the luxury of purpose: redefining exclusivity through craft and analog slow-living

What does luxury mean when products are designed for quick obsolescence? Recorded live at Milan Design Week 2026 in cooperation with INDX|GLOBAL, the eighth episode of the Room For Dreams podcast brings together architects Priyanka Mehra, Simran Boparai, Ashmit Singh Alag, and Adreesh Chakraborty to dissect the evolving, often contradictory relationship between exclusivity, sustainability, and purposeful craftsmanship.

The panelists hold differing views on the definition of luxury. One perspective relies on traditional markers like privacy, quietness, sensory comfort, and total exclusivity. Another viewpoint prioritizes public infrastructure, suggesting that high-quality architecture and art should exist in shared civic spaces instead of private homes. This approach measures value by how a building ages, how it reflects the lives of its users, and whether it lasts for multiple generations.

This focus on permanence naturally leads to a talk about local craftsmanship. The architects discuss handmade details as a deliberate alternative to factory mass production, noting that manual building techniques bring a human element into modern interiors that automation misses. It is a slow approach that also shapes how they view sustainability, especially when trying to balance the material excess historically tied to high-end design with the passive, low-tech choices needed for net-zero buildings.

project info:

podcast: Room For Dreams
episode: 08
theme: The Luxury of Purpose
host: Claire Brodka
guests: Priyanka Mehra of PS Design | @psdesign.co.in, Simran Boparai of Simran Boparai Archtelier | @simrn.boparai, Ashmit Singh Alag of Transform Design | @transform_design_studio, and Adreesh Chakraborty of The Earth Home | @theearthhome