In Conversation with Alejandra Albarrán
In this conversation, The Orb founder reflects on collecting, cultural exchange and the vision behind a project that brings design, craftsmanship and hospitality into dialogue.
For more than two decades, Alejandra Albarrán has explored creativity through many different forms.
From fashion and interiors to entrepreneurship, product design and art, her work has been guided by a fascination with the process of turning ideas into reality. Today, that exploration has evolved into The Orb, a new cultural universe taking shape in Lisbon.
Bringing together design, craftsmanship, hospitality, technology, art and community, The Orb is built on a simple belief: the most interesting things rarely happen within a single discipline, but in the exchange between them.
Ahead of its opening, we sat down with Albarrán to discuss creativity, intuition, cultural exchange and the vision behind a project that aims to bring people, ideas and possibilities into orbit around one another.
You've worked across fashion, interiors, product design, entrepreneurship and art. Looking back, what connects all of it?
Creativity. I started in fashion, then moved into interiors, product design, entrepreneurship and eventually back to design. From the outside they may look like different worlds. To me they've always been the same one.
What fascinates me is the moment an idea becomes real. The medium changes, the materials change, but the impulse doesn't.
I've always been drawn to people who make things — artists, designers, architects, entrepreneurs, chefs, technologists, craftspeople. Different disciplines, the same act: taking something invisible and giving it form.
Every chapter of my career has been an exploration of that. The Orb is simply where those worlds finally meet.
At what point did you know what The Orb wanted to be?
Before moving from New York to Lisbon, I had already been working on the idea of a platform focused on collectible design. At the time, I imagined it primarily as a digital destination—a place to discover makers, objects, stories and ideas.
But when I arrived in Lisbon, something shifted. For the first time in a very long time, I gave myself space. Space to slow down, reflect and listen to what was actually calling me.
One day, while hiking with my husband, we were deep in conversation when everything suddenly became clear. It was an "aha" moment, and I knew The Orb wasn't meant to live only online. It wasn't even just about collectible design.
What I wanted to create was a place for people. A place for connection, collaboration, conversation and discovery. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a physical space wasn't simply part of the vision—it was essential to it.
The most meaningful things in my life have never come from a screen. They've come from encounters. From conversations around a table. From friendships. From communities. From those moments where people come together and something unexpected emerges.
That was the moment The Orb transformed from a platform into a universe.
A universe built around human creativity and human connection. That's also when the name became so important to me. An orb is something that connects—a world, a sphere, a point of gravity around which people, disciplines and ideas can gather.
What brought you to Lisbon?
It's a question I get asked a lot because, on paper, leaving New York didn't necessarily make sense.
New York gave me so much. It's where I raised my children, built much of my career and learned to think bigger. It remains one of the most inspiring cities in the world for me.
And yet, for years, I felt this quiet pull toward Lisbon. Part of it was personal. My husband and I wanted something different for our family. We wanted our children to grow up with a little more freedom, a little more connection to nature and a little more space to simply be children.
What surprised me was what happened after I arrived. The more time I spent here, the more I realized that Lisbon was becoming something very special. It's a city that sits between worlds—between history and innovation, tradition and experimentation.
Unlike cities that feel fully established, Lisbon still feels like it's becoming. There is a sense of possibility here. A feeling that things are still being written.
The Orb is built around the idea of connection between disciplines, cultures and ways of thinking. Lisbon naturally embodies that spirit. Looking back, I don't think I moved to Lisbon to build The Orb.
I think Lisbon helped me understand what The Orb was always meant to become.
So what exactly is The Orb?
The best way I can explain it is as a universe built around human creativity. A place where different disciplines, cultures, ideas and people come together and inspire one another.
At its core, The Orb is about the creative process itself. Most people encounter the finished object. What interests me is everything that came before it—the person behind the work, the story behind the idea, the years of experimentation and dedication that eventually lead to something new.
That's why The Orb was never meant to be simply a place to display objects. It's a place to experience the worlds behind them.
Through exhibitions, conversations, collaborations, food, tea, design, art and cultural programming, we're creating opportunities for people to engage more deeply with the ideas and people shaping our world.
I've always believed that the most interesting things happen when different worlds collide. When a conversation sparks a collaboration neither person could have imagined on their own.
The Orb exists to create more of those moments.
You often speak about connection. Why is that such an important part of your vision?
Because I think human connection is one of the most powerful forces we have. When you really think about it, everything meaningful in life happens through other people. Our families, our friendships, our partnerships, our communities. Even the work we're most proud of is usually the result of people coming together around an idea and building something collectively.
