Trade Show
This Year’s Stockholm Furniture Fair Embraced the Local
The Stockholm Furniture Fair returned to the Swedish capital’s Stockholmsmässan fairgrounds February 4–8 for its 74th edition—and first under its newly instated director, the interior architect Daniel Heckscher. Comprising two halls, Scandinavia’s largest furniture fair was more intimately scaled than in years past and had a more concentrated focus on the local—Swedish designers working for Swedish brands abounded. Still, there were plenty of contributions on display from farther afield. The fair’s guest of honor was British designer Faye Toogood, who staged a prominently sited installation entitled Manufracture; the special Italia Geniale exhibition showcased classic and contemporary Italian design objects, as curated by Milan’s Adi Design Museum; and the Greenhouse platform brought together nearly 60 emerging designers and design schools across the globe, from Nigeria to Northwest Arkansas. Meanwhile, one of the fair’s most anticipated product launches was designed by a celebrated Japanese architect.
These notable new releases shown at the fair—and off-site as part of the larger Stockholm Design Week festivities—encompass both international collaboration and homegrown talent produced by venerable Scandinavian brands.
All photos courtesy the manufacturers
HidaHida
A collaboration between 132-year-old Swedish furniture mainstay Gärsnäs and the Tokyo studio of architect Kengo Kuma, this easy chair—available with a beech or oak frame and a seat and back of recycled felt—takes its name from the Japanese word for “drape.” Indeed, the fabric (or leather) upholstery evokes a jacket or throw blanket slung over the back of an armchair. “Often the backs of chairs are hard, but here the felt is light and comfortable,” says Kuma. “A hanging skirt at the back elevates the chair’s conviviality and associates it with elegance and fashion.”
Garsnas.se
Drip
Serving double duty as both decorative wall panel and ambient noise-dampening sound absorber, the Drip series by Spanish studio Stone Designs, for contract furniture-maker Blå Station, suggests a thumbprint left behind in soft clay. Featuring magnetic fittings that allow for easy mounting (and moving), the acoustical panels—hot-molded from polyester form felt that incorporates a high percentage of recycled plastic material—can be oriented four different ways to create a plethora of eye-pleasing pattens.
blastation.com
Soft Edge
Designed by busy Stockholm studio Form Us With Love, this versatile modular furniture system is “softened” in a move to expand storage-brand Dalform beyond its target market of schools, hospitals, and other public facilities, to offices, hospitality settings, and more. Combining the company’s expertise in sheet metal with construction that embraces soft folds, the system, with its endless configurations, spans seating, storage, and shelving, while adding new materials such as wood and upholstery to the mix.
dalform.se
Gio
A tribute to Italian architect Gio Ponti’s mastery in marrying modernity with tradition, this statement glass light fixture “captures the essence of a chandelier’s skeleton, focusing on fundamental geometric shapes,” says Venice-born, Stockholm-based designer Luca Nichetto. He was also inspired by his own familial ties to Murano glass-working when creating his latest for Danish-brand &Tradition. Available in several color combinations and two sizes, the tripart chandelier lends itself to both large venues and intimate settings.
andtradition.com
Circulus
This “never-ending” sofa system by Italian designer Mario Ferrarini, for Offecct, strives to live up to its name, offering myriad configurations, a multitude of frame and fabric colors, and versatility and longevity (the upholstery can be switched out without specialized tools). Suitable for both office environments and larger public spaces, the sofa’s adaptability extends to its afterlife: it can easily be dismantled, and its steel and aluminum components, which already incorporate a high percentage of recycled material, can be given new use again.
offecct.com
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Grace and Garbo
In his latest collaboration with Johanson Design, Alexander Lervik melds style informed by Art Deco and the Bauhaus with machine learning, the Stockholm designer’s first foray into AI. The result of manually refining 3D models generated by that technology from sketches that were themselves hand-drawn, the Grace chair and Garbo armchair take their names and inspiration from two 20th-century film stars seen as paragons of elegance, Grace Kelly and Greta Garbo.
johansondesign.com
String Pocket
Launched in 2005 as the compact younger sibling of Nisse and Kasja Strinning’s 1949 String shelving system, this 15-cm-deep bookshelf was tailor-designed by Nisse to accommodate paperbacks. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, four new colors, inspired by Stockholm landmarks, are available: an homage to historic Oxtorget Square in warm red; a lush green tribute to Tegnérlunden park; the dark gray of Brutalist concrete in Sergels torg; and the deep blue of the bay of Nybroviken.
stringfurniture.com
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