After we visited Stockholm Design Week 2024 (on till 11 February), designers from around the globe had been exploring what occurs when the outdated is mixed with the brand new.
South Korean design model Wekino requested seven proficient Korean designers to create objects that explored the juxtaposition between the nation’s hyper-modern current and wealthy historic traditions. Formafantasma, the honest’s Company of Honour, inspired guests to cease and take into consideration how previous environmental selections will form the way forward for design. Heritage Finnish model IIttala debuted its revamped inventive id at a riotous opening occasion. In the meantime, Svenskt Tenn celebrated its a centesimal anniversary with a reimagining of a basic sample.
Amongst these designers and the a whole bunch of others on show within the metropolis, there was a way that essentially the most revolutionary design of at the moment is at all times, not directly, a response to what got here earlier than it; and that designers ought to rejoice that lineage fairly than conceal it. As Svenskt Tenn, designer Josef Frank mentioned almost 100 years in the past, ‘there’s nothing fallacious with mixing outdated and new, with combining completely different furnishings kinds, colors and patterns. Issues that you simply like will robotically fuse to type a soothing entity.’
Stockholm Design Week 2024 highlights
Stockholm Furnishings Truthful Visitor of Honour: Formafantasma
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Formafantasma and Stockholm Furnishings Truthful)
Formafantasma received the Visitor of Honour title at this 12 months’s Stockholm Furnishings Truthful. To rejoice, the Italian design duo created a bubblegum pink Studying Room within the honest’s primary entrance corridor. ‘We’re an odd observe as a result of now we have a business observe however we’re additionally a analysis studio and we play quite a bit on this ambiguity,’ mentioned Andrea Trimarchi throughout a dialogue inside his curtained development.
For the Studying Room, the studio performed with that ambiguity by inviting fair-goers to take a break from the commerce of the stalls by desirous about the mental points that underlie all good design. Books on ecology and design concept ran alongside Artek tables, whereas a video from the studio’s previous Serpentine exhibition performed on a display.
stockholmfurniturefair.se
formafantasma.com
Wekino
(Picture credit score: Wekino)
One of the crucial thrilling debuts at this 12 months’s honest was Wekino, a South Korean design and way of life model that goals to determine Korea as a worldwide design powerhouse. Its first showcase exterior of its house nation, curated by Swedish design studio Be aware, suggests it’s not far off from reaching that aim.
The gathering options objects from seven Korean designers, spanning lounge chairs and tables, to bookcases, rugs, mirrors, and coat hangers. Every of the designers was requested to create an object that responded to the thought of ‘juxtaposition,’ particularly the juxtaposition between Korea’s fast-paced, vibrant urbanism and refined conventional craft heritage.
(Picture credit score: Wekino)
All the outcomes are notable, particularly the ‘Billow Lounge Chair’ by Kwangho Lee (who has beforehand collaborated with Hem), which blends curvaceous upholstery, evocative of a floating woodprint cloud with a contemporary, angular oak base. There’s additionally the colorful, amorphous ‘Chroma’ mirrors by Studio-Chacha which rework the everyday-looking glass right into a kaleidoscopic portal that can little question spawn 1000’s of mirror selfies.
‘Quite a lot of tremendous proficient designers [in Korea] simply wanted this chance,’ mentioned Be aware product designer Joong Han Lee throughout a model presentation. ‘Our position was to deliver that chance to those manufacturers, and to determine them inside Korea and out of doors it.’
wekino.co.kr
Svenskt Tenn
(Picture credit score: Erik Djurklou)
Maybe no different model epitomises Swedish design higher than Svenskt Tenn; and so the truth that the Stockholm-based home is marking its a centesimal anniversary this 12 months simply additional proves the nation’s enduring design legacy.
To rejoice, Svenskt Tenn debuted a revamp of a basic Josef Frank material entitled ‘Stockholm.’ The brand new material, named ‘Svenskt Tenn Est. 1924’ provides new depth to the unique’s crimson, inexperienced and blue map motif with the assistance of 3D visualisation expertise. It’s a subtly modernised model of a basic sample that was, and nonetheless is, daring, vibrant and undeniably Svenskt Tenn.
On the flagship on the town, the model additionally displayed a collection of classics from the archive, together with the Liljevalchs armchair (pictured above), one in all Josef Frank’s first designs for the model, and a restricted version Stockholm cupboard embellished with a classic map of town.
svenskttenn.com
Iittala
(Picture credit score: Julia Viklund)
The cocktail night for IIttala the night time earlier than the honest opened was a daring and good occasion that launched the design world to the model’s new inventive director, Janni Vepsäläinen, and hinted that she would possibly simply be one in all its most fun new skills.
