Terry Interior Designs at World Architectour Africa 2022, Padua, Italy

In July 2022, Terry Interior Designs was invited to attend the inaugural World Architectour Africa forum, held on the 4th and 5th of July at Padova Hall (Padova HA!), Padua, Italy — under the theme Italian Excellences Meet the World.

The event brought together architects, interior designers, and design industry professionals from across Africa — Kenya, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast — alongside Italy's foremost manufacturers, material suppliers, and creative studios.

Kenya at the Table

Terry Interior Designs attended as one of Kenya's invited representatives, joining a carefully curated group of African firms selected for their work, their sourcing relationships, and their ambition to connect the African design market with the best of European craftsmanship.

Where Italian Excellence Meets the World

The forum was designed as a direct bridge between Italian manufacturers and African design practices — structured so that attendees could hold one-on-one meetings with suppliers across furniture, lighting, decorative hardware, stone and surface materials, and contract-grade soft furnishings. For a studio like ours, it was a rare opportunity to get in front of suppliers that are otherwise difficult to access from Nairobi, and to establish face-to-face relationships that form the foundation of a reliable sourcing network.

Italy's reputation in the design world is hard-won and well-deserved. Padua, in the Veneto region, sits at the heart of a manufacturing corridor that includes some of the world's finest furniture and materials producers. Attending this forum meant stepping directly into that ecosystem — not as a visitor, but as an invited participant and buyer.

Connections That Carry Beyond the Event

The relationships initiated at the 2022 forum have since shaped how we source for certain categories of work — particularly high-specification residential commissions where the quality of fittings and finishes is a defining part of the brief. The ability to call on a European supplier network built on direct relationships, rather than third-party distribution alone, is something that directly benefits our clients.

Being at Padua in 2022 was also a marker of something broader: that East African design practices are not passive recipients of international trends, but active participants in the global design conversation. Kenya was there. Terry Interior Designs was there.