The new DeFauvé finish gives the trophy awarded to winning brands a colour gradient that shifts from polished metal to deep red
Fire leaves a new chromatic imprint on steel. For the Archiproducts Design Awards 2026, De Castelli reinterprets the trophy awarded to winning brands with the new DeFauvé finish, a treatment that transforms polished stainless steel through a gradual shift in colour, intensifying towards red.
For the ADA 2026 trophy, De Castelli once again uses steel to showcase a new surface treatment. Following the copper finish and AISI 304 stainless steel used in previous editions, the metal takes on a new expression. This time, fire drives the transformation.
Designed by MUT Design and inspired by the Möbius strip, the trophy follows a continuous form across which the DeFauvé finish unfolds its colour gradient. The polished steel retains its brightness at the base, while the colour gradually warms along the surface, reaching deeper shades of red.
The transformation is achieved through a manual fire-oxidation process that produces variations from one surface to another. Heat acts directly on the steel, altering its surface and creating a gradient that changes with the way light interacts with it. Reflections and colour intensities across the trophy therefore vary according to the light and the viewing angle.
The colour transition becomes an integral part of the form itself. Reflections follow the curves of the Möbius strip and shift with the viewing angle, revealing new depths across the steel surface.
With this finish, colour emerges directly from the treatment of the steel, following its surface and allowing light to reveal its variations. For the ADA 2026 trophy, fire becomes the means through which De Castelli reinterprets the metal once again, transforming its surface while preserving the continuity of its form.
De Castelli on Archiproducts.com
