After its debut last year, Design Milestone, in association with t2, is back! This time, the one-stop design destination will be held across four days — December 11-14 — at Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan. Organised by Delhi-based couple Seema Gupta and Deep Gupta, this edition promises a bigger and better event that focuses more towards the emotional, cultural and ethical core of design. With a few more days to go, t2 chatted with Deep and Seema on what to expect this year. Excerpts.
This is the second chapter of Design Milestone — tell us what are the key highlights going to be?
The second chapter of Design Milestone unfolds as a larger, deeper and more textured celebration of design culture. This year, the show expands its vision with seven thoughtfully crafted installations that bring together craft, culture and technology in immersive ways. The conversations are richer and more diverse, led by voices who examine the emotional, cultural and ethical layers of design today. We also introduce refreshed experiential zones like The Porch, a curated platform featuring handpicked brands brought together exclusively by us, and Points of Pause, sculptural seating moments that encourage visitors to slow down and absorb the environment. The curation remains rooted in Indian sensibilities yet expressed with a contemporary ease — making this chapter feel both wonderfully familiar and refreshingly reimagined.
Being from Delhi, what was the response from Calcutta you received from the event last year?
Calcutta embraced Design Milestone with warmth that felt almost like a homecoming. The city’s response was thoughtful, curious and deeply engaged — designers, students, homeowners, art lovers and cultural voices all arrived with a genuine desire to explore and connect. What moved us most was how naturally Calcutta’s cultural depth aligned with our ethos. The conversations were lively, the sessions full, and the installations became places where people lingered and reflected. We also realised that to strike the right balance, we needed brands both from Calcutta and outside the city, creating a dialogue between local creativity and voices from across India. That harmony shaped the show beautifully, and it’s a balance we continue to nurture this year as well.
Can you tell us about this year's showcase?
The show opens with a curtain-raiser at 6pm on December 11, followed by the Design Milestone Awards Ceremony (7-7.30pm) and the preview celebrations from 7.30–10.30pm. Over the following days, the venue transforms into a vibrant landscape of installations, curated objects, dialogues and immersive pauses. What makes this year special is the emotion beneath the curation — it feels less like a display and more like a gathering of ideas and people. The show is intimate yet expansive; rooted in tradition yet open to reinvention.
What is the key agenda of Design Milestone?
It is to create a thriving design market for East India and elevate the region’s presence within the national design conversation. We strongly believe the neighbouring cities hold immense potential, and our role is to spotlight that energy, nurture connections, and build a platform that brings designers, brands and visitors together in a powerful ecosystem. At its heart, the show exists to amplify the design culture of the East —celebrating its talent, strengthening its market, and giving it the visibility and momentum it truly deserves.
If last year the discussions focused on “sustainability to ecological approaches”, what is it going to be this time?
This year, the discussions turn inward, towards the emotional, cultural and ethical core of design. Instead of focusing solely on ecological sustainability, we’re exploring the sustainability of thought process, intention and identity. Themes touch upon authenticity over influence, the revival of craft, design as cultural memory, mindful creation, the evolution of luxury and the changing idea of the Indian home. It is a shift from “how we make” to “why we create”, inviting a deeper, gentler and more human understanding of design as a living practice.