INTERIOR DESIGN
BRIGHTON
Contemporary Sourcing
for Residential & Contract Interiors
18 / 08 / 2026
Brighton & Hove presents an unusually rich context for contemporary interiors. Regency architecture, Victorian houses and newer residential and commercial spaces coexist within a city whose architectural identity is inherently layered. Indeed, Brighton & Hove remains particularly associated with its Regency stucco architecture, while its protected buildings span a much broader range of periods. From its Hove base, Modi approaches this context as a specialist interiors sourcing consultancy: curating progressive furniture and lighting for private residences, designers and larger contract projects. Rather than prescribing a house style, the emphasis is on proportion, materiality and composition—finding individual pieces capable of forming a coherent architectural whole.
A Layered
Contemporary Interior
The most compelling contemporary interiors are increasingly curated rather than coordinated. Historic architecture need not require historic furniture; equally, minimal architecture need not demand visual austerity. Instead, periods, materials and objects can remain distinct while being held together through proportion and restraint. This is a particularly relevant approach in Brighton, where contemporary furniture can sit confidently against cornicing, tall windows and original plasterwork without resorting either to pastiche or indiscriminate minimalism. The objective is productive contrast: allowing architecture and furnishings to sharpen one another. For inspiration, Modi looks to the settings of its international design houses—rather than imposing a predetermined interior formula. These environments demonstrate how relatively few, carefully resolved objects can give a room considerable depth.
Furniture as
Interior Architecture
Progressive furniture increasingly operates architecturally. A substantial table establishes a horizontal axis; low upholstery defines territory within an open room; a chair can introduce structure and rhythm. Within Modi's collections, Mattiazzi explores timber through advanced machining and precise construction, while Nube Italia approaches upholstery through generous architectural volumes. Tiwu Works similarly treats furniture as structure, with pieces such as the Bridge Table making span, support and junction fundamental to their character.
Mingardo extends this thinking into the architecture itself. Drawing on more than fifty years of specialist metalworking, the Italian company undertakes bespoke interior elements including metal and glass doors, internal partitions, staircases and custom furniture, working in brass, copper, iron and stainless steel alongside wood and glass. Its architectural wall claddings further allow metal to become a material plane within the room rather than simply a furniture finish.The sourcing question therefore becomes more considered than simply which sofa or table? It begins with what the architecture requires: weight or openness, enclosure or circulation, repetition or a singular focal point—and, increasingly, where bespoke material interventions might become part of the interior itself.
Materiality
This approach also moves beyond conventional ideas of stylistic matching. Walnut may sit against old plaster; cast glass against timber; linen beside bronze or stone. Handmade irregularity can be particularly effective alongside precise machining. What matters is not that materials match, but that their differences are controlled. Jeonghwa Seo's work makes these relationships unusually explicit, juxtaposing stone, metal, timber and woven fibres so that weight, temperature and texture become part of the experience of furniture. Pulpo approaches material differently, allowing cast glass and ceramic to retain irregularities arising from manufacture.
Mingardo introduces another dimension through its highly specialised treatment of brass, copper, iron and stainless steel, with polished, satin, burnished, galvanic and acid-treated surfaces developed according to the project. Andrea Tognon's Roe Table is particularly pertinent: its emphatic metallic form places surface, mass and architectural geometry ahead of conventional decoration. Tognon's wider practice operates across architecture, spatial transformation and identity, giving his furniture an unusually architectural sensibility. Luxury consequently becomes quieter: material richness expressed through contrast, surface and proportion rather than accumulation.
Lighting as
Spatial Composition
Lighting provides another architectural layer. A pendant can establish a centre within a tall room; wall lights articulate its vertical planes; floor and table lamps introduce more intimate levels of illumination. The distinction between architectural and decorative lighting is therefore increasingly fluid. Dan Yeffet's Pendulum for CTO Lighting, for example, moves between pendant, ceiling, wall and floor applications, using mouth-blown curved glass and machined brass to develop a related language across different levels of an interior. CTO's own project archive demonstrates its lighting within residential, hotel and other international interiors, providing genuine settings through which to understand these relationships. For Modi, lighting specification is consequently less about accumulating statement fittings than establishing hierarchy, atmosphere and spatial rhythm.
