The Best Place to Build a Home in 2025? Onstage
From Sabrina Carpenter to Bad Bunny, artists went residential on set design this year
In Design Rewind, AD looks back at the people, places, and things that defined 2025, from the dark woods we saw everywhere to the best place to build a home (hint: It’s not on a lot). Here’s what we saw in the year’s rearview mirror.
Hundreds of thousands of fans packed arenas to see Sabrina Carpenter perform on her Short n’ Sweet tour this year. Each night, she trotted out in her trademark go-go boots and belted megahits like “Espresso” and “Please Please Please”—in a space that looked surprisingly similar to the places the audience had left to come to the concert. Instead of flashy lights, a giant LED screen, or a carousel of giant stage props, Carpenter’s set design mirrored an extravagant modern duplex apartment, complete with a slinky boudoir, classy bathroom, and cozy conversation pit.
In 2025, home-inspired stages similar to Carpenter’s seemed to be everywhere. For his Puerto Rico residency, Bad Bunny constructed a full-scale flat-roof “casita” resembling the types of houses found on his native island, while Shakira recreated a slick bedroom suite for her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour. “The home is such a personal space,” says Ric Lipson of Stufish, the entertainment architecture firm responsible for Carpenter’s chic penthouse. He also created a charming country home for Lana Del Rey and a palatial foyer for Laufey, for their respective shows this year. “If you invite someone into the home, it’s breaking down the fourth wall and saying, ‘I’m allowing you in.’”
It’s a trend that’s been slowly gaining speed over the past few years. In 2023, Taylor Swift created a full-scale A-frame cabin for the Folklore set of her Eras Tour. That same year, Mancunian rockers The 1975 crafted a sprawling, skeletal house for their At Their Very Best Tour. The white, monolithic residence was conceived by designer Tobias Rylander and the band to “achieve something really personal and minimal. It was definitely [intended to be front man] Matty Healy’s house, but we also wanted it to be neutral so that people could easily project their own homes to it,” Rylander tells AD.
So why do all of these artists seem so keen on inviting us in? Nowadays, pop stars want to immerse fans in their world. “[People] identify with an environment that [doesn’t] feel foreign,” Lipson says. “You absolutely understand what it feels like to be in a beautiful apartment.” The same thing could be said for a Puerto Rican casita or a country house. Even if you’ve never been in a residence with the exact vernacular, the connotations of home are often enough to create familiarity. “I think that’s why artists on the whole are interested,” Lipson adds.
He also sees these onstage dwellings as part of a broader trend toward more “scenic” and “theatrical” stage design. Large video screens certainly have some advantages when it comes to onstage storytelling. It might look like the band is standing in a forest in one song, and in the middle of a street the next. But as Lipson notes, “everybody is on their phones all day.” For some artists, the allure of a built set is being able to create a sense of place off-screen.
Further, it challenges the artist to consider the theatrical narrative of the whole performance, not just each song; there’s no “teleporting” the way you could with an LED wall. In Carpenter’s show, she moves from room to room, sometimes making use of the bedroom set for her more risqué tracks, then the conversation pit for songs with a confessional bent—perfect for gossip sessions with thousands of participants. The set becomes packaging—connective tissue for a show, not just a collection of songs sung live.
As the streaming age continues to change the music industry, live performances have become increasingly important. Upping the ante through theatrical, narrative sets is a way to make them more engaging and immersive. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re extremely photogenic—great fodder for organic advertising through social media shares. Who hasn’t come across a TikTok compilation of Carpenter crooning on her heart-shaped bed?
As such, it’s a trend that experts believe will continue to reign in 2026. Imogene Strauss, a creative director who has worked with the likes of Clairo and Charli XCX, tells AD she’s working on Tame Impala’s upcoming tour, “which also has a lot of elements that feel home-like. There is a stage that has rugs and lamps, and it’s meant to feel like his home studio where he made a lot of the music.”
Read on to discover the artists putting houses onstage—and the small details you might have missed.
