15 Product Standouts by Rising Talents at Stockholm Design Week
Up-and-coming designers from Scandinavia and beyond earned a place in the spotlight last week for Stockholm Design Week. While talent flourished at Greenhouse, a platform for design schools and emerging designers presented by the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair February 4–8, that was not the only location highlighting tomorrow’s rising stars.
We also stopped by Stockholm’s Old National Archives building (Gamla Riksarkivet) and the Finnish Institute Gallery. From a lamp made of a material usually reserved for cooking to a collection of industrial floor mats that hide dirt in an attractive design to a series of dresses inspired by a “creepy granny,” here are 15 of our favorite finds by designers fresh on the scene.
1. Cast lamp by Lewis Power
For a small collection of “simple but powerful pieces… with material usually associated with cooking vessels,” the jury appointed British designer Lewis Power winner of the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair’s Rising Star award. Shown here is the cast-iron Cast lamp, made in collaboration with Anthony Forsyth.
2. Dis collection of floor mats by Vera & Kyte for Heymat
Grit and grime fade into the Dis collection of industrial floor mats, designed in gradient colors inspired by dawn’s early light and morning haze by Vera & Kyte for Heymat. “With the gradient, we’re working along with the functionality—with a solid color you’d see the dirt,” explains Åshild Kyte, co-founder of Vera & Kyte. With a pile that is 50 percent recycled plastic bottles, the mats are machine washable.
3. Dresses by Tuuli-Tytti Koivula
Designer Tuuli-Tytti Koivula says a “creepy granny” was the muse for her highly intricate dresses. Made from repurposed materials, they were among the avant-garde items on view in the exhibition “Wild at Heart: A collection of Modern Finnish Design and Art,” on view at Stockholm’s Finnish Institute Gallery through April 4. “In Koivula’s creative universe there is a grandmother somewhere in an abandoned house making her own clothes out of plastic waste, old curtains, and tablecloths,” comments “Wild at Heart” curator Tero Kuitunen.
4. Posture X chair by Jenni Inciarte Villaverde
Winner of Best Performance 2020 in the Greenhouse section of the Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair, the aspen and birch plywood Posture X chair by Jenni Inciarte Villaverde is an artistic study on seating. “The starting point was curiosity over the most comfortable seating posture,” says Villaverde, “where to sit, breathe, and reload yourself.”
5. Uben vases by Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng
Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng took cues from the rough contours of nature—“jagged cliffs” or “rugged tree burs,” she says—for Uben, a collection of dynamic sculptural stoneware vases that appear to be walking away.
6. Mobiles by Milla Vaahtera
“Mobiles are poems of space,” says Milla Vaahtera, of her hand-blown glass and brass mobiles, also on view in the exhibition “Wild at Heart: A collection of Modern Finnish Design and Art.” With the aim to revitalize the art of glass blowing in Finland—an industry lagging due to out-sourcing of production to cheaper countries—the designer conceived the Dialogue series, incorporating only recyclable materials. Shown here are Mobiles No.89, No.90, No.97, and Stabile No.26.
7. Pochi side table by Tsukiko Fukui
Sitting and standing is not easy for some. Included in “Beyond Time,” an exhibition on design for the elderly presented by University of Gothenburg’s HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design in Sweden and Kobe Design University in Japan, Pochi is a side table by Tsukiko Fukui incorporating wheels and cane.
8. Flora dressing station by Josephine Aspenrot
Everything has its place in Flora by Josephine Aspenrot, a freestanding dressing station geared for elderly people with dementia. Flora was also showcased in “Beyond Time.”
9. Teius by Andrés Nilson for Lammhults
Flexibility reigns in this circular piece of sectional furniture designed for Lammhults by Andrés Nilson. Nilson is one of five students who landed the opportunity to collaborate with Lammhults after a competition in 2016. Connecting tables, armrests, high tables, and power solutions all can be screwed into Teius’s aluminum frame.
10. Symbiotic Bench by Gabriel Giacometti
What is the function of a park bench and who are its users? So asks Gabriel Giacometti with his Symbiotic bench, which invites interaction from human and non-human species alike, such as plants, insects, trees, or rocks. Finished with an antique Japanese burning technique Shou Sugi Ban, the solid pine bench has an imprint in its right front leg of a quartz rock belonging to Änggårdsbergen’s Natural Reserve and is shown here covered in moss.
11. See You Later Alligator vases by Tove Blanck
Vintage adventure comics inspired the See You Later Alligator series of ceramic vases by Tove Blanck. The motifs are applied with a colored slip coating and transparent glaze.
12. Borrow chair by Lingfang Shen
Pressed into a cube of foam, a steel form gives shape to a chair with Borrow by Lingfang Shen. Once released, the raw material remains unchanged.
13. Basketlamp by Juan Cappa
A flat-pack lamp influenced by traditional basket-weaving techniques, Basketlamp by Juan Cappa can move from floor to table to ceiling.
The lamp was included in an exhibit by Sweden’s University of Gothenburg’s Wood Oriented Furniture Design program.
14. The Archive
Once upon a time, data was not stored online. The exhibition “The Archive,” curated by Hanna Nova Beatrice, offered a peak into Stockholm’s Old National Archive—a historic building complete with slide-like paper shoot following its spiral stairs. The sculptures shown here are by Leon Ransmeier for 2016/ Arita.
15. Orange textile by Nicolin Sibién
An exploration of how different yarns influence the form of knitted textile, Orange by Nicolin Sibién is a mix of cotton, elastane, wool, and copper, featured in an exhibition by the Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås.
