Why Berto (Alberto Sánchez) is in the Design 100

Alberto Sánchez has spent more than a decade building MUT Design’s reputation from a studio in Valencia, working with brands including Expormim, Sancal, Pulpo and Preciosa Lighting on furniture and lighting defined by confident, pared-back geometry. That body of work gives Berto, the solo venture he launched in 2025, an unusually assured starting point for a first collection.

Berto debuted at Lisbon Design Week in 2025 with two collections built around inherited craft. Hidden Secrets, made with the Portuguese ceramics workshop S. Bernardo, turns circular and square forms into vessels designed to store and conceal. Facetas revives the nineteenth-century Tiffany technique, soldering small panes of glass alongside artisan Fernando Silva to build sculptural, light-catching objects. Both were developed slowly, in direct collaboration with named artisans, and that method is now central to the Berto project itself.