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New Talent Growing in the 2015 Greenhouse at Stockholm Furniture Fair

02.13.15 | By
New Talent Growing in the 2015 Greenhouse at Stockholm Furniture Fair

Greenhouse, the Stockholm Furniture Fair showcase of design graduates and new designers, was designed for the third year running by Note Design Studio, with a mirrored centerpiece. “This time we have chosen to focus on the product and the designer,” they said. “We wanted to create a space that becomes a reflection of the visitors and exhibitors in Greenhouse, a place that embodies one of the principles of Greenhouse – the ability to reach out to a bigger world with one’s products and ideas.”

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Eight Students from the College of Arts Interior Architecture & Furniture Design at Konstfack presented a collection on the theme of Juxtaposition. Georgina Walters showed a cabinet called Nudel made from bamboo and rubber thread – the threads can be stretched to create a parting enabling the user to access what’s inside.

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Another Konstfack student, Hannes Tennberg, presented Grid, an interchangeable shelving system made from steel and birch plywood. “The strict construction creates a solid impression, but gives the user an opportunity to be creative,” said the designer.

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The shape of Gróa Ólöf Þorgeirsdóttir’s Into the Blue was inspired by seashells and its color by the depths of the ocean. Each fabric piece is hand-tied. The chair is designed as a cozy retreat and I can confirm it’s extremely comfortable in there!

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Also a graduate of VIA University College, Jeannett Hojer was showing Rutha. “A sofa? A daybed? A cozy place?” she said. “It’s everything you want, for every need or situation that might show up in your home. Rutha is the new way of using functional urban lifestyle furniture. It’s the center of chatting, relaxing, and napping.”

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Inspired ‘In Praise of Blue’ in Cennino Cennini’s 1473 Craftsman’s Handbook (Libro dell’Arte), students from Helsinki’s Aalto University presented fourteen different interpretations of the chair, each made of black steel tubing and ultramarine plywood. The three pictured are by Mirella Peltonen, Anna Spark, and Ines Wartianen.

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Students at Steneby responded to the theme of Survivial – The Craft of Adaption. “One of the basic needs of human nature is to define our own space to make us feel safe,” said Ida Nilsson of the Snore desk. “In today’s society, one of the places we spend most of our time is by the desk. This working space is a place to focus without interruptions from our surroundings. My desk defines a space using transparent walls made of paper cord. By pinning items to the cord, the users create a personal space defining how open or closed they want the walls to be.”

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Pettersen & Hein is a collaboration between Danish designer Lea Hein and Norwegian sculptor Magnus Pettersen. The duo quote American artist Richard Artschwager when explaining their work: “If you sit on it, it’s a chair. If you walk around it and look at it, it’s a sculpture,” adding “What happens when design is no longer comprised by function, but longs for the aesthetic and ethical freedom of art?”

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I loved the color combinations and the sheer graphic boldness of the Corners Shelf by Kyuhyung Cho.

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Story Time by Made by Michael is a small oak-framed sofa, designed “as a cave for cozy reading” and can be flat-packed for easy transport. Designer Michael Daae Christensen says, “With its high back and arm the sofa is sealed off from the rest of the world and creates a small private room within a room. It is designed to invite the body to sit in many different positions so not to tire out the body while reading.”

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Basketlamp by Juan Cappa was inspired by traditional basket weaving techniques and can be used as a table, floor, or ceiling lamp. The lamps come flat-packed and the woven structure is secured into a turned wooden top.

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The Pool Chair by Yoin was inspired by swimming pool ladders. “When I climbed up from the pool, I grabbed a pool ladder that gave me a feeling which was very comfortable,” said the designer. “I was also fascinated by the gentle lines of the ladder.”

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And finally, I loved the fine lines of Alexandra Goncalves’s Naturally Collection. “Lunaria is a common plant growing in our gardens. In the end of its life, it forms seed pods which then flake away revealing silver disks. This fragile constitution – holding a thin white skin – was the inspiration for Naturally,” she said.

Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author and, podcaster championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. She is also the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a program and membership community for designer-makers who want to join the circular economy. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine and Monocle24 – as well as being Editor at Large for Design Milk. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and a podcast, Circular with Katie Treggiden.