Stockholm Furniture Fair

 Hustle and bustle in the far North: The 62nd Stockholm Furniture Fair, the world’s largest trade show for Scandinavian furniture and lighting design, took place between 5 and 9 February. All sorts of Scandinavian and international brands, among them Bene, were brought together under one roof in a relaxed atmosphere.
Once again in 2013 the Stockholm Furniture Fair showed a small but select set of offerings: in addition to new products from the office world, the spotlight was on home and light design. Young and talented designers were offered an exhibition space in the Greenhouse, art fans enjoyed the installations of renowned designers, and when people got tired of walking around, they could freshen up at the Design Bar designed by

Bene participated in the Stockholm Furniture Fair for the first time, showing a sophisticated Smart Working Space round the Future Tree - a flexible office landscape that explores the different needs of Solution Workers and offers differentiated space solutions. Trade show visitors expressed lively interest first and foremost in the PARCS and DOCKLANDS product families. Small wonder - these furniture lines are multi-functional, sophisticated solutions for today’s workspaces, enabling both focused individual work and communicative teamwork. The CUBE_s workplace modules, designed by Christian Horner, were also presented; these modules combine working and storage space so it feels like you were working in a cockpit.

Office design today

Other firms such as Vitra, Kinnarps, Limbus and Martela also presented their office concepts in Stockholm, demonstrating that intelligent partitioning into different zones for both collaboration and concentration is good form for modern work spaces. Much of the office furniture on display had (often adjustable) walls that screen out disruptive noise and are meant to enable quiet and concentration in an open-plan office. Colour is finally coming back into the office with these new concepts: the palette ranges from light pastel tones to strong, vibrant colours that fight back the grey everyday office life.

Efforts are being redoubled to better integrate new technologies into the furniture: Martela, for example, is working on a concept that should enable users to gain access to their personal data with a check-in card, regardless of which workplace they are at. Along with functional components, this should help people to be able to personalise their own workplace, even if they switch places frequently.

Scandinavian highlights

Bene’s partner Offecct presented two new seating options with the Carry On and the Cape, both of which have the stuff to become a classic. As its name implies, the Carry On is a portable stool with a cheeky design that will be used in flexible, active working environments. Presented with elegance and a spark of irony, the Cape by Nendo is a chair that looks as though it is wearing a cape: Nendo believes that design should be functional, simple, and friendly, and this product meets these criteria perfectly.

One of the highlights in the exhibitions was definitely the appearance of the young Danish company Hay. Founded in 2002, Hay presented its first furniture collection at the imm Cologne one year later. Hay wants to cooperate with talented designers to pick up on the innovative Danish design of the 50s and 60s. Other furniture designs presented in Stockholm include the uncomplicated, fresh models from Hee Welling or Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and a comprehensive collection of accessories: designed with a love of detail, these accessories include mirrors, colourful boxes, and even matchboxes, along with textiles.

The Swedish firm Bla Station also had a few exciting new products in their programme: the Dent Chair is strikingly different (Jon Lindström & Henrik Kjellberg), representing an "antithesis to perfection" with its irregular protrusions, waves and folds, challenging notions of smooth classical beauty. And we find it to be a complete success.

The Kvadrat booth presented an impressive eye-catcher that was designed by the London designer duo Raw-Edges: visitors found themselves underneath a massive roof of leaves "woven" together out of textiles and supported by a wood structure that resembled a tree.
Muuto is also searching for new perspectives, cooperating with a series of talented designers from Scandinavia. The "New Nordic" collection is dominated by simple clear lines and fresh colours, and there are several nods at design classics. Well done: the Nerd Chair (David Geckeler) and the Leaf Lamp (Mats Broberg and Johan Ridderstrale), which combines aluminium, steel and brass, and resembles the shape of an individual leaf with a stem.

Everything is illuminated

The minimalist creations of Daniel Rybakken, who was invited this year to create the trade show’s Design Bar, turned out to be particularly illuminating. Rybakken’s work strives, through a total reduction of shapes, to create space to concentrate on the quality and texture of light. The young Norwegian realised this conceptual approach in "Counterbalance": the lamp, designed for Luceplan, inspires with its long, extremely mobile arm, which is held in balance by a round counterweight mounted on the wall.

Wästberg presented the W131, designed by Claesson Koivisto Rune, at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. The very compact, friendly coloured pendant luminaires are made using a sand-casting procedure - the slight bumps in the aluminium surface are intentional and lend the object a tactile quality.
Northern Lighting offers more rustic design: "Plank", designed by Frida Ottemo Fröberg and Marie-Luise Gustaffson, consists of raw unprocessed wood and controllable LEDs, bringing to mind associations with stormy nights at sea.

Young design in the Greenhouse

Young designers and design schools have the opportunity to present their work in Stockholm in the Greenhouse. The Greenhouse provides a platform that enables young talents to make contacts and present their work to a broader audience. The fact that the concept bears fruit is proven for example by Oki Sato, who presented his work there ten years ago. This year he was invited as the Guest of Honour to design the trade show’s entrance and lounge area. The founder of the Nendo design studio crafted innumerable elements, cut out of foam boards and shaped into loops, to create a white landscape that reminds viewers of snow-capped mountains. Inside the fragile structure, white Nendo chairs also offer the option to take a break from the bustle of the trade show, turning the installation into a living organism. For Sato, the "80 sheets of mountain" is a symbol of the design process itself, because it traces the path of an idea from its conception to its actual manifestation.

Hello! The Anatomy of Communication

Those who longed for a verbal exchange after all of their visual experiences had an opportunity at the talk show and installation entitled the "Hello! Show". For the third time in a row, "Hello!" offered the opportunity to discuss current topics from the world of design with specialists. This year, the Finnish illustrator Kustaa Saksi and architect Gert Wingarch designed a room covered by a mighty canopy of leaves where discussion panels, staged as talk shows, took place regularly. The central theme of the "Hello! Show": communication as the starting point for (design) work. In the end analysis, everything begins with a "hello". Or a Swedish "hej".