the 70s and 80s, is reimagined in color and nuanced floral details. This treatment turned tradition into a design language rooted in shared experience.
The Beauty of Everyday in Filipino Homes
Around the room, stone and glass reinforce the season’s quiet discipline. A sculpted marble lamp base with a soft linen shade anchors a room with warmth and grace. Petrified obelisks carry ancient textures in measured balance, bringing elemental calm to any space. The sculptural weight of a rounded, textured glass vase creates a thoughtful focal point in a space.
“Many of the pieces are intentionally versatile—tables that work across different spaces, seating that can move indoors or outdoors, vessels that shift in function over time,” states Kish.
Materiality and Form in Building Timeless Pieces
The main challenge in creating this collection was achieving simplicity with depth. “It’s easy for minimal pieces to feel empty if proportions and materials are not carefully resolved. This pushed us to refine silhouettes and focus on tactile quality rather than decorative elements,” states Kish.
Kish began with anchor forms, allowing stone and glass to articulate the season’s balance. The density of stone anchors the room in permanence, while glass — reflective and translucent — softens it with light and shifting movement.
Ultimately, Kish’s newest collection advocates for a more enduring relationship with furniture — favoring long-term commitment over short-term use. For him, longevity is as much about meaning as it is about material.
“We are consciously expanding ITO KISH Design toward Filipino narratives that resonate beyond the local context,” he explains. “That meant being selective—choosing ideas that feel culturally grounded but universally understood through form and material.”
Photographed by Ed Simon.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The showroom is designed as a narrative journey rather than a traditional retail floor. It begins with a “shadowed anteroom” titled From the Neighborhood of Venice, which acts as a curated pause. This space features glass vitrines and textiles, specifically highlighting technical design sketches from the Venini Murano glass tradition. These sketches—complete with construction notes and measured proportions—set a technical tone for the precision found in the main collection.
The Kubyertos collection is a sculptural high-design evolution of the oversized wooden spoon-and-fork sets ubiquitous in Filipino dining rooms during the 1970s and 80s. Kish reimagined these icons by applying nuanced floral details and a modern color palette, transforming a “vernacular” domestic cliché into a sophisticated design language that resonates with shared cultural memory while fitting into a minimalist interior.
Kish emphasizes that minimalism often risks feeling “empty” if materials are not resolved. To counter this, he uses material density as a tool for balance. He anchors rooms with the structural weight of sculpted marble and petrified wood obelisks to represent permanence. These are contrasted with reflective and translucent glass, which softens the environment through shifting light and movement, creating a “tactile quality” over decorative excess.
The Lukresia lighting series is engineered to create organic forms that emit “fibers of light.” Technically, these pieces use a combination of stone bases (for structural anchoring) and soft linen shades to diffuse light. The goal was to create a “quiet, intimate vignette” where the lamp serves as a focal point that highlights the textures of surrounding ceramic vessels and woven surfaces without overpowering them with harsh illumination.
For Kish, longevity is a technical requirement achieved through versatility. Many pieces in the 2026 collection are designed to shift functions over time—tables that can move between varied room scales and seating that transitions between indoor and outdoor environments. He advocates for a “long-term commitment” to furniture, where the piece is culturally grounded in Filipino narrative but universally understood through its refined, functional silhouette.
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