A Fifty-Day Journey Into Maxalto’s Ritualistic IN SUITE Installation

For its 50th anniversary, Italian furniture house Maxalto steps away from the expected. Instead of looking back through archives, the brand turns to lived experience, intentionally arranged, inside the courtyard houses of the Mandarin Oriental Qianmen in Beijing.

The limited-time installation, IN SUITE, takes place inside the hotel’s historic courtyard houses, where Maxalto creates a fully realized living environment that reflects its philosophy of ritualized, intentional living. Here, the brand’s long-held belief is made tangible: that design is less about objects and more about the choreography of daily life.

“A room is not a fluid ‘space’ but a crystallized state of living,” notes Artistic Director Antonio Citterio.  “By linking Maxalto to the notion of the ‘room,’ we evoke a sense of ritual in everyday life.” 

Dutch artist Patrick van Riemsdijk adds a contemplative counterpoint. Visitors enter a conversation between motion and stillness—InToto beside Artemone—before the layout drifts toward a soft, sculptural living area anchored by the curved Apollo sofa, Privatus screen, and the grounding geometry of the Loto table.

The dining scene takes shape with ease around the Febo sofa, Pathos table, and twin Febo armchairs. Van Riemsdijk’s Endless Horizon pulls the room toward a bold, horizon-line stillness, offering a moment of visual pause.

In the bedroom, ritual becomes refuge. The Febo bed and Amphora night table create an atmosphere of quiet repetition, complemented by the enveloping Kalos armchair. A Recipio ’14 desk and Cleide chair form a thoughtful work corner, while transitional spaces, like a corridor anchored by the clean-lined Sella bench, are treated with equal intention.

The installation’s most intimate moment unfolds in the tea room. Here, Maxalto presents the limited-edition Lilium 50 dormeuse, designed by Citterio and enriched with van Riemsdijk’s artistic touch. Placed before a Privatus screen and joined by his artwork Together Through Life, the space becomes a small ceremony of its own: tea, light, texture, stillness.

Open for fifty days, IN SUITE invites visitors not just to observe but to inhabit—to feel how design can shape the rituals that ground us, hour by hour, room by room.