Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Asian Loft Presents “Beyond What We See” at HPMKT
September 23,
2026 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Designer Weekly 
At a Market where visual discovery often takes center stage, Asian Loft is inviting designers to listen. On Sunday, October 18 at 2 p.m., the globally focused showroom will present Beyond What We See: Sound as Material, an educational presentation and demonstration with international neuroaesthetics authority and NeuroDesign Academy faculty member Nicole Baxter and Asian Loft’s Steven Sonneville. The program will examine sound as an often-overlooked material in spatial design, from natural sound patterns and deep frequencies to resonance, vibration and biophilia, and consider how those elements shape the way people experience their surroundings.
The conversation reflects a growing body of work around neuroaesthetics, neuroarchitecture and the acoustic environment. Neuroaesthetics examines the neural systems involved in aesthetic experience, while research on the built environment increasingly asks how design affects emotion, cognition and wellbeing. In parallel, acoustic researchers have shown that the sonic environment can influence comfort, performance and wellbeing — suggesting that harmonious interiors are shaped not only by what occupants see and touch, but also by what they hear and feel.
For Asian Loft, the subject is a natural extension of a brand built on exploration, storytelling and authentic craftsmanship. Founded by Lieve Sonneville and now led alongside her son Steven, the company travels widely in search of one-of-a-kind furnishings, artifacts and accessories made by artists and craftspeople whose work reflects place, material, heritage and culture. During the presentation, Sonneville will share a selection of culturally relevant, artist-made objects as points of departure for thinking about resonance and sound — not as a product category, but as another sensory tool available to designers.
“Designers already work with light, color, texture and material to shape how a room feels. Sound belongs in that same conversation,” said Baxter. “When we begin to notice resonance, rhythm and the sonic character of a space, we gain another way to support comfort, connection and emotional response.”
The program will encourage designers to move beyond treating acoustics solely as a matter of noise control. Instead, Baxter and Sonneville will consider sound as an active design material: something that can be tuned, layered, softened, amplified or intentionally introduced to affect the atmosphere of a room. The discussion will also touch on biophilic sound, resonance and the ways thoughtful sonic choices can support a more coherent, restorative and emotionally engaging environment.
“We’ve always believed objects carry more than form, they carry the hand of the maker, the place they came from and the story behind them,” said Sonneville. “Many of the things we discover around the world also carry sound or resonance. This program is about opening another door for designers: not asking what a particular object is called, but asking what a space can feel like when we listen to it as carefully as we look at it.”
Beyond What We See: Sound as Material will take place Sunday, October 18 from 2–3 p.m. at Asian Loft, Windsor Plaza, 625 W. Ward Avenue, Suite 100, during Fall High Point Market. The program is open to Market attendees. Complimentary on-site parking is available, and the showroom is served by the High Point Market Go-Anywhere Shuttles as well as the Outer Loop Trolley.