“TAI” by Dalila Leone selected for the ADI Design Index 2026
A new prestigious milestone for Dalila Leone, who graduated with honours in Design from RUFA: her project “TAI” has been selected for the ADI Design Index 2026, entering the selection process leading to the XXX ADI Compasso d’Oro Award 2028.
The selection was presented on 1 October at the ADI Design Museum in Milan, together with the projects chosen for the 2026 edition of the Index.
Curated by the ADI Permanent Design Observatory, the ADI Design Index documents a selection of Italian design production each year across a range of disciplines, highlighting products, systems and research projects that reflect the evolution of contemporary design culture.
Being included in the Index is particularly significant, as it represents the first step in the selection process towards the XXX ADI Compasso d’Oro Award 2028, one of the most prestigious international awards dedicated to design.
TAI: the bathroom reimagined as a living space
Designed by Dalila Leone for NIC, TAI stems from a vision of the bathroom that goes beyond its purely functional role, bringing it increasingly closer to the language of architecture and interior design.
Rather than focusing on a single iconic element, the project creates a coherent furnishing system in which materials, proportions, technology and everyday gestures all contribute to defining the space.
The technical component is not concealed; instead, it becomes an integral part of the project’s identity, balanced by an essential and contemporary formal language. The result is a system designed to integrate harmoniously into its surroundings, bringing together function, materiality and perception.
TAI also emerged from the dialogue between the designer’s research and NIC’s manufacturing expertise, as an Italian company specialising in bathroom furnishings. It is a collaboration in which design and industry develop side by side, transforming formal and material research into a tangible and reproducible solution.
From the project to Italian design culture
Being included in the ADI Design Index marks a new milestone in TAI’s journey.
In 2025, the project had already received an Archiproducts Design Award, standing out for its ability to combine material research, craftsmanship, innovation and an essential design language.
The ADI selection now takes this journey a step further, placing TAI within a privileged platform dedicated to Italian design culture and among the projects that may continue towards the ADI Compasso d’Oro 2028.
This achievement also confirms the professional path of Dalila Leone, who graduated with honours in Design from RUFA and whose research brings together product culture, attention to materials, experimentation and industrial production.
It is a new milestone that makes the entire RUFA community proud and demonstrates how education, design research and dialogue with the production sector can develop into professional experiences that earn recognition within the contemporary Italian design landscape.