Meet Designer and Architect Gabriel Yuri, the New Neutralist Making Beige Feel Radical with an Unexpected Edge

Architect, photographer, and designer Gabriel Yuri of New Operations Workshop has a design aesthetic that’s hard to pin down. It’s Scandinavian, it’s mid-century modern. It’s Japandi, it’s organic modern. Ultimately, his interiors embody a beautiful mix of intentionally laid-out spaces that never feel unwelcoming or cold. That’s because of his uncanny ability to seamlessly and thoughtfully mix several disparate materials and design references in one room cohesively.  

And that’s just one of the reasons Yuri was selected as one of Apartment Therapy’s New/Next List Designers for 2026. A graduate of UC Berkeley and the Architectural Association in London, Yuri also spent three years at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the architecture firm behind New York City’s High Line. Beyond the fantastic material combinations he’s creating in his projects, it’s his skills as a neutral colorist that prove beige doesn’t have to be banished from today’s design conversation. In the era of color drenching and pattern-maxxing, Yuri’s work proves restraint can be just as compelling. 

What makes Yuri a design renegade is his knack for combining materials that, at first glance, seem like unexpected blends. Take the bathroom in his Silver Lake bungalow, for example. The glass brick wall, stone floor, and chrome sink all come from different styles and eras, but somehow these pieces complement each other. There’s even a custom latex sink skirt that Yuri made himself as a nod to queer culture. Latex, Yuri says, “has a lot of sexual or fetish connotations, but I like the idea of taking that material out of those contexts and putting it in this domestic space, and it still has this nod to that world. People notice it right away because it does feel a bit out of place and kind of provocative, but I think, at the same time, it works really well with all the other materials and is extremely practical being in a wet environment.” While the bathroom contains a multitude of disparate elements, the overall design scheme looks and feels effortless. It’s not necessarily a quick process for Yuri, though; it’s actually the opposite.

“It’s difficult,” admits Yuri. “It’s a lot of hours collecting samples, waiting for things to come if I don’t have them, and then looking at them in my office. Then sitting with them — sometimes for days — and switching out something that doesn’t feel quite right.” Never one to leave a novel design idea — or cool material combination — unturned, Yuri never settles until his design plan is totally right. “I’ll have this sort of half-conscious moment in the morning where a different color or material will enter my mind,” says Yuri “It’s like a eureka moment.”

During his time in London, Yuri visited several countries; Japan was his favorite source for inspiration. (He’s also bicoastal, and still does a lot of traveling for work and play.) What he took from Japan was the “idea that less is more” and the desire to “strip things back to their quintessential textures and patterns.” Essentially, he began gravitating towards the key tenets of minimalism in his projects. But somehow, his spaces don’t feel cold or unwelcoming.

His Colorado project, titled Mountain House, provides the perfect example of his warm and welcoming yet simple style. He wanted the space to be minimalist without feeling “sterile.” So he put himself in the shoes of the clients to think about what materials, colors, and textures might feel good to be surrounded by. From there, he chose subdued but substantial, nature-inspired finishes with movement and, in his words, “real texture that doesn’t feel too flat and too cold.” He leaned into quintessential Scandinavian style with the selection of white oak, then embraced organic modern elements with the rock coffee table, leather lounger, and rounded wooden seats. The result? A neutral space that takes a little bit of many different design styles but still manages to hang together visually in a very soothing way.

Although his design superpower lies in the fact that he’s essentially a neutralist whose spaces are anything but boring, his creative process isn’t one-size-fits-all. Sometimes the jumping-off point is a material (like a home with interiors based on a blue Austrian stone). But in spaces like his Noho Loft project (pictured above), it starts with history and provenance. The building dated back to the 1830s, and Yuri wanted to highlight its historical charm — even though a lot of it had been covered up. So he began by taking the space down to its original bare bones before weaving in mid-century modern furnishings and warm textiles throughout. “For that project, the context was the driving force, and I figured out the marriage between the context and how to live in that space in a modern, comfortable way,” says Yuri.

Regardless of the starting point, Yuri says his design philosophy centers on combining the unexpected. Reflecting on that loft in particular, Yuri said that he combined old industrial furniture and light fixtures with the nostalgia of mid-century modern pieces. “One of the things I find most rewarding when I do projects is combining those different worlds in one space,” he explains. “It’s always a challenge to make it work, and it might seem weird at first, but then, you look at it long enough and are like, ‘I think these things could co-exist and almost create something new.’”

That “something new” he’s after in every project is exactly why Yuri earned a spot on Apartment Therapy’s New/Next List for 2026. He hopes that designers and creatives alike can also find a way to shrug off any restrictions when working on a project (think: strict design eras, aesthetic definitions, matchy-matchy materials, or even layout conventions). That’s what’s helped him make his interiors feel so free and original. “What I think is overdone is being so strict and getting too caught up in keeping everything to one genre,” says Yuri. “People should take more risks in combining things that you’re not used to seeing together. 

For example, Yuri believes that Shoji screens, the soft paper-like material you often see in traditional Japanese room dividers, are something that should be used more in homes, here in America and abroad. Currently, he’s working on a project with ceilings and walls wrapped in Shoji. “You can get such incredible layers of transparency that still have these really beautiful textures coming through,” he notes.

For Yuri, unconventional architecture and design can actually support more creative, alternative lifestyles. As real estate becomes increasingly expensive, he sees people living in increasingly novel but potentially economically advantageous situations. He references two friends who aren’t together and share a home in the Hollywood Hills, or his personal use of home-swapping apps that have been beneficial for him throughout the years. What he dubs as “less conventional homeownership” is something he predicts many will be talking about — and embracing — in the near future.

In the interim, Yuri has some incredible projects on his docket, including a Manhattan loft that has the largest outdoor space he’s ever worked on. “We’re going to have the opportunity to do a pretty sizable outdoor space that’s going to have a shower, dining, and a lounge area,” Yuri explains, which is very novel for New York City. “I always love doing something that I haven’t done before.” 

It’s no surprise Yuri finds creative fulfillment in trying something new. That’s what makes his work special — he’s always pushing the boundaries to see what fresh, unexpected take he can put on what a home looks and feels like. To see more of Yuri’s work, visit New Operation Workshop’s website, or check out how he styled his home in the full House Tour.