No one does anything truly meaningful alone. As humans, we're wired for connection. It's how we've survived, how we've evolved, and how we've created everything around us. For me, creativity has never been a solitary act. It grows through conversation, exchange and being exposed to perspectives different from your own.
Some of the most important moments in my life came from a chance encounter, a friendship, a dinner conversation, or someone introducing me to a person who changed the way I saw the world.
That's why connection sits at the heart of The Orb. Of course there are beautiful objects, exhibitions and experiences. But what excites me most are the conversations happening around them, the relationships being formed, and the unexpected things that emerge when people come together with openness and curiosity.
That's what I hope The Orb can create.
There seems to be a deeper connection between The Orb and OGATA than a simple collaboration. What is it?
I think it begins with a shared way of seeing the world. What drew me to OGATA wasn't simply what they do, but how they think. I've always been fascinated by the spaces between disciplines—where art, design, hospitality, craftsmanship, food and culture stop being separate things and become part of a larger experience. OGATA embodies that beautifully.
What they have created is much more than a tea house or a restaurant. It's a complete cultural universe. A way of experiencing the world through attention, care and craftsmanship.
That resonated deeply with me because The Orb was being built around many of those same values. What made it even more meaningful was discovering the connection between Portugal and Nagasaki, where Ogata-san is from. Nagasaki was one of the first ports where the Portuguese arrived in Japan centuries ago, and that exchange still lives on in the culture today.
I didn't know any of that when we first met. Then one day Ogata-san told me that Lisbon reminds him of his home, Nagasaki.
I loved that. It felt like one of those moments where things suddenly make sense. In many ways, that's what The Orb is about—creating connections that may seem unlikely at first, but somehow feel completely natural once they happen.
"I hope The Orb becomes a catalyst. A place where people from different disciplines, cultures and perspectives come together to imagine, create and build things that wouldn’t have existed otherwise."— Alejandra Albarran
When you look ahead, what do you hope The Orb becomes?
I hope The Orb becomes a catalyst. A place where people from different disciplines, cultures and perspectives come together to imagine, create and build things that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
I've never been interested in creativity as something that belongs to a single category. To me, design, art, architecture, technology, entrepreneurship, food, craftsmanship and culture are all part of the same conversation.
The Orb exists to facilitate those connections and help turn ideas into reality. A place for exploration, curiosity and collaboration.
Technology will undoubtedly play an important role in that future, but what matters most will always remain the same: human connection, community and conversation.
Lisbon is its first home, but I don't think of The Orb as being tied to a single place. I think of it as a global community of curious people who believe in the power of creativity to improve the way we live, work and relate to one another.
Building something that doesn't fit neatly into an existing category requires a certain leap of faith. Were there moments when the scale of the project felt intimidating?
Absolutely. If I'm being completely honest, this project feels very big. It's ambitious. And of course, that can be intimidating. There are moments when I look at everything we're trying to build and feel the weight of it.
But I've also learned to trust my intuition in a way I never did when I was younger. Looking back, some of the most important people I've met and some of the best decisions I've made came from instinct rather than logic.
The Orb's physical space is a good example. From the moment I discovered the work of architect Isern Serra, I felt an immediate connection. There was a certain magnetism to his projects and an intuition that he would understand what we were trying to build. Entrusting such an important part of The Orb to someone with his experience and sensitivity felt natural.
“For a project like this, having the right people around you is everything.”— Alejandra Albarran
I think I've also reached a stage in life where I'm less concerned with what people think. I'm not building The Orb because it fits neatly into a category or follows a proven formula. I'm building it because I genuinely believe in it.
What gives me confidence is waking up every day excited by the people I'm meeting, the conversations we're having, and the collaborations that continue to emerge around the project.
So yes, there are moments when the scale of it feels frightening, but the excitement has always been bigger than the fear. More than anything, The Orb feels like the culmination of everything I've learned, experienced, and loved throughout my career. It feels meaningful, and it feels like exactly the right project for this moment in my life.
“We're opening with extraordinary people from very different worlds, and the part I can't wait for isn't any single object or exhibition. It's what happens between them.”— Alejandra Albarran
What makes you most excited about opening the doors?
The people. Without question. The design, the exhibitions, the collaborations — of course I'm excited about all of it. But The Orb only really comes alive when people walk in. It was never meant to be a finished idea. What gives me energy right now is everything I can't predict. The introductions. The collaboration neither person saw coming. An artist discovering a designer. A maker and an architect finding each other over tea.