During this year’s 3daysofdesign festival in Copenhagen, this carefully orchestrated exhibition, curated by Gabriel Tan, styled by Tine Daring, and presented by EST.18 on the third floor of The Conary, reveals an installation featuring Japanese furniture brand Ariake and Spanish lighting manufacturer Parachilna. Here, in Apartamento Secreto / Himitsuno Kakurega (秘密の隠れ家), the convergence of the furniture maker and lighting manufacturer demonstrates how objects transcend their utilitarian origins to shape the way we experience space and daily life.
Ariake’s approach – bringing international designers to work directly with craftsmen in Saga Prefecture workshops – echoes the medieval guild system’s emphasis on knowledge transfer through proximity. When Monica Förster develops her Hinode Dressing Table alongside local artisans, she participates in a tradition that stretches back to the Mingei movement’s celebration of anonymous makers.
This cross-cultural dialogue finds its counterpoint in Parachilna’s fixtures, where light becomes sculptural presence rather than just illumination. The Spanish manufacturer’s Oïphorique series, with its four new colorways, creates lighting as spatial architecture. Each fixture casts not just light but atmosphere, creating invisible rooms within rooms – a principle that Japanese interior design has long understood through concepts like ma, the pause between elements.
“We wanted to focus on the moments of daily life where thoughtful objects matter. Both Ariake and Parachilna design for human connection: how people gather, work, and live together, so the apartment setting reveals how furniture and lighting can create an environment that is a respite from the busy world while supporting intentional living,” says Anja Bothe, founder of EST.18.
The inclusion of Gen Taniguchi’s paper sculptures, products of his family’s 300-year-old Nao Washi mill, adds temporal depth to this conversation. His work represents craft knowledge passed through generations, while Norm Architects‘ Braid Chair for Ariake shows how contemporary designers can honor traditional techniques without copying historical forms. The rug by Sera Helsinki and objects by Origin Made complete an ecosystem where each element supports the others without surrendering its individual voice.
View more information on EST.18’s website.
Styling by Tine Daring.
Photography by Irina Boersma.
