DWR Officially Launches Landmark "DWR Design Residency" Program

Today, DWR announces the launch of the DWR Design Residency, a new platform dedicated to supporting the next generation of modern design masters. Building on the brand’s legacy of championing iconic designers, the program centers on an immersive 18-month collaboration with DWR’s product team, providing selected creatives with strategic briefs, research insights, and full production support. By leveraging DWR’s scale and product intelligence, the Residency enables designers to transform forward-thinking ideas into enduring designs that address the evolving needs of modern living, both today and for decades to come.

To celebrate the announcement of the Residency program and as part of DWR’s Summer 2026 assortment, inaugural resident Hlynur Atlason introduces the Atlason Americano Sofa and Atlason Organic Slab Table Collections for DWR.

“The Residency allows us to invest in talent whose work we believe will define this century, and beyond," says Omar Nobil, creative director of DWR. "Atlason exemplifies this vision. He designs with intention and an innate appreciation in the role of beauty in everyday life. Atlason removes the unnecessary while elevating comfort, tactility, and purpose - an organic alignment with DWR’s values.”

Hlynur Atlason

Hlynur Atlason came to design by chance. Raised in Reykjavík, where no design school existed when he left, he found his way to Paris where an open house at Parsons interrupted everything else he thought he was doing; after earning a BFA in Industrial Design, he went on to found his eponymous studio in Manhattan.

With an ever-observant eye, his practice is rooted in a genuine curiosity about how people live: how people relax, gather, and move through their homes. New materials, emerging technologies, and shifting behaviors are as much a part of his process as form and proportion. Notably, Atlason has never designed a product with a hard edge.

"I don't see furniture as an exercise in form alone, but as a response to the way we actually live right now," says Atlason.

Over the past 18 months, DWR's design team worked directly out of Atlason's New York City studio, while members of his team collaborated from DWR's Stamford, CT headquarters -- a fluid exchange that allowed ideas to travel quickly and prototypes to evolve in real time.

Atlason received briefs across three core categories: upholstery, dining, and storage. These briefs were informed by nationwide market research and insights gathered from sales teams from DWR stores across North America. The result: an impressive number of innovative collections -- each one intentionally designed to address various lifestyles, demographic needs, and emerging patterns in how people live now.

Americano Sofa and Organic Slab Tables

Americano Sofa Collection
​Inspired by from the Italian tradition of open, flexible construction, the Americano Sofa reinterprets it for the American home as a flexible, lounge-oriented system. With generous proportions, loose cushions, surfaces wide enough to get lost in, and two seat depths, it invites relaxed, personalized use with single correct way to sit. Available in nine styles and 90+ fabric options.

Atlason Organic Slab Tables
​Designed to complement today’s softer, more organic interiors and sofa compositions, the Organic Slab Tables feature hand-selected marble surfaces — available in Cipollino Ondulato or Nero Marquina — set on solid ash wood legs finished in black. With the marble surface – hand-selected from an Italian quarry, no two are slabs alike, further highlighting the natural variation of the stone.

The Organic Slab Table is like “looking at a painting that you can sort of lose yourself in,” Atlason says. Solid wood legs meet the stone at its edge, extending the profile and framing the view.

Both collections are available now at DWR stores and online.

These designs follow the Atlason Composed Modular Sofa, which launched earlier this year.