“Movement, for me, is a way of staying alive to beauty, to questions, to what’s changing, inside and out.”
– Marco Guadarrama
Marco Guadarrama moves through the world with an uncommon attentiveness. A Mexican designer and researcher based in Sweden, his career has unfolded across continents, cultures, and disciplines.
Today, he leads multicultural inclusion at IKEA while pursuing a PhD in Design Research at RMIT University. His work sits at the intersection of people, homes, and technology, grounded in a deep belief that design should help everyday life feel more inclusive, humane, and meaningful.
For more than a decade, Marco has explored how objects, systems, and environments influence the way we live and relate to one another. His path has taken him from North America to Asia, Africa, Europe, and now into a global academic context. Each move has added a new layer to his understanding of design, not as a static discipline, but as a living practice shaped by people and place.
At SOTIYO, we’re drawn to voices like Marco’s because they speak to the same territory we care about: movement beyond travel, comfort beyond ergonomics, and design beyond form. His reflections unfold precisely in that space we often return to. The in-between moments. The transitions where meaning quietly appears.
A life shaped by movement and belonging
Marco lives in Lund, a small town in southern Sweden. Design is what brought him there, just as it has carried him through many other places over the past twenty years. For him, design has been a continuous thread, connecting different homes, chapters, and identities. Curiosity, especially about how people live differently around the world, has always guided his decisions.
At the same time, he keeps a strong connection to Mexico, where he is originally from and where most of his family still lives. Returning every year is not a habit, but a grounding ritual. It allows him to reconnect with his roots and with a part of himself that carries deep personal meaning. Movement, in this sense, is not about leaving things behind, but about learning how to hold multiple places at once.
This dual sense of belonging shows up clearly in how Marco understands rhythm. Movement, for him, is not defined by travel or distance, but by how he stays connected to the world and to himself. Walking is central to that rhythm. Not as a means to arrive somewhere, but as a way to observe, to feel, and to let thoughts settle or take shape.
Work developed by Marco Guadarrama during his employment at IKEA. Limited to his role as Product Developer.
His pace is never fixed. It shifts with the seasons, with the projects he’s carrying, and with his own inner state. Some days move quickly and fluidly. Others slow down and invite reflection. Rather than routines, he speaks of moods. Movement becomes a way of staying alive to beauty, to questions, and to the constant changes happening both outside and within.
The quiet power of the in-between
When Marco reflects on the moments that stay with him the longest, he doesn’t point to destinations. Instead, he returns to the pauses just before arriving. The seconds before a door opens. The space between stepping off a train and choosing which direction to walk.
These in-between moments carry a soft anticipation. They are not about where he has been or where he is going. They exist outside of outcomes. It’s often here that he notices something small and quietly beautiful. A scent in the air. A fleeting gesture between strangers. The shape of an object catching the light.
These fragments tend to linger longer than most destinations. They resist being named or documented, yet they shape how he experiences the world. This sensitivity to transitions feels deeply aligned with how we think about Human Flow at SOTIYO. Not movement as urgency, but movement as presence.
Environments that rewrite the way we think
The cities Marco moves through leave a clear imprint on how he thinks and works. But even more than the physical environments, it’s the people he encounters along the way that shape him. He describes himself as an explorer and an observer, someone who absorbs new ideas, languages, moods, and habits through proximity and attention.
A street’s energy, the pace of a morning, or a conversation overheard in a café all find their way into his work. He doesn’t simply pass through environments. He lets them rewrite him. Each place subtly reconfigures how he sees the world and how he moves within it.
Looking back, one transition stands out as particularly formative. In 2008, Marco made a quiet decision that would shape the next phase of his life. He committed to taking a design course on every continent, allowing that journey to guide both his professional and personal growth.
Since then, he has studied or worked across North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and now, through his PhD, in connection with Australia. Each place holds memories, relationships, and moments that shaped who he was at that time. He speaks openly about falling in and out of love across continents. Every transition mattered. Not because it was dramatic, but because it was lived fully.
Objects that anchor us in motion
Despite his global path, Marco carries very little with him. Two objects, however, are always close. A pen and paper. This simple habit anchors him wherever he is. Sketching slows him down. It helps him notice. It gives form to thoughts that haven’t yet found words.
Whether he’s sitting in a café or riding a train, drawing creates a sense of place. It’s a small act, but one that brings continuity across different contexts. With those tools, he says, he can have all the fun he needs.
His understanding of good design follows a similar logic. It’s not about loud gestures or visible complexity. He recalls a moment in Japan, sitting in a tiny bar with his sensei. Three seats. One bartender. When Marco asked about the relationship between form and function, his teacher pointed to a simple glass behind the bar.
Its function, he explained, was to harmonize the people in the space. To make the moment feel beautiful. Since then, Marco has looked for that kind of beauty. The kind that doesn’t ask for attention, but quietly shapes how we feel and relate to one another. For him, good design connects, softens, and helps moments feel right.
Work developed by Marco Guadarrama during his employment at IKEA. Limited to his role as Product Developer.
Comfort as presence, not ease
When Marco speaks about comfort in motion, he moves away from conventional definitions. Comfort, for him, is less about physical ease and more about presence. It’s the feeling of being fully where you are, even when the place is unfamiliar.
Small rituals can help, but comfort ultimately comes from an inner state. Curiosity and openness allow him to feel at home, even while moving. This perspective reframes comfort as something dynamic. Not a fixed condition, but a relationship with the moment.
In transit, his senses sharpen. Sight and sound become more vivid, but there’s also something subtler at play. An awareness of atmosphere. He notices how light moves across surfaces, fragments of conversation, the rhythm of people around him. He’s not trying to control the moment. He’s receiving it.
That shift, from control to attention, opens something creative. To avoid slipping into autopilot, Marco stays close to wonder. Even in familiar places, he looks for what’s changing. A new sound. A different pace. A gesture he hadn’t noticed before.
Sketching plays a role here too. Drawing forces him to slow down and truly see. And on some days, a simple reminder is enough. Nothing is ever exactly the same. Not even a walk taken a hundred times. That thought alone brings him back into the present.
Inner travel and open questions
Right now, Marco’s next destination isn’t marked by a plane ticket. He’s deep into his PhD journey, connected to a university in Australia while remaining rooted in Sweden and in his evolving practice. This phase feels like a form of inner travel.
What he hopes to discover isn’t just new knowledge, but new questions. Growth, for him, is about expanding how he thinks and how he contributes. As always, he remains open to being changed by the people he meets along the way.
Reflection: designing for human flow
Listening to Marco, we’re reminded that movement doesn’t need to be framed as progress or speed. It can be quiet. Observational. Rooted in care. His perspective aligns naturally with how we think about Human Flow at SOTIYO. The choreography of everyday life. The transitions that rarely get named, yet shape how we feel.
Marco’s story shows that comfort is not something we arrive at. It’s something we practice. Through attention. Through curiosity. Through the objects we choose to keep close, and the environments we allow to influence us.
Design, in this sense, becomes a form of participation. A way of staying open to being rewritten by the world. And perhaps that’s where meaningful comfort truly lives. In the willingness to move, notice, and remain present in the spaces in between.
Follow the flow
If this conversation resonated with you, you may enjoy reading other Conversations from people who embody Human Flow in their own way. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to receive future interviews and essays directly in your inbox.
