A Belgian stand that set sail in Milan
The Salone del Mobile is where the design world holds its breath. In April 2026, Aurélie Penneman was the creative mind behind the Orac Cruise, the official stand of Belgian decorative architecture brand Orac at Pavilion 18, Stand E.08.
The brief was precise: build on the language of a previously designed Orac showroom. Carry the line forward. Do not repeat it. What followed was something richer than a brief could anticipate.
The reference point; a showroom in Belgium
The conversation between Aurélie Penneman and Orac began earlier, with the interior design of the Orac showroom in Ostend. A space conceived in the spirit of the Vienna American Bar by Adolf Loos. Geometric. Immaculate. Every detail deliberate.
The design vocabulary was rooted in a specific cultural lineage. Not Art Deco as a generic style, but Belgian Art Deco as a precise tradition. The Van Buuren Museum, Palais Stoclet, and the work of Josef Hoffmann formed the inspirational triptych. A world defined by geometric rigour, material refinement, and an almost ceremonial relationship between architecture and the decorative arts.
Woven through it all: the spirit of Ostend. Grand hotel elegance. The particular quality of light on the Belgian coast. A coastal identity worn with ease, not nostalgia.
For that stand in Milan, Aurélie Penneman drew extra inspiration from the world of Agatha Christie, specifically Murder on the Nile, with Hercule Poirot as its quietly compelling protagonist. The most Belgian of all detectives. A character defined by precision, culture, and an instinct for the exceptional. It was the right literary anchor: maritime, intelligent, and unmistakably continental.
The Orac Cruise stand in Milan: an art deco interior in three acts
The Orac Cruise, how the Milan booth was named, was conceived as a spatial narrative. Not a showroom to scan, but a journey to follow. A design journey that moves through three distinct atmospheres, each one setting the stage for the next.
Three spaces. One unbroken atmosphere.
Creative with materials: thinking outside conventional use
One of the most considered aspects of the Orac Cruise was how Aurélie Penneman approached Orac’s product range as an interior architect.
Nothing was applied as prescribed. The materials became a vocabulary. Reinterpreted, repositioned, pushed into unexpected contexts. Ceiling plinths used to articulate walls. Wall panels repurposed to construct and clad the bar. Circles, rectangles, and star-shaped profiles assembled into layered decorative compositions. Every element selected for its relationship with light and shadow, with proportion and rhythm.
The stand became, in this way, the most honest possible demonstration of what Orac’s collection is capable of. A testament to what bespoke interior design can achieve when a designer works without constraints of convention.
What the Orac Cruise represents
The Orac Cruise was not a trade fair stand that happened to look beautiful. It was a complete interior architecture concept with a narrative, a sequence and a point of view.
It demonstrated that exhibition design can carry the same intellectual weight as a private residence. That materials have a life beyond their intended application. That a Belgian interior architect, working with Belgian materials, on one of the world’s most observed design stages, can produce something quietly extraordinary.
The result
