The month of March takes its name from the Roman month of Martius which in turn takes its name from the Roman God of War, Mārs. As does the planet Mars which a small group of individuals appear phenomenally keen to get to as quickly as possible. Ideally quicker. If that is because they suspect the presence of rare earths, are looking for new regions to fight over by way of honouring Mārs, or simply read far too many comics as children and believe it is the unavoidable fate of humans to visit
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"Mis on disain?" What is design? asked once the Estonian designer Bruno Tomberg.1 What is Bruno Tomberg?, we, essentially, asked in context of the exhibition Bruno Tomberg. Inventing Design at the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design, Tallinn. What is Bruno Tomberg in 2025 and beyond? was, essentially, the question posed by and off students from the Textile and Furniture Departments of Pallas University of Applied Sciences, Tartu, in context of the project Mõtestades Brunot,
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Stockholm's Konstfack university of arts, crafts and design used the occasion of Stockholm Design Week 2025 to present the results of a number of semester projects including, for example, Innovation for Resilience which concerned itself with questions of circularity and sustainability in the infrastructure of camps for the displaced; Half Past Five at our Place, a cooperative project involving kitchenware undertaken in conjunction with pupils at Stockholm's Kung Saga Gymnasium; or Air Ship.
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In 1958 the French sociologist Roger Caillois opined that "L'esprit du jeu est essentiel à la culture"1, 'the spirit of play is essential to culture', an opinion that finds an echo in a Charles Eames' "toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the preludes to serious ideas".2 A position that, in many regards, underscores the argument made from and by Design for Children at the Bröhan Museum, Berlin, that design for the playful world of the child is the best location to
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Over the years Stockholm based design studio Front a.k.a. Anna Lindgren and Sofia Lagerkvist (and, back in the day, also Katja Sävström and Charlotte von der Lancken) have oft employed chance as a design tool, have oft employed an essentially surrealist approach to design: they have, for example, let a rat gnaw wallpaper by way of creating a pattern, they've they let a fly buzz around a light bulb to create lamp shades, they've frozen an explosion in time to create a lounge chair, they've
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For all that nature is based on, dependent on, carefully formed patterns, repeating order, an efficiency of structure, it is invariably a lack of pattern, order or structure, a randomness and serendipity, that brings about the most fundamental changes, that drives developments in individuals, populations, communities, societies. And for all that the human spirit is naturally drawn to, and naturally delights in, carefully formed patterns, repeating order, and efficiency of structure, do we
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Launched in 2002 by Stockholm Furniture Fair as a fringe accompaniment to the manufacturers presenting their wares in Stockholmsmässan's halls, Stockholm Design Week has, of late, become ever more a Stockholm Furniture Fair satellite as ever more manufacturers choose to present their wares in their flagship stores in downtown Stockholm rather than in Stockholmsmässan halls. A shift that, arguably, is partly responsible for the amount of space within those Stockholmsmässan halls, space that
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We all know that we should eat more healthily than we do. We all know that all packaged foods, regardless of type, contribute to our current ecological malaises. We all know we needs must do more ourselves, be more proactive and vigorous in questions of our food and nutrition and the environment. But it's all so complicated, all sooo difficult, all soooooooo time-consuming....... Really? Realised by Ebba Lönn in context of the project Earth 2 Earth at Lund University School of Industrial
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Woven cord of various types is a common material in furniture, has been used for generations, centuries, has more than proven its worth over those generations, centuries, not only as a structural material but as an aesthetic material and as an ambient material; however, when used woven cord is, invariably, used as a component of an object, as a means of providing a particular functionality, most probably a seat or storage option. And more often than not the woven cord is an interchangeable
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Amongst our reference projects, those projects to which we return whenever the relentless flood of lifestyle, t**** and commerce masquerading as design, being popularly acclaimed as design, pushes us to the edge of an existential crisis, those design projects that revive our spirts and our hopes, remind us that it is all worthwhile and there is a purpose in continuing, is Herbert Hirche's 1953 lounge chair, a work in steel tube and upholstery that not only carries that novel material of the
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At Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023 we came to conclusion that furniture trade fairs aren't for the likes of us. They're not staged for the likes of us. And also aren't our thing. We're back in Stockholm for Stockholm Furniture Fair 2025. Why? As we left for Stockholm we were unsure ourselves. But if felt right, felt what we should be doing. And now we're here. And is it right? Is it what we should be doing? Is it what anybody should be doing? In the coming days and weeks we will bring you
