Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair + Stockholm Design Week 2013: Preview

Technically after IMM Cologne we should pack our kit bags and head of to Sweden for Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair + Stockholm Design Week.

Technically.

Sometimes however other things get in the way.

Life, for example……

And so we’ll sadly not make it to Stockholm this year.

Sadly because Stockholm in February is just the most magical place. And sadly because of the wonders that we expect we’d find there.

As Scandanavia’s largest furniture and lighting trade fair, Stockholm is the location of choice for Scandinavian manufactures looking to release new products. And 2013 looks like being a good vintage.

Copenhagen based HAY, for example, are promising to follow up the “New Order” shelving system unveiled at Orgatec 2012 with a new co-operation with Stefan Diez. If we understand correctly it is a chair optimised for the online furniture industry. We’re expecting a modular, flat pack design. We’ll let you know. Staying with Danish producers, Kvadrat will be showing off “Ready Made Curtain” by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and are also promising new textiles from Aggebo & Henriksen and Satu Montanari. In addition their Stockholm showroom will feature an installation by London based design studio Doshi Levien entitled “The Wool Parade”

Åhus in South-West Sweden is not just the home of Absolut Vodka, but also the ever delightful manufacturer Blå Station who will, again if our information is correct, be launching the very promising sounding result of their latest co-operation with Berlin based Osko+Deichmann.  While Stockholm based Offecct will continue their mission to take over the European contemporary furniture market with a range of new products by an international roster of designers including Jean-Marie Massaud, Nendo, Richard Hutten and Luca Nichetto.

The one big disappointment is that Swedish manufacturer Viking Beds don’t seem to be planning to unveil any beds based on piles of flea-infested rotting straw or damp longboat beams. Maybe next year.

Away from the big business taking place at the trade fair, the first week of February also sees Stockholm Design Week.

In comparison to other design weeks, Stockholm Design Week is small. Disappointingly small if we’re to be honest. Inexplicably, disappointingly small and dominated by an obscene number of cocktail parties. To be brutally honest.

That said it does always throw up one or the other delight and this year we can well imagine that we would have had our fun at the Instituto Cervantes’ “Barcelona Design Flash!” showcase of projects originating in the Catalan Capital and also “Negative Space”, an exhibition featuring works by 12 Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design students which involves objects designed for a world where space is unlimited and sets no restrictions.

Which of course reminds us of what Dr. Georg Vrachliotis said about Fritz Haller  “… [going] to space to be able to think better about earth”

Stockholm doesn’t have it easy. Aside from predispositions that it will be cold, dark and expensive – it is, is and is, but then that’s half the fun – it comes directly after IMM Cologne and Maison et Objet Paris. Two shows that on account of their location can attract a wider public and better media, meaning they offer more incentive for product launches and special events.

That said through a clever and consistently applied event concept and a range of exhibitors that one rarely gets the chance to see at international fairs, Stockholm has managed to carve out a very nice niche for itself in the international furniture design calendar, is always worth visiting and as we say, we’ll really miss not being there.

Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair 2013 runs from Tuesday February 5th until Saturday February 9th, Stockholm Design Week opens on February 4th and ends on the 10th.

Full details can be found at www.stockholmfurniturefair.com

Stockholm. February. Cold. Dark. Fantastic.