Previous to becoming a member of IIttala, Vepsäläinen had a profitable profession in trend as a designer for JW Anderson and The Row. Her appointment to IIttala – a Finnish glass home courting again to 1883 – got here as a shock, and to some a possible danger, however her debut on Monday night time (5 February) left the group buzzing with pleasure.
(Picture credit score: Julia Viklund)
The efficiency passed off in a former nuclear weapon lab, with friends descending a whole bunch of toes under floor to sip champagne amongst graffitied partitions and suspended sandbags leaking into large sinkholes. Experimental multi-instrumentalist Damsel Elysium ‘performed’ the model’s bulbous glassware as a ghoulish soundtrack ricocheted via the cavernous area. Alongside the glass items, the model additionally debuted a variety of tableware, tea towels and different equipment titled ‘Play’.
To search out out extra about Vepsäläinen’s groundbreaking new imaginative and prescient, you’ll be able to learn our unique interview together with her right here.
iittala.com
Wästberg
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Wästberg)
Swedish lighting model Wästberg is thought for collaborating with a few of the world’s most famous architects and designers to create lighting that may improve any surroundings. At Stockholm Design Week 2024, the model displayed the ‘w241Faro’ (pictured), designed in collaboration with David Chipperfield and impressed by the form of lighthouses. The cordless lamp, which has batteries that last as long as 20 hours, could be adjusted for centered illumination or extra moody, subtle mild.
Additionally on show was its basic ‘Dalston’ hanging lamp by Industrial Facility, with its smooth and refined design impressed by the lamps in industrial workshops however reimagined for a up to date workplace area.
wastberg.com
Gustav Westman
(Picture credit score: Gustaf Westman)
Gustav Westman is a younger designer to look at. The Stockholm-based upstart is finest recognized for his playful designs like ‘Chunky Cup and Saucer’, made to lower spillage for cocktail events within the night and occasional in mattress the morning after; in addition to his instagram-famous ‘Curvy Mirror’.
These designs epitomise the final ethos of Westman’s aesthetic, which is fun-loving and made for social events. His sales space on the honest was a riotous assortment of vibrant stools, vases, plates, tables and extra, whereas he additionally welcomed a number of friends for cocktails at his office-turned-temporary showroom in Stockholm’s hip Södermalm neighbourhood.
gustafwestman.com
Massproductions
(Picture credit score: Massproductions)
Crowd favorite Massproductions unveiled its new ‘Patch Couch System’ at this 12 months’s honest. ‘An homage to duffel baggage, moc toe boots and a string of sausages,’ ‘Patch’ is a modular system adaptable for any area and proves to be as satisfying to sit down in as it’s to have a look at.
‘A large couch system isn’t the kind of product {that a} younger firm would launch,’ says inventive director Magnus Eleback, ‘we’re nearly out of our teenage years now, and within the context of our assortment Patch simply appears to fill an area and match.’
massproductions.se
Primitive Preparations by Nick Ross
(Picture credit score: Courtesy Nick Ross)
The minimalist work of Sweden’ Nick Ross has at all times had a philosophical bent. Ross’ contribution to this 12 months’s honest is not any completely different, with stools, chairs, cabinets and candlesticks that draw inspiration from a few of the first objects designed by people, particularly Scandinavian Bronze Age boats, Viking jewelry and standing stones. Ross investigates the essence of excellent design. How a lot, he asks, does it take to make an object that’s each purposeful and exquisite?
Lately, we are usually drawn to daring and vibrant objects that translate properly into pictures. Ross’s ‘Primitive Preparations’ collection means that objects pared again to their easiest components could be simply as, if no more, spectacular. ‘These objects are easy,’ he says, ‘showcasing my design philosophy in its purest type: materials and quantity in context.’
nickross.studio
Vaarnii
(Picture credit score: Jussi Puikkonen)
Finnish design model Vaarnii offered Ronan Bourollec’s ‘Maasto’ chair (pictured) and one other by Faye Toogood. Outlined by Vaarnii’s distinctive use of pine, the chairs encapsulate the designers’ distinctive method to furnishings with the model’s material-focused language. ‘Working with Vaarnii is like working in a bakery,’ mentioned Bouroullec. ‘The baker makes use of flour to provide one thing easy and good; right here we use pine to provide one thing good, sturdy, the grace of simplicity.’
vaarnii.com
Stockholm Design Week 2024 runs till 11 February, stockholmdesignweek.com
Supply: Wallpaper
