When is an ironing board, not an ironing board? When it's Cinderella by Anna Kraitz for Design House Stockholm. Cinderella by Anna Kraitz for Design House Stockholm, as seen during Stockholm Design Week 2023 In our (brief) introductory post to Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023 we said we didn't visit any of the myriad flagship store presentations staged during Stockholm Design Week 2023. Turns out that was wrong. Turns out we did. Turns out we visited the in-store presentation in Design
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As any fule kno Italy has a long (hi)story in and of architecture, whereby it is predominately a (his)story of architecture: with Buone Nuove. Women Changing Architecture the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Stockholm, offer an introduction to an alternative narrative. And to alternative futures....... Buone Nuove. Women Changing Architecture, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Stoccolma Originally presented as a full exhibtion at MAXXI Rome in 2022, and now freshly pared down to an abbreviated
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With the 2020 edition Stockholm Furniture Fair celebrates its 70th birthday. Grattis på födelsedagen! We did think about taking along a cake, but knew the halls of Stockholmsmässan would be filled to the rafters with Kanelbullar, as indeed would we. And so by way of a present, a Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020 High 6!! EIO Lounge Chair from Nuen The first thing to say is that we feel that, for us, EIO is but the start of a journey. The second thing to say is that ahead of any trade fair one
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For the fifth year in succession ArkDes, Sweden’s national centre for architecture and design, is hosting the Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design award/platform exhibition: a showcase of 25 projects providing for 25 understandings of contemporary design in/from Sweden. Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design 2019 Exhibition, ArkDes Stockholm As noted in our post from Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design 2018, inaugurated in 1998 by Svensk Form (the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design) and
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As regular readers will be aware, in these dispatches we, very, very occasionally, quietly bemoan a certain monotony at furniture trade fairs, protest that, if you will, we regularly find ourselves wading through an homogenous mass. On this occasion we will however let someone else make that observation on our behalf. In his 2015 book Swedish Design: An Ethnography the American anthropologist Keith M. Murphy notes of a visit to the 2006 Stockholm Furniture Fair, "[T]he only problem was, so
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It's been 8 years since we last visited an exhibition by Stockholm based studio Färg & Blanche. Then 2011, back in the days when we still had our own teeth, our own hair, dreams and aspirations which were in our control, it was the exhibition 20 designers at BIOLOGISKA, one of the most memorable locations we've ever viewed an exhibition in. And despite having been in many an impressive venues since, a multi-storey 360 degree diorama populated by stuffed animals in a range of habitats, remains
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Organised by the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design, IKEA, the City of Malmö and ArkDes, Sweden's national architecture and design museum, the annual Ung Svensk Form/Young Swedish Design award/platform, premiers young design talents not only of Swedish birth, but non-Swedes currently based in Sweden, regardless of genre, but who, in the words of outgoing Swedish Society of Crafts and Design CEO Ewa Kumlin, "experiment freely, venture without fear, believe in their ideas and have the strength
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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
read moreOn his 2009 album "Waxing Gibbous" Falkirk balladeer Malcolm Middleton included the song "Red Travellin' Socks" a jaunty - if for us touch too obvious - ode to his love/hate relationship with, well his Red Travellin' Socks. Wearing his socks he's reminded of the freedom of the open road that is currently helping him fulfilling his primitive desires - until such time as the romantic myth of the endless highways explodes and he begins to long for home. The red socks symbolising his frustration
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After bringing you things you have to be in Paris to see. We bring you something you'll have to be in Stockholm to see. Helpful as we are. We first saw Spiral Shelf by Stockholm based Argue Design at DMY Berlin 2010. And fell in love with it pretty much straight away. We then met up with Matilda Nordgård from Argue Design at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011, where we conducted a very interesting and entertaining interview with her. An interview we really must get round to writing up sometime
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Back in snowy Stockholm we met up with Arik Levy and amongst other topics discussed his residency as Stockholm Furniture Fair Guest of Honour. In sunny Milan we briefly caught up with Arik Levy again; principally to follow up on how Stockholm had been for him but also to gather his opinions on the importance of Milan. (smow)blog: Is Milan Design Week still important, is it still relevant? Arik Levy: Milan Design Week isn't the expression I would choose. The fair is very important, what
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We don't suppose it will come as any real surprise that we were taken by Axel Bjurström's Dolly Table. Part Gangsta Lean, part Collecteur, part Liesmichl, part inspired genius - we really couldn't not like it. A graduate of Konstfack, Stockholm's renowned design university, Axel Bjurström established his own studio Bjurström Design in 2004. Although much of his work until now has been interior design Axel also creates his own pieces. And that with a wonderfully light yet self-confident
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It's fair to say that for us the real shock of IMM Cologne 2011 was the number of senseless sofa combinations and truly, truly, hideous leather cantilever dining chairs on show. And that despite that fact we were expecting such. It of course wasn't all cheap pointless tat, there were also some wonderful young designers on show and one or two brave producers with genuinely interesting, innovative and aesthetically coherent product ranges. They were sadly in the minority - and we fear that in
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At the risk of repeating ourselves - one of the main reasons to visit a design week is the chance it offers to visit locations that one otherwise probably wouldn't. And we've had some truly wonderful experiences: but only a few that top 20 designers at BIOLOGISKA. Officially Biologiska is a natural history museum. Officially. Based on the form of traditional Norwegian stave churches the quaint if unassuming exterior cannot, simply cannot, prepare the visitor for what is inside. Climbing
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As part of Stockholm Design Week 2011 Kartell presented the magazine rack Front Page by Stockholm design studio Front. Clever word play and all..... Although formally launched at Milan 2010 Front Page is only now making it's way into the shops and as such presented a wonderful excuse for a Front "home gig". Having already worked with producers such as Moroso, Established & Sons or moooi, Front Page is Front's first product for and with Kartell. At the product launch in the Stockholm
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Anyone who understands our biography will appreciate that a German who spent some time studying in Edinburgh and now lives in Helsinki will be of interest to us. But it wasn't Florian Ganter's biography that drew us to him and to his tool-free adjustable shelf system Air. Or at least not directly. Displayed on the Aalto University School of Design stand we initially thought - in a very lazy fashion - there's a nice bit of Finnish design. And then - considering it a little more seriously -
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Guest of Honour at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2011 is the Israel born / Paris based designer Arik Levy. In addition to being the public face of the the furniture fair, Arik Levy is also responsible for designing the lounge area and will hold an hour long lecture and question/answer session. Ahead of his opening speech we spoke to Arik Levy about his decision to come to Stockholm, Swedish design and the all pervasive secrecy in the design world. (smow)blog: Why have you agreed to be
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The similarities between Vienna and Stockholm are not limited to the architecture per se. But also to the architects who open the Design Weeks. At least for us! For just as at Vienna Design Week, so was our first Stockholm Design Week vernissage Vindobona by Claesson Koivisto Rune. It may not have been in quite so splendorous a setting as the Palais Liechtenstein; however the showrooms of Stockholm art dealer Åmells were a more than fitting location for Claesson Koivisto Rune's entrancing
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At IMM Cologne Finnish producer Artek continued their 75th Anniversary celebrations with a small show at Droom/Design Your Room in Cologne's Belgian Quarter. We'll write more on the Artek story from the Stockholm Design Week; but for now a few impressions from Cologne.
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