- 1981 televised Jeanette performance</a>, designer Jonny Kingsbury of Cour, a live events design firm, and creative director Imogene Strauss created a lounge-inspired set for Clairo’s <em>Charm</em> tour. “The album was cozy, and that really gave her and the band a safe space to perform,” Kingsbury explains. The team used plush carpet over the risers to create a conversation pit, an architectural feature that reached peak popularity in the 20th century and was—unsurprisingly—designed to start conversation. The result is a stylish midcentury space that feels exactly like where you’d catch up with friends over a cocktail.","contentType":"photo","credit":"Photo: Marleen Moise/Getty Images","segmentedSources":{"sm":[{"height":213,"width":320,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_320,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"},{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_640,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"}],"md":[{"height":427,"width":640,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_640,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"},{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_1280,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"}],"lg":[{"height":683,"width":1024,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_1024,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"},{"height":1365,"width":2048,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_2048,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"}],"xl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_1280,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"}],"xxl":[{"height":853,"width":1280,"url":"https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/692dee9155ea4dd22df07eae/master/w_1280,c_limit/GettyImages-2237965201%20(1).jpg"}]}}}" data-testid="GallerySlideWrapper">
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Photo: Marleen Moise/Getty Images1/6Clairo, Charm tour
Inspired by a 1981 televised Jeanette performance, designer Jonny Kingsbury of Cour, a live events design firm, and creative director Imogene Strauss created a lounge-inspired set for Clairo’s Charm tour. “The album was cozy, and that really gave her and the band a safe space to perform,” Kingsbury explains. The team used plush carpet over the risers to create a conversation pit, an architectural feature that reached peak popularity in the 20th century and was—unsurprisingly—designed to start conversation. The result is a stylish midcentury space that feels exactly like where you’d catch up with friends over a cocktail.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images2/6Sabrina Carpenter, Short n’ Sweet tour
Sabrina Carpenter put a modern twist on vintage glamor for the sets of her Short n’ Sweet tour. The duplex midcentury apartment created by Stufish encapsulated several aspects of Carpenter’s personality. A 1960s Malm-inspired fireplace nodded to her slick pop persona, while a circular bed referencing Austin Powers signaled her trademark blue humor. Other details included a giant heart-shaped conversation pit. No detail was too small. Case in point: Stufish crafted a monogrammed heart-shaped soap for her bathroom, a microscopic touch that only superfans might notice.
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Photo: Roberto Ricciuti/Getty Images3/6Lana Del Rey, UK/IE stadium tour
Lana Del Rey first tested the waters of intimately bringing her audience into her world onstage with a backdrop referencing London’s Barbican Conservatory and Italian villas at the Reading and Leeds festival in 2024. And when she returned to the UK the following year for her headline tour, she once again opted for an elaborately built set, creating a cozy southern home with the help of Stufish.
The team drew upon the romance of American southern gothic architecture, a nod to the singer’s life in Louisiana since marrying swamp tour guide Jeremy Dufrene in 2024. Lipson and Del Rey worked together so the house “didn’t feel too colonial—it didn’t feel too posh but didn’t feel too run-down,” he told Homes and Gardens.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Live Nation/Getty Images4/6Shakira, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran world tour
In 2024, Shakira released her first album in seven years, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (Women No Longer Cry). According to production designer Julio Himede of Yellow Studios, the ensuing tour explored “resilience and empowerment.”
Though much of the stage was one huge dancefloor for Shakira to shake her famously truthful hips, she occasionally did employ furniture props to give the appearance of a bold, glamorous interior. At one point, a heart-shaped bed and sleek home bar were rolled out—a reference to the music video for “Te Felicito,” a song on the album in which several robotic men attempt to seduce the pop star.
5/6Laufey, A Matter of Time tour
This palatial foyer with a delicate staircase was designed by Stufish to be tailor-made to Laufey’s romantic jazz-pop world. “It had to feel timeless, and of nowhere but of everywhere,” Lipson tells AD.
Lipson says the staircase had exactly eight steps—equal to the standard number of beats in two bars of music—while the arch and handrail gave the musician elements to improvise with as she danced. “Architecture and the music working together as a rhythm is really important from our point of view as we design these things,” he says.
There were other subtle nods to Laufey’s artistic journey onstage. The staircase flowed “into the scroll shape of the catwalk,” a nod to Laufey’s cello, which she’s played since she was eight. Meanwhile, the staircase incorporates several motifs inspired by songs on the album, such as a carousel horse for “Carousel,” or a black cat for “Tough Luck.”
RICARDO ARDUENGO/Getty Images6/6Bad Bunny, Puerto Rico residency
For Bad Bunny’s residency at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in Puerto Rico, the rapper wanted to pay homage to his culture and traditions. This meant including La Casita, as it was affectionately known; a reconstructed house where Bad Bunny could perform on the porch to create the energy of a house party.
The flat-roof home was painted a classic pastel pink shade, with simple windows trimmed in bold banana yellow, and was the exact kind of house you’d spot all over the island. Rattan furniture—commonly found in Puerto Rico—completed the house’s breezy, tropical aesthetic.
Later, the house was replicated in cities with major Latinx diasporas like Miami and New York as a symbol of community, joy, and unity.