This is also particularly evident in contemporary systems that allow light to respond to the dimensions and geometry of a project. LEDS C4's Tubs Modular introduces a configurable approach in which repeated lighting elements can be composed spatially, making the installation itself part of the architecture rather than a singular decorative object. At the more reductive end, Hans Verstuyft's Austere Chandelier for Trizo21 constructs remarkably slender compositions from brass light elements. Its X and Y configurations can be developed at different scales and depths, allowing anything from a restrained linear intervention to a more expansive chandelier for dining rooms, receptions and lobbies. The wider Austere concept is deliberately stripped of excess, with the structure and points of light establishing the composition.
Federico Peri's Modulo for CTO Lighting approaches modularity through greater material richness. Hand-textured smoked-glass plates, glowing domes and engineered brass are arranged into horizontal, vertical and grid configurations, allowing a common vocabulary to move between wall lights, pendants and larger chandeliers. Light reflects across the elongated glass surfaces, making transparency, repetition and geometry part of the spatial effect. For Modi, lighting specification is therefore less about accumulating statement fittings than establishing hierarchy, rhythm and atmosphere. A restrained architectural scheme might coexist with one significant suspended composition, while modular systems can respond more precisely to long tables, stairwells, double-height volumes or larger hospitality spaces.
Modi brings together progressive international furniture and lighting for residential and contract projects
Residential
Project Sourcing
For private interiors, Modi's residential sourcing service provides access to its curated network of international brands with guidance from specification through to delivery. The process can begin with the architecture and intended atmosphere rather than an individual product: identifying appropriate furniture typologies, scale, finishes and lighting before bringing pieces together across different manufacturers. This allows an interior to remain individual. Italian upholstery, German material experimentation, British lighting and contemporary Asian furniture can coexist when proportion and material provide the underlying discipline—an approach consistent with Modi's wider dialogue between Eastern and Western design traditions.
For private interiors, Modi's sourcing approach can begin with architecture and atmosphere rather than an individual product: establishing furniture typologies, scale, finishes, material relationships and lighting before bringing together pieces from different international manufacturers. The proposition can also extend beyond freestanding furnishings. Mingardo's bespoke capabilities demonstrate how specialist sourcing can encompass custom furniture, internal partitions, doors, metal-and-glass structures and other architectural elements, developed for private residences as well as hotels, restaurants, retail, museums and offices. The company works from project requirements through material selection and fabrication, including collaboration with architects and designers on tailored solutions.
Contract, Hospitality
& Commercial Interiors
Contract sourcing introduces another level of consideration. Hotels, restaurants, retail and workplace interiors require distinctive furniture and lighting, but also dependable specification, quantities, technical suitability, procurement and coordinated logistics. Modi's contract service is structured around these larger-scale requirements, while its trade offering encompasses decorative and technical lighting for hospitality, restaurant and retail projects. Here, sourcing becomes an extension of the design process itself: translating an aesthetic direction into objects capable of functioning consistently within a commercial environment.
This broader perspective becomes particularly valuable. Hospitality, retail and workplace interiors require distinctive furniture and lighting, but also dependable specification, repeated elements, bespoke dimensions, finishes, technical suitability and coordinated procurement. This positions Modi's consultancy less as the supply of individual design objects and more as considered sourcing across the layers of an interior—from furniture and decorative lighting to specialist international manufacturing where a project calls for something more bespoke.
International Design
Sourced from Brighton
A contemporary Brighton interior need not possess an explicitly Brighton aesthetic. Place is already present in its architecture, daylight and context. Furniture and lighting can connect that setting to a much wider international design culture. This is the role Modi seeks to occupy from Hove: part curator, part sourcing consultancy and part contemporary design resource—bringing together progressive international furniture and lighting for residential and contract projects while helping clients consider how those pieces relate to architecture, material and one another. The resulting interior is not defined by the quantity of design within it, but by the precision of its relationships: a layered composition of architecture, furniture, material, light and space.