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In Fortnight, a tale of the solitary suffering of impossible love, a tale involving some truly unnecessary violent fantasies that don't seem to fit easily with friendship bracelets, glitter and rainbows, Taylor Swift laments, "All my mornings are Mondays, stuck in an endless February". If only that February were February 2025 Taylor!!! For then the wealth of new architecture and design exhibitions opening would not only lift your spirits, but through the stimulation and exploration thereby
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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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Amsterdam based manufacturer Lentala, a.k.a. Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Boris Lancelot, is, if one so will, a commercial expression of a research and experimentation begun in Eindhoven in context of Lancelot's 2018 graduation thesis Techno Motion, and continued post-Eindhoven in the project Active Classroom undertaken by Lancelot in conjunction with movement science researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and UMCG, University of Groningen. Research and experimentation which,
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As noted in our (brief) introductory post from Stockholm 2023, alongside all the problematic aspects of furniture fairs, one of the advantages, one of the joys of the format, is the chance to catch up with folks, the opportunity they offer to meet with, if oft all too briefly, individuals whose paths you don't cross on a regular basis; individuals such as Budapest based András Kerékgyártó, a designer who we greatly enjoy talking to, or more accurately who we greatly enjoy listening too,
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Launched in 2022 by Gothenburg based lighting manufacturer Oblure, Stair Lamp by, similarly Gothenburg based, Notchi Architects, is a freely dimmable desk/table/bedside lamp-cum-bookend which features two integrated USB-C ports on the side, an integrated two-pin plug socket unobtrusively, neatly, hidden within the base, exterior storage space for pens, USB sticks, chewing gum, lip balm, rings, loose change, very small cacti, etc, etc, etc..... and which screams 1980s Postmodernism at you.
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Based in Tauberbischofsheim in the extreme north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, VS Vereinigte Spezialmöbelfabriken have producing furniture for schools for over 120 years — the "S" in "VS" was for the greater part of that 120+years Schulmöbelfabriken, school furniture works — and while you can definitely see Stakki in educational establishments, not least thanks to the child sized versions on show in Stockholm, and which, one presumes are known in Tauberbischofsheim as Stakkli, or as
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The high-backed settle has been a furniture object since at least the Middle Ages, if not earlier, and has be re-interpreted numerous times over the centuries; including in the early 2000s by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec who, as far as we recall, introduced with their Alcove for Vitra the concept of the upholstered high-backed settle. A novel understanding of the high-backed settle that very quickly became a popular subject for manufacturers of acoustic furniture, and more gradually a subject
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Born in Tokushima, Japan, in 1920 as a scion of long line of Kendō equipment manufacturers, in the course of the 1950s Takeshi Nii increasingly became a handcraft practitioner, primarily in wood, and subsequently moving to furniture, for all chairs, a fascination with chairs that, as best we can ascertain, and if our Japanese is as good as we hope it is, was inflamed by post-War Danish chair design, and for all by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen's 1950 AX chair for Fritz Hansen; and
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Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! Hej! The rhythm of Stockholm Furniture Fair is given as much by the greetings ringing through the venue as by the layout of the halls or by the products on show; wherever one goes the background to everything is the sound of a simple, but potent, galvanising, word, concept, conveyed and returned....... 🧑 Hej! Hej! 👩🏾 👵🏽 Hej! Hej! 😀 🧔🏼 Hej! Hej! 🤝🏾 But it's been a while since we were last exposed to the joyous rhythm of Stockholm Furniture Fair. Or indeed to
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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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According to Germanic folklore: A wet February brings a fruitful year. And that, we'd argue, not only in terms of vegetation, but also in terms of your individual personal development: a wet February meaning more time spent in museums and thus an enhanced opportunity to engage in meaningful and relevant and motivating discourses and discussions. An ideal environment in which to allow your appreciations of and positions to the world around you to optimally develop, swell, ripen and nourish. So
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As here in the northern hemisphere winter cedes to spring, not only is nature once again reawakening from its long repose but so too is the international museum community; and that, one senses, with more vigour than in the most recent springs where the Covid pandemic induced upsetting of the established order of the museal ecosystem, through both enforced closures and fundamental disruptions of essential exhibition development processes, dimmed somewhat the promise of the annual spring blush.
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According to the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro February 7th marks the first day of spring. Which strikes us, as we're sure it does you, as a little early; however, there was reason in Varro's bold claim, for Varro further sets February 7th as the start of the year, and for all links February 7th with the rising of the west wind, a favourable, warming wind, whose arrival indicates the need to start cultivating your land and crops, specifically Varro advises, "these are things which
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