Decorex Africa has announced LRNCE as the 2026 Designer of the Year, recognising a brand that has been shaping the conversation around design for more than a decade with its time-honoured creation processes.
Ayoub Boualam and Laurence Leenaert. Image supplied
Founded by Laurence Leenaert in 2013 and now run with her husband Ayoub Boualam, Morocco-based LRNCE has grown from a small ceramics project to an internationally renowned multidisciplinary design practice that moves fluidly between object, interior and experience.
Their reach extends to collaborations with Maison D'ORSAY, Parīlio Hotel as well as their own Rosemary riad in Marrakech.
The brand’s aesthetic brings Moroccan soul to contemporary design, working with iron, clay, plaster, wood and other raw materials that allow the hand of the maker to remain visible in every piece. It’s this approach that has helped LRNCE build its slow but steady international success in the design world.
“In a world saturated with fast, mass-produced objects, people are searching for something that carries meaning, a human hand, a story, a place,” says Leenaert. “LRNCE is deeply and unapologetically rooted in Morocco and its artisan traditions. That rootedness is precisely what travels.”
Image supplied
This philosophy places LRNCE at the center of the craft renaissance, reshaping contemporary interiors. Their deliberate design ethos aligns perfectly with Decorex Africa’s 2026 theme, "The Soft Life", which explores design’s recalibration towards balance and intentional living, shifting away from relentless productivity toward spaces that restore.
“LRNCE was born as a very personal, almost quiet project, rooted in a deep love for craft and material. To have that work seen and celebrated on a stage like Decorex tells us that slow, intentional making still has a powerful place in the global conversation,” adds Leenaert.
In recognition of LRNCE’s continental reach and industry impact, the brand will be exhibiting at both the Cape Town International Convention Centre for Decorex Cape Town (25 to 28 June 2026) and the Sandton Convention Centre for Decorex Joburg (30 July to 2 August 2026).
“This year, we focused on one designer across both cities and across both events, simply because of the scale of what they do and the impact they’ve had on the industry,” says Decorex executive creative director Garreth van Niekerk. “LRNCE is a name you can’t escape when talking about design in Africa. They really are defining what the future looks like.”
