Stone Designs

More than 30 years ago, Cutu Mazuelos and Eva Prego founded Stone Designs. This is a  multidisciplinary studio, set in a natural environment on the outskirts of Madrid, from where it designs sustainable spaces and products. Their projects, spanning both interior design and product design, are conceived by and for people, helping them feel happier every day. 

Stone has designed products for renowned Spanish and international brands such as Muji, Lexus, Issey Miyake, Actiu, Blå Station, Made Design, Bõln, Emobok and B.lux, where they have also provided art direction. It has also delivered numerous interior design projects, including the hotels Tribe Krakow Old Town and the Novotel Zurich City West, as well as the VIP box for the ADIDAS brand at the new Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. 

We interview Cutu Mazuelos, who tells us about the changes the studio has experienced in recent years, its main projects, and future challenges:

Interiors from Spain: Ten years ago, we interviewed you for the first time. How has the studio changed over this decade marked by digitization and remote work?

Stone Designs: In our case, digitization, beyond today’s AI, is something we’ve always deeply internalized. Thanks to AI, we’ve streamlined processes and gathered data that helps us understand people flows and the effectiveness of spaces, but these are challenges Stone takes on every day with both confidence and caution, so we don’t lose our DNA while enhancing the service we provide. 

As for remote work, we’ve found that in the creative department it’s virtually impossible. There’s a human element, along with inspiration and teamwork, that makes it very difficult if we’re not  discussing the project together. There’s absolutely no problem at all with remaining tasks But in our studio, the atmosphere is very warm and close-knit, so people generally come in happy. 

Interiors from Spain: We’re starting 2026 in a new world where artificial intelligence is transforming the way we work and design. How are you implementing it? What opportunities and challenges do it present for a design studio like yours, and for design in general?

Stone Designs: I almost answered that with the previous one, but I’d add that the speed at which everything evolves these days is dizzying. We’ve never seen advances of this magnitude in human history. Without a doubt, it completely changes the paradigm of our profession, but we’ve also discovered that, in our case, creativity, character, and instinct are irreplaceable. We’ll see when machines feel emotions, which will definitely happen. 

Interiors from Spain: After 30 years of creating sustainable, inspiring spaces and products, what aspects of design continue to shape the way you create?  

Stone Designs: Humility and a commitment to serving others. We remain obsessed with ensuring that what we design truly serves people, far beyond creating something that’s merely “pretty.” We’re tired of seeing design that offers no greater purpose than gratifying its creator; and when we’re living through a crisis of values like the one unfolding in the West, that kind of design ends up thriving over what genuinely matters: making people’s lives easier, more comfortable and, just as importantly, more beautiful, through objects and spaces that don’t just solve problems, but move people in equal measure.

Interiors from Spain: You work from a studio surrounded by nature. How does that environment influence your creative process and the team’s internal culture?

Stone Designs: It makes a huge impact; nature is a constant at Stone, and you can feel it in every project and every sketch that comes out of our heads. Even though we live in cities that are increasingly striving to become more human-centered, we are still far from respecting nature as it deserves and from integrating with it to form a single ecosystem in which our interaction is much deeper and less superficial. 

Interiors from Spain: You always say that your unique differentiator is the human factor: “projects by and for people” that help you feel happier every day. How is that vision reflected in the decision-making for each project?

Stone Designs: Putting the user first, always ahead of our tastes or our aspirations. It’s very difficult to set aside a designer’s ego in order to commit to people, serve them, and create spaces or objects that truly help them and reconnect them with nature, but it’s part of our discipline, and we embrace it with pleasure and dedication in every project.

Interiors from Spain: You have collaborators in Tokyo, Shanghai, Warsaw, New York, and Zurich, and you develop projects in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. How do you work with them? What does this international dimension bring to your approach to design?

Stone Designs: Working across such diverse cultures gives you, above all, knowledge. Knowledge is the greatest value one can offer. In a practice like ours, so emotional and instinctive, it’s a clear advantage to be able to turn our projects into a cultural melting pot where the customs and solutions we discover around the world blend together. 

Interiors from Spain: You design products for Spanish and international companies and brands. What do you look for in an industrial partner to make a collaboration successful?

Stone Designs: That they be humble and financially sound. With those two qualities, it’s hard for the collaboration to go wrong if they’re professional and committed. 

Interiors from Spain: Many of your designs draw on cultural elements, such as Japan, nature, or traditional architecture. How do you integrate that cultural and formal research into the development of a concept?

Stone Designs: It comes naturally. At its core, it’s simply about telling the stories we weave from our personal experiences in each culture. Cultures that, like all cultures, are full of light and shadow, upon which behaviors and customs are built that shape the character of a society. We’re privileged observers of all those cultures, and experts at distilling the very best from them, maintaining the essence that can resonate with the rest of the world. 

Interiors from Spain: Tell us about your latest interior design projects in Krakow, Zurich, or Madrid. What inspired you, and what ideas were you seeking to convey in these spaces? Which brands have you worked with to furnish and provide lighting to these projects? 

Stone Designs: The international projects we’ve recently completed have a lot in common. The use of color as a universal language, natural materials as a connection to nature, and lighting that immerses us in a warm, personalized experience. Our projects, true to their sustainable ethos, work with local brands based on the location. 

In Poland, for example, we specified almost all the furniture from Polish design brands; they have brands of outstanding quality, and we’ve always believed that we should be respectful of the local culture and show people that we’re there to benefit everyone, not just “our own.”On top of that, in terms of sustainability it’s essential to avoid sourcing from suppliers at enormous distances, which would exponentially increase our carbon footprint. 

In Spain, of course, we always rely on Spanish brands as much as possible; I don’t like to name them so as not to single anyone out, but the quality of Spanish products is truly outstanding, and we’re very proud to be part of that. 

Interiors from Spain: What new projects are you working on? Any outside of Spain, or with international brands? 

Stone Designs: We’re currently wrapping up several hotels, including a Novotel in Madrid that will open soon. We always have projects underway in Tokyo, mostly product-related, and we’re also wrapping up three homes we designed on the outskirts of Tokyo. We also have projects we’re about to finalize in cities such as Bratislava and Davos in Switzerland, where we also have plenty to share. 

Interiors from Spain: After nearly three decades of experience, where would you like to steer Stone Designs’ next chapter?

Stone Designs: Toward coherence, creativity, and common sense. When you have the maturity that 30 years in the profession bring, I believe it’s time to act responsibly, creating spaces that enrich the soul and truly address and anticipate the future needs of a society evolving at a dizzying pace.