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Launched in Brussels in 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Design Désir initially began as a digital project before taking physical form in Brasília in 2022. Today, once again based in Belgium, it operates as an online design gallery specializing in modernist furniture and collectible design, currently in a phase of consolidation and expansion within the European market.

The project reflects a trajectory shaped between Europe and Brazil, marked by contact with different cultural and aesthetic contexts connected to modernist design and 20th-century furniture.

The selection focuses on Brazilian and European modernist furniture from the 1950s to the 1970s, bringing together iconic pieces by major names of Mid-Century design, as well as objects by anonymous makers, chosen for their aesthetic quality, craftsmanship, and historical relevance. Designers such as Sergio Rodrigues, Jorge Zalszupin, Oscar Niemeyer, Percival Lafer, Mies van der Rohe and Gerrit Rietveld are part of the Design Désir collection.

In addition to vintage furniture, the project includes a selection of contemporary art and design, as well as popular and indigenous art. Sculptures, photographs, paintings, ceramics, and decorative objects coexist in a dialogue between eras and geographies, reflecting an eclectic and sensitive perspective.

Each piece is understood as both document and presence: objects that transcend time and remain relevant through the language of design, the honesty of materials, and the coherence of form.

 

Founded by Helga Carvalho, trained in Fashion Design at the Faculty of Architecture in Lisbon and with more than 15 years of experience as a stylist, Design Désir emerges from a perspective shaped at the intersection of fashion, architecture, and design. Living in different countries played a decisive role in building this curatorial vision, in which modernism remains a constant reference.

More than a furniture gallery, Design Désir is a personal interpretation of design as material culture — an ongoing construction between memory, aesthetics, and time.

Embrace the past, respect the future

 

Sustainability and inclusion, in dialogue with aesthetics and rigor in design, are core values of Design Désir. It is no coincidence that the project adopts the motto “Embrace the Past / Respect the Future.”

As a curated design gallery based in Brussels, Design Désir approaches sustainability through a respectful relationship with the environment, expressed in the appreciation of time — through the reuse of vintage furniture pieces, their preservation, and the rejection of disposable consumption. Each piece is understood as continuity, rather than an ephemeral product.

In this process, the work of restoration artisans and upholsterers plays a central role, contributing to the revaluation of crafts that are essential to material culture and collective memory in the context of modernist and vintage furniture. By recovering traditional techniques and knowledge, the project reinforces the importance of these professionals in the preservation of design